Yes.
Believe the insta stories.
The Huddle really was that pink (and I was very into it).
For those of you that aren't a female business owner in Western NSW, Australia... The Huddle is the brainchild of Pip Brett and the team from Jumbled, a very cool homewares store, in Orange (another country city, much like mine).
It was a gathering of female business founders (the mentors) who spoke to us (the audience) about everything from getting started, to social media and branding , and dealing with criticism online.
Jumbled is known for its bright colour palette and bringing a touch fun to the everyday, and The Huddle was no different.
My fave bits
Your vibe attracts your tribe
Yes, you can buy this on a t-shirt from Jumbled (and yes, I do find the use of 'tribe' problematic).
As soon as I walked in the door, I had someone to chat to. Everyone was eager to meet and share stories. It's rare to walk into a room and instantly feel the buzz of positive vibes. I always stumble over my "elevator pitch"...but not today. Why? These people were my ideal people. I have worked hