How to Grow Your Business with Effective Social Media and Courses with Rod Silva

Jacob Harmon: Welcome back to another episode of trust cast, where we talk about building trust in business. And today I have with me, rod Silva from seven figure CEOs, he's a social media expert. And also, I think we're going to talk about online courses because that's something that he's into also. How are you doing today?

Rod Silva: Doing great, Jacob. Thanks for having me in the show. I'm pretty excited to be here.

Jacob Harmon: Of course, I'm happy to have you here. And I guess before we get into the whole social media and online courses and talking about how to build trust and authority, I'd love to hear just a little bit more about your entrepreneurial journey and how you've gotten, where you are today.

Rod Silva: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So right now I'm the CEO and founder of seven figure CEOs, also founder of legacy con. Uh, so it's events for entrepreneurs. We're having one in salt Lake city in February. So that's going to be pretty cool. And I'm also the author of effective social media marketing. And, you know, right now, like things are great, you know, with business we've achieved like a lot of things, but it wasn't always like that.

So that's kind of what I like, you know, sharing with people. Cause everybody, you know, you see everyone saying like, Oh, I'm doing this and things are great. Like I have, you know, all these things, but it's, that's not how you start. And you know, people, I always try to emphasize, you know, the things that. The mistakes that I made when I started was, you know, trying to achieve success.

Right. how it works. Right. So, you know, for me starting like one of these MLMs, that's kind of like how I got into like marketing and, you know, also this semester, the first year in business, I think I spent probably, I lost over $30,000 combined in between an MLM. A real estate coaching program for wholesaling and like six grand in Forex.

So, you know, I tried multiple things and it was a complete disaster, but, you know, I kind of learned a few lessons from there and, you know, looking back, it's like, well, I didn't have the right man mindset. And now I say like, you know, things didn't go that well before, just because, with that coaching that I got it, wasn't what I needed.

And I also had the wrong mindset. Because later that's what made a difference to me having the right coaches and people, you know, supporting and learning from, and having like a different mindset of having a purpose for what I do instead of just trying to get rich and cause literally that's what my first mentor asked me.

And you know, at least something I'm going to ask you as well about this show. Right. And my mentor asked me, why do you want to do this? You know, whether you want to get real estate like. what is your why? And to me, it was like, well, so I could make money and do whatever I want. Like, and now thinking back, it's like, wow, that's a super selfish answer, right?

Like with no purpose. And now it's like, well, obviously, you know, you can't help somebody with that mindset. If you don't have the right mindset, even if you're a good coach, it's so hard to help somebody. Uh, so once I switched to my mindset towards more of a purpose thing of. You know, helping people with their business and doing something that creates impact outside of, of me, you know, for me right now, it's like, sure, you know, you make money and things with a business, but it's like, that's like a by-product or a bonus of helping other people.

And at the same time, they are helping other people through their own businesses. So to me, that's kind of like now what gives me like, like purpose and what helped me be where I'm at right now.

Jacob Harmon: Yeah. Thank you for that. I think there's a lot of nuggets that we can dive into there. first off, I mean, just the whole idea of get rich quick. everyone's heard it right. Oh, the get rich, quick schemes don't work, but I think all of us at one time or another have kind of wished that we could, you know, wish that we could just press a button and all of a sudden the money's flowing in and.

So I think it's it's something that people target on our, desires as human beings to try to be successful. And so I think unfortunately, a lot of people fall into that. and I'm glad that you were able to learn from those mistakes. Cause I think sometimes people would fall into that.

They get burned and then they just run away and go back to, to corporate or whatever to avoid entrepreneurship altogether.

Rod Silva: yeah. Yeah, for sure. And for me, like, it's something that I feel like I have, you know, like Gary Vaynerchuk says like, it's you have like that entrepreneurial DNA. And to me being something that I've always had and like not giving up and that I combined with, you know, like working out of a gym and that mentality with fitness for me.

Cause I have. Probably around 11 different business cards from all the things that I've tried in the last five years, all the businesses that I've tried to, you know, like I started and just flopped from, you know, real estate investing from, you know, I started a fitness, uh, t-shirt company, a mobile carwash, um, up as a personal trainer, as a manager for a photography company at, you know, like all these different things, like different.

You know, spaces. Cause I was like, well, this didn't work. And then to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing, you know, I think the important part with that is like not giving up, but learning. So you don't repeat the same, the same mistakes that you made previously.

Jacob Harmon: Yeah. at the end of the day of failure, isn't a failure. If you learn from it, right.

Rod Silva: Yeah. And like, like they say, like you don't fail unless you quit.

Jacob Harmon: And in the marketing space, I feel like failing is part of our job. Um, because at the end of the day, I mean, marketing is just trying different things. Seeing if they work measuring the results and then adjusting for the next time. Right.

Rod Silva: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's just, you know, pretty much, like you said, testing, having an idea of, you know, what work and you know, doing your research and then we're like, well, Kind of optimizing to what works, what doesn't work and, you know, just trying to keep going until it works. Right.

Jacob Harmon: So let's dive into that just a little bit then, what works when it comes to social media and what does it mean?

Rod Silva: So, so here's the thing, like what I see, cause you know, I mostly work with, you know, coaches, consultants, speakers. You know that that's kind of like my demographic, but then again, I've done like everything from retail, like working with, you know, seven figure companies, uh, not too long ago, I was helping, uh, the door to door experts.

I don't know if you've heard from there. They're pretty big here in UTA, you know, they're into like the door to door space with solar and alarms and

Jacob Harmon: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rod Silva: Right. Um, so like I've seen everything from, you know, small businesses to like seven, eight figure businesses. And the thing with social media is.

I feel like a lot of people are stuck in the way marketing was before where you could just push like, well, this is my product, these are the features. So that's why you need it, buy it. Right. So like straight up, like selling instead of right now, I think it's just changing because of the way like society's changing and how we use social media.

Whereas that doesn't work that well anymore and what works in my opinion and what I've seen. And when I teach my, my coaching clients is giving value first and trying to solve problems, you know, before asking for, or offering your service, if that makes sense.

Jacob Harmon: yeah, Um, it's kind of the, uh, the theory behind content marketing, right? You produce content that attracts, uh, specific audience or specific niche and provides value to that audience. And then eventually those people warm up to you and, and will be purchasers in the future.

Right.

Rod Silva: Yeah, exactly. And that's a big thing. Cause I was talking about that yesterday, uh, during a webinar and the training that I had. And it's, you know, a lot of people fall into the mistake of just creating content for the sake of it. Cause they're like, Oh, I have to create content. I have to, you know, post, you know, every day or every other day or whatever.

And they just grab whatever they can. They just post like random stuff, especially. And here's the thing. Like, you have to understand that it's not going to be the same the way you use social media asset business. Than if you're just a consumer, it's a complete different space and that's the pro where you used to be consumers.

And when we try to, you know, jump into like the business side of things, we don't make that switch. So we try to do the same thing, just post, you know, whatever, like, you know, how it started posting pictures of our food, or, you know, like how it started with Instagram and you know, random stuff. And I still see that a lot of the time with business owners.

Just posting, you know, whatever they can find because they think it's better than not posting anything at all. But then when I tell them, it's like, what's the goal behind that post? Are you getting moving value? Are you giving tapes? Are you telling a story to build that audience to build that community?

Or, you know, is there an end goal with that or is it posting because you think you have to post for the sake of it? Yeah.

Jacob Harmon: Yeah. Well, and I'll admit, I've fallen into that. I definitely have just posted because I'm like, well, this is what I'm supposed to do. Right. So yeah. I totally feel what you're saying. so what makes an effective social media posts? You've talked a little bit about having a strategy behind it. Um, what other things can we do to make sure that our social media posts are effective?

Rod Silva: I would say the, you know, the way I do it is I have two frameworks. I usually say, okay, what I, you know, when I teach and when I share with my clients and people in general is usually for social media, there's two frameworks that I find that always works. And one of them is sharing a story that can add value, you know, through like your products, your services, sharing a story could be like a personal story of, how, whatever you were doing or offering, or, you know, what is it, your products helped you personally, or how it helps somebody that, you know, in my case, if it's like a coaching client or a consultant, you know, how their services help them.

One of their clients and, you know, know what was their problem? What's the solution that they came to and what were the results. and that gives you an idea when you're listening. So if you think about it, like with this podcast would be something similar, right. We're talking about like specific things or problems, and then we're offering like a solution and then, you know, okay, these are the results that you might get.

So people get related to that. Right. So that's one way. And the other one is just like straight up like sharing tips. And that's where it comes down to part of like market research. And that's why I always say people tell people you have the biggest platform to do market research. You don't get, you don't have to go and do like surveys on the streets that you're used to.

You don't have to go on just like cold call people just to ask questions for surveys. That's annoying. You know, you can just make a post on a Facebook group and get a ton of feedback and market research. Right? Do that and kind of find out what are the things that your audience is struggling with. So then you can post and create content around that and, you know, coming up with solutions.

So to me, those are the two big frameworks that I think that adds value and makes it like a post effective. And then the first part is, you know, calling out of your audience because a lot of people don't do that. And they, you know, if you have a niche or you have a specific audience that you know who your ideal client is, In my case, if I'm making a post, I will always start with like, you know, if you're a coach, if you're a speaker, you're a consultant and you're struggling with this, then Bubba, I share my story.

I share my tips, but you know, I'm directly calling out my audience. I'm talking to them, I'm speaking their language. You know, I'm addressing their issues. They're the things that they want to accomplish instead of just, doing like a random post again, you know, with, with no an or nothing specific.

Jacob Harmon: I can't agree more with that. Um, I think that when you do call out your audience, especially at the beginning of the post, I've been scrolling before on Facebook or Instagram or whatever it is. And I see those words, are you a web designer or are you a business owner? And I'm like, Oh, this is for me.

And so I'll actually read it right.

Rod Silva: Yeah, exactly. Cause you know, you're literally, you want to just call out and you just want to. And that's the thing. A lot of people make this mistake when it comes to business of, they just want to attract as many people as possible work with as many clients as possible. And that kind of like sometimes sacrifices, the quality of the clients that you want to, you want to get.

Right. Because I always say like, unless you are a company like Coca Cola, where it's that commodity that it's like for everybody in the world, like, it's just like general, you know, unless you're that company, you can't just try to work with everyone. You have to be like really targeted and specific and just be, you know, be like, well, you know, we're not a good fit.

This is what we do. And you know, that's like a whole different conversation, but always talking to your audience and speaking their language and, you know, talking about their concerns, whether they're trying to, in this case, like you said, you know, like, Oh, have you a business owner, are you struggling with creating a, you know, a gorgeous website that converts.

Traffic into customers, right? Like right there, if that's your problem, you're going to be like, Oh, you got me, I'm interested. Right. That's the hook that you get right there. And then you can keep talking, we created this company because you know, me, you know, rod, the founder of the company, I was personally struggling with this, this, this, and this with my website, you know, I couldn't make it work.

It would take me a lot of time to, the signed a website. I didn't know what I was doing, you know? Kind of like telling the struggles and then like, so I started working with this, I team up with these guys who are like graphic designers and it developers and things like that. So we came up with these websites build there.

That's like an easy drag right drop, which could be, you know, that could be talking about all, you know, wakes or click or all these websites that are out there. Right. And then like, and this changed my life because now I can just optimize my website and change the things whenever I want, you know, I don't have to hire somebody else.

I don't have to have. Like an 80 person all the time. It's saving me tons of money. Tons of time. It looks great. Conversions are up. It's getting us more clients, right. So we go back to, okay, is this you? Are you, this is your struggle. This is what you can do or what I did, these are the solutions. And that's what it meant for us, our business, you know, all these things.

And they're like, well, if you want to check it out and then boom, then you can offer something. Right. Okay. Get a demo, get a trial for a book, a phone call, whatever. Right. So ride the ride. That framework is leading you and guiding you through, you know, would be to me like an effective social media post or, or marketing.

Jacob Harmon: Yeah. And I like this idea of storytelling too, because I feel like if the whole idea is all of this podcast, at least is all about building trust, um, by telling your story. I think that that is a great way for people to be able to. Really relate with you on a personal level and say help. Like he has the same problems I have, or he had the same problems I have, what are some other things we can do with social media to build trust?

Because if I'm being honest, even if I see a post like that, oftentimes I think, Oh, this is all made up or this is fake. Or maybe they just. Like they're following some sort of framework. So they built the post that way, but that doesn't mean he really had those struggles. Right? Like what can we do to increase the amount of trust in a social media post?

Rod Silva: So I would say for that, in, in just one post, you have to try, right? It's like you can share stories. The other is tried the other framework, like straight up, just give tips something that is gonna somebody posted today. Uh, what is, uh, what was the question? Like, what's something you can do to get clients or something like that.

And I said like, first give value to solve part of the problem. Right? So that's one of the things that you can do. It's like what I do, like all the time means if you're struggling with whatever, it's like, you know, let's take the example of like fitness. When I was doing like personal training and nutrition, you know, it could be a post like, okay, if you're having a hard time sticking to a diet, these are some of the things that you can do.

You know, to make progress with that, you know, number one, just don't go over to the extreme and try to cut all your calories like overnight. Right? The second one is, you know, keep a cheat meal, so you could keep your, your mental sanity over time. And you don't go crazy and have cravings, right?

And number three, try to plan this out and, realize that it's not going to be overnight. So it's going to be a transformation of a few months. So you manage your expectations and you don't get disappointed because you didn't lose 10 pounds in one day. Right. you want to learn more about this things like that, same thing, and then you offer something, but, you know, from the get-go, you're giving some value for people that it's like, Oh, this is something that I can apply immediately before hiring this person or getting their services or trying their products.

So right there, you're, you know, you're giving already before asking. So to me, I think that builds also that, that trust of like, well, There, if they're willing to give me something before asking me for, you know, to pay for it, you know, at least that kind of gives in my, in my head gives like some trust. And like, I live with more of like likability, you know, with the business or the person offering the service.

Jacob Harmon: Yeah, for sure. And I feel like a lot of business owners have a hard time with that because they're like, well, I'm here to make money. I've built this business to make money. Like I can't just give away my, my knowledge for free. Right. But I found that it's really the exact opposite. The more you give the more we'll come back to you.

And I've talked about that before on this podcast, but really giving. Liberally of your thoughts and your ideas and your, and your tips and your tricks at the end of the day, people want personalized help. And so even if you're giving out all of your value for free and they can go get it for free, eventually they will see you as the expert and they will come to you needing that personalized help anyways.

So,

Rod Silva: Yeah. And there's like, Always different aspects, because like I said, you know, you want to solve like, and I get that part. Like, and that's a fact, if you give too much, you know, you can hurt your business and your sales. Right. But you have to find like that balance. Cause you don't want to give up like everything, but you want to make sure that you're giving a tiny piece of it.

So if you have to fix like this whole thing, right. Let's say, you know, I can think of like, okay, you need to build a house. Right. And you have like all these systems that you need to get going, like the plumbing, electrical's like, you know, the isolation, you know, whatever walls, painting, all these things that you need, you can tell them like, well, this is how you, you know, install your plumbing and, you know, like, like do it yourself, you know, plumbing, installation kind of thing.

So you're going to be like, Oh, that's good. You know, I'm going to save money to that. And they're like, well, if you want to learn how to do the rest, you know, you can hire us. Right. Cause you don't want to see like, Oh, well here is everything. And even, even if you gave them, like, you know, the keys to the kingdom, like step by, step on everything, people either don't have the time or they don't want to do it, or they don't trust themselves to do it themselves.

And they're like, Oh, that makes sense. I don't want to mess it up. I'm going to hire you to do it. Right.

Jacob Harmon: Yeah, yeah, totally. Yep. And I think that kind of goes into this whole idea of courses too. I think that's a very good segue into courses because courses is giving away value. Right? And obviously you, you still charge for a course, but relatively, I think the price of a course is usually way, way lower than the amount of value that's packed into a course.

And so I think a course is a really. Great tool to be able to offer that value to the world. And then oftentimes they'll, they'll still come back to you for more. Um, let's talk about courses a little bit. What are the in your eyes? What are the benefits of building a course?

Rod Silva: You know, in terms of the benefits for the, you know, like the entrepreneur or the person building the chords, I would say it's, you know, in a way, time, freedom and more exposure. Right. And doing things like. Like in autopilot in a way and getting yeah. Passive income. Cause you know, that's another thing that gets talked about a lot in business, how to generate passive income, you know, like you always see this pictures and memes and people talking about how to, um, you know, generate money while you sleep and all these things.

And I posted something like that. I saw a meme recently that says like, kind of like something about when you get a notification of, you know, like you sold a course or like you've got like, you know, payments or something like that when you're sleeping. And it says like, those are the types of notifications that I want to get.

Right. so if you think about it, that's a way about, you know, with online courses, you can reach more people. You can help more people. Cause you know, we go back to the first point it's about helping and improving people's lives in a way. So with your course, you get the ability to, you know, impact more people instead of you working, watching that like one on one or, you know, like in a limited thing, that's just local.

I mean, with only courses, you can literally go like worldwide, right? Like there's no limits to the amount of people that you can impact and that you can reach with your course. And also that frees you up with a time on how you do it. Right. So you don't have to. You know, you can automate these things and you combine marketing and you're like paid ads and you know, like webinars or, this whole thing, that can help you build a solid business without you having to like glitter.

You can build a seven figure business just by yourself. Like you don't need a team. Like you can be like just you, you know, with a seven figure income with an online course.

Jacob Harmon: Hmm. Yeah. And I guess the skeptical side of me is thinking, okay, well, I build out this course and. Then nobody buys it right. Or nobody comes, how, how do you sell a course? And how do you make sure that you get traffic and not just traffic, but actual conversions on that course?

Rod Silva: Yeah. And, and that's a big thing and a huge thing that I, you know, and that's one of the main principles of these. Program that I have on how to build your online course in 30 days, because the first part of it is doing that research. Right. And that's one of the biggest mistakes people do in marketing.

Right. And same thing. I mean, like all of these groups and, you know, like with click funnels and like, you know, all of these places where it's like all about like funnels and courses and entrepreneurs and sales and coaching, and, you know, somebody was asking like, well, I'm having these problems with my sales scores.

People are registering for the free thing, but then they are not buying my course. Like, I don't know. She had like a 85% opt-in rate, which is outrageously high. So I'm thinking there's maybe something there that one of the reasons why it's not working is because, you know, it's promising more things than what you're actually getting, but regardless of the point, right?

Like she was like, I'm running ads and I'm not getting sales. So why? So I said, well, usually the best thing to do is first get a proof of concept. Get, you know, do the market research that your product or your course, and even this goes for like products, right? If you don't do the research, there's no need for it.

If there's people who don't want it and it's not looking for it, you're only going to sell anything. Right. So that's like the first step for creating your course or even launching a product. I experienced that with, uh, like my e-commerce store. I also had an e-commerce store selling watches and like luxury things, like drop shipping.

And I was like, well, I think this is cool. I like this watch. I like this thing. I like these wallets. So therefore I'm sure that there was people who was going to like it too wrong. So that's the first step is doing that market research into. Okay. Is there a need in the marketplace? Are people looking for it?

Are they interested in what I have to teach? And the way to do that, then again, is it's never been easier with social media. you can use Instagram, Tik, TOK, Facebook for me, what I use mostly Facebook groups or, you know, PE or websites like red aides or Buzzfeed, things like that, where you have like forums it's as easy as asking, you know, literally a question.

Hey, would somebody be interesting in getting a course to learn how to take portrait photography? Right. And then you're going to get like all this feedback and imagine posting that in 10 groups, you know, or 20 groups and different forums and websites and getting 200, 300, 500 people, you know, commenting back and just giving your feedback off.

Yes, no, yes, no. Okay. And then you start going like, okay. People are interested. What do they want to see in this course? Hey, what are your main struggles? When it comes down to, you know, uh, photography like portrait photography, You know, Oh, well this I want to learn. And then, you know, people are going to tell you pretty much, uh, what they need and what they're looking for.

So based on that is where you create your course. So the way I always put the framework is reverse engineering, right? What are people looking for? What are their challenges? What are the problems they're trying to fix? Right. And then how can I match that with my skills and my knowledge and my competence.

To create like an online course, instead of doing the other way, like, Oh, I know how to do these things. Let's hope there's somebody who's trying to learn this right.

Jacob Harmon: Hmm. Yeah. Wow. Okay. I mean, it's so simple, but it's so powerful. Just the thought of that, because I can already imagine if somebody posted that in the group, I'm a member of like, what is your biggest struggle with X? I guarantee I'd engage on that. Like, they're not selling anything. They're not trying to, to get my email address or anything like that.

Like they're just asking a genuine question and I would be more than happy to say, Oh yeah, my biggest struggle is X, Y, or Z. And so that makes a lot of sense. And then you know that your, now solving a real problem, right. You're actually providing value. Like we talked about before.

Rod Silva: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And that's the thing I would post ACE like, and. I saw this question somewhere. I think in the group, one of the groups that we are part of, I think somebody asked me like, what makes the difference between like a good post that creates engagement and one that doesn't work.

Right. And that's the thing. People love giving their opinion. Like, Oh man, like a loves, you know, like giving donations or helping people or doing like nice things where others, as much as they like to give their opinion. Anything. Right. So that's the, this thing is like, Hey, you know, what are your struggles with this?

What would you like to learn with that? You know, or just kind of creating sometimes like a little bit of a, you know, controversy with things, right? Like I just posted the other day, like you only need one plot, social media platform to grow your business, change my mind, you know, kind of like the meme. like also like blew up.

Like everybody got an opinion, like, Oh no, that's wrong because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they give you their feedback. Or like, yeah, I agree because blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. So even with things like that, people are giving you that feedback that you can use and understand your audience to later on, be like, okay, you know, in this case to me, that post was like, I would turn that post into, I'm thinking of running a webinar, uh, teaching how to use just one, why you should be using just one social media platform to grow your business and why people who use more than one fail dramatically to scale their business on social media.

Right. And that will be, uh, you know, and then they have all these answers and things from people and they know they're interested in the controversy. So I'm going to get the attention from the ones who kind of like agree with me. And I'm going to get the attention from the ones who have no idea, or like wonder, because they're not getting good results.

So they're like, Oh, maybe that's why. Right. And I'm going to get the attention from the ones who don't agree with me, especially right. Because we were like, no, that's wrong, but I have to go and see what he's talking about because he's wrong. Right.

Jacob Harmon: Yeah.

Rod Silva: That's like the easiest thing to do. And that's how you do like, pretty much like that market research and on any, and anything kind of like related to services and sales and marketing and creating that engagement.

Jacob Harmon: very cool. So, um, let's say I'm, I'm planning this course, I'm posting in social media groups. I'm trying to get some feedback, trying to get an idea of what to structure, how to structure the course. Should I be somehow collecting these leads so that once the courses live, I can see. Send out a blast to these people saying, Hey, the courses live, or is this not the time don't reach out in the DMS and ask for email addresses or anything like that.

What's the best strategy to make sure that I can come back to these people in the future.

Rod Silva: Yeah. So for that, like, like I'm going to give you, leecher like my blueprint here. So everyone in listening here, this is, you know, this is golden, so this is the jackpot. So I hope that you guys are taking notes, right? Because this

Jacob Harmon: Thanks rod.

Rod Silva: literally my, my way to do it. So I'm going to give that for you for free.

So you better take advantage of these guys. That's the first part, right? You want to do that market research, uh, and asking the questions, asking the struggles, kind of asking what they're trying to accomplish. You know, that's what would be another way to put it, like, Hey, if you were to buy a course on life coaching, you know, what is the, the end result that you would like to achieve with that?

Right? Why would it be the reason for you to buy it? You know, like, so you start doing like all this research, like every day, multiple groups, obviously you want to join groups where people are. Part of that audience. So if you're like a photographer or like in this case, going back to the life coaching, if you're a life coach, you know, you want to join Facebook groups or hang out like, or follow Instagram pages, or, you know, be in a space where people who are interested in that niche and life coaching are going to be part of.

Right. I would be engaging a lot in the Tony Robbins, Facebook page or, you know, like all of these life coaches or. You know, that would be an idea or, you know, just, you can literally typing like life coaching in on Facebook and he's going to find groups and he's going to show you a ton of groups that are related to that topic.

So you can do that with any business photography, beauty, nails, uh, you know, you name it like cars, coaching, accounting, bookkeeping. Like I just got one of my clients. Who's a bookkeeper. And she just started doing this and literally by doing, like, following this process, not put an online course, but her consulting business, I think she generated like over $16,000 in sales in one week by doing this, uh, you know, following this blueprint.

And it's so simple that it's like crazy, So I would like for the first bit is like gather that information of what are the struggles where they're trying to accomplish. You know, what are the skills that you have that can match those things and, you know, what, why is it important for the van to take a course on that?

And then when it comes down to the part of collecting the leads, people are used to collecting leads, like, okay, I have to ask them for an email or I have to have them, you know, their phone number, or I have to have one of those things, but what they don't realize is that more now, more than ever, we have access to those leads.

At the tip of our fingers, send a friend request. Well, it's as easy. That's a lead, right? Cause once you have them in your personal network on Facebook, you know, as a friend in your, in your circle, if they're following you on Instagram, you know, whatever the case, they are a lead already, they're part of your network.

So how, cause later you can message them. You can make a post. About something and they're going to probably see it. You can tag them, you can create a story on Facebook. So, you know, it's not only about cause then what you do on email, right? You want to post something that they will see or should a text, or, you know, sending like a direct mail, like a piece of mail, you know, doing something.

Then that's what we see all the time with nonprofits. Right. I get it nonprofits like every week and they tell you the story of like this person that's going through this trouble. Like, you know, those are great things, you know, I would say. For people who wants to learn more about how to use that framework and those things take a look at non-profits.

They are brilliant when it comes down to sharing stories and how to pull those emotions so that you want to, you know, in this case, you know, obviously they donate money, but you can, you can apply the same thing to your business. So in terms of collecting those leads, I would say you don't necessarily have to have their email.

That's going to help. And that's going to be part of the process later on. Well at the beginning, if they're engaging with your posts, I would always add them as a friend and just to build up my network, you know, on Instagram, on Twitter, on whatever social media, if they're engaging, whether it's a, like a comment, any type of engagement, I would try to add them to my network so that later they can see my posts, they can see what I'm talking about.

And, you know, later on I can reach out and maybe like invite them, uh, you know, for like a prelaunch. Or like, you know, something different, some like for the next steps.

Jacob Harmon: That makes a lot, a lot of sense. And I think that that's something super simple that a lot of people just don't think about. Um, I probably wouldn't have. And the other thing, and I'm sure that you're doing this too, probably, but just listening to you, I'm thinking, okay. I'd probably have a spreadsheet and just make a list because.

Obviously not all of my friends are people that engaged in wanting to be a part of the course. So what I would do is probably just make a list of the people, Hey, this person's interested in my XYZ course. Once it comes out and then that'll remind me, Hey, reach back out to this person, send them a DM once the courses live or when I need someone to beta test the course and take a look at it.

So yeah, I think adding them to your network is a huge, huge piece. Thank you so much for that.

Rod Silva: Yeah. Yeah. And, and for that, you know, there's like two great tips or hacks for that. And one is you can do that, like spreadsheet and have control of that, you know, like, unless in a different place, but on, on social media, especially Facebook, there's two things you can do. Facebook has like the ability to create lists of brands as well within Facebook.

Jacob Harmon: I had no idea about this.

Rod Silva: add like a person to A-list. So when you post something, you know, how you got like, Oh, public or just friends or just friends of friends or like private, right. You can create a list that you can name. Like, I dunno, you know, potential customers or like life coaching, you know, whatever leads.

Right. And you can add them. So later on when you post something, you can choose that list or that group of people. And only those people are going to be able to see that post. So that's another way that you can do cause yeah. And so here's the thing with that. One of the things I always tell people is that you have to realize that if you're a business owner, you can't be using social media, like everyone else.

Like you can be out there posting about your family drama about how John, you know, made you mad because, they took, you know, whatever it is, or even getting too into like politics, religion and things like that. Like big controversy, like if you're a business, right. Cause people are like, well, I have my Facebook business page and I always ask them.

Okay. How often do you post, Oh, this often, how many people engage with your posts? Oh, like one or two. Sometimes nobody stays at posts. And he's and that's because, you know, they don't care unless you're like a big influencer, a big brand, or, you know, something like well established with like thousands and thousands of followers, your business, Facebook page, and, or unless you're running ads, your business, Facebook page, it's, it's, it's not useful at all.

Right. So people are afraid to use their personal page for business. And that's where they're missing out like big time. Cause that's the biggest resource that business owners have, you know, today. Like you said, that's going to build more of the trust of knowing somebody who's behind that. Like, right.

Like nowadays we don't care about Tesla. We care about Elon Musk it was like, it's not about Apple. It used to be, you know, about Tim cook. Well, now it's Tim cook, but you know, Steve jobs.

Jacob Harmon: Steve jobs. How are ya?

Rod Silva: Right. So it's now it's about, you know, no one cares about Amazon per se. It's like, Oh, you know, Jeff basis.

Right. So that's the thing that, where that transformation is heading in, in terms of branding. And that's why you see now, out there, all these big guys and everybody doing like, you know, big noise on, on social media, when you hear like in the entrepreneurial world, it's all about Tony Robbins is about grant Cardone, Gary V you know, all these guys it's,

Jacob Harmon: Yeah.

Rod Silva: companies, I don't even know what their name of their companies are. Right. Did you know about them? So. You know, I once into a tangent, but you know, uh, you can create those lists on Facebook, where you can, you know, segment your, your posts, uh, to a specific people. So you can do that. And the other way to do that is create your own Facebook group to build your own community.

So once you were like, Oh, this is a good lead. I add them, they accept my friend request and then I invite them to join my Facebook group. Which is your own private community, where you can express yourself and talk about whatever you want and keep building up that trust and likability and like your community as well for, you know, later beta launches or whatever.

Jacob Harmon: Very cool. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, rod. That, that makes a lot of sense to me. And we don't have a whole lot of time left, but I do want to talk really quickly about Facebook groups. so I have a Facebook group for my business, but I feel like it's really, really hard keeping the engagement up in those groups.

you have any tips for that? How can you make sure that, that your group stays engaging?

Rod Silva: Yeah, I would say it would be the same thing, right? Like there's a purpose of that group, right? Like a certain audience, like a niche that you're inviting them. So you want to make sure that it's something relevant again. So it's not, you don't want to just like promote, promote, promote, promote things. But again sure.

Value make them engage, ask questions, you know, it's like, Hey, the other day I found out that, Iowa, I was eating sushi and I got sick. So I think I'm allergic to Salma. Like, is there anybody else who's experienced this? Or like, you know, and this looks like a completely dumb example, but obviously you want to make sure that it's more related to, you know, what you're doing to business.

Through, you know, relate to their struggles, you know, like going back to the web designer, like, Hey guys, I'm having trouble with my, you know, with my website because, you know, I want to do this, but I'm not sure how to do it. Like what, what do you think would be the best way to go around it? Right. And here's the thing, even though, you know, the answer, one of the things that I learned from one of my mentors, Tai Lopez was like, if you play full that's one of the biggest things that are going to help you with marketing. Because, and that's what I did, right? Like on sometimes it was like, I create a post on all these groups and it's like, would you use Facebook or Instagram for high ticket? And it's something that I don't care what they say, cause I know what works and what I'm using, but that's been creating like so much engagement because one, again, once again, everybody's an expert or everybody thinks they're their experts.

Everybody has an opinion, you know? So by you like kind of playing for like a, you don't know something. That also is going to give you an idea of how to create that engagement and how you're going to, and you have to have in mind what comes next, right? You have that engagement, where are you going to leave that to like, Oh, okay, have you tried this?

Or, you know, and then you can keep the engagement and sometimes it could be something as simple as, Hey guys, what's your favorite website platform? Hey guys, what's your favorite, you know, a payment process, you know, thing, or what's, you know, something that's related to business and just asking them for their opinion, what they use.

And that's going to build, you know, the engagement. So usually it's people tale more yeah. Than what they ask. Right. People speak more than what they listen to. That's I would think that would be that's. The biggest takeaway is, you know, try to listen more, ask more questions instead of telling them what's good.

What to do. What's your opinion. Ask more, listen more. And that's going to give you way more engagement.

Jacob Harmon: Thank you so much. I think that's incredibly valuable information. and it's the same, it's the same in real life, right? Like the more you listen, the more people will trust you. And the more that they're going to, um, be able to, to have some sort of an affinity towards you, because, because you're interested in them, right.

And you're listening to them. So it's just transitioning that physical real world, example over into the digital world. Awesome. Well, is there anything we haven't talked about related to branding, marketing, building a business online that you'd like to say before we kind of sign off your rod?

Rod Silva: Oh man. There's so many things, but then this would be like a podcast.

Jacob Harmon: Well, we'll just have to do a couple more. 

Rod Silva: I will be happy to come back for a second part, waste cause yeah, I think, you know, for this episode there's a ton of things and here's the. So here's the biggest, biggest thing, you know, I like to read a ton of books and learning a lot of things and things like that and go to conferences and things of that nature.

And I know there's a lot of people who do that too, but the biggest thing is that most people don't put in practice or apply what they learn. They learn something, go to a conference. They're excited. They're like, Oh, that's a great idea. And just put it on the shelf. Right. And it's like,

Jacob Harmon: Yep.

Rod Silva: no. And they're like, Oh, I want to now learn about this.

It's like, no, learn something. Try to apply it first, you know, put it in practice and then move to the next thing. So I would say, you know, as, as much as I would like to add a bunch more of stuff here that you know, people can do in social media, um, I would say first it would take like these pieces that we talked about today.

Try to implement those first and then go for the next thing. So that's why we're going to have a part two of this show.

Jacob Harmon: Okay, Mike dropped. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, rod. And I know so people can find you on social media. They can find you@sevenfigureceos.com and that's what the number seven. Um, what else would you point people if they wanted to learn more about you or reach out to you for some help?

Rod Silva: Yeah. I mean, same thing. Like all my social media is the one rod silver, one with, you know, O N E spelled. And also you can get my book, um, effective social media marketing on Amazon. So you can search my name or the title, effective social media marketing, you know, to get a copy of my book, you can get paperback or the ebook and then, yeah, that's pretty much it.

Any platform, social media, um, or my website seven-figure CEO's live.

Jacob Harmon: awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here today, rod. I appreciate you. And I appreciate the value that you've given. Thank you.

Rod Silva: No, thank you. Thank for having me. This was great.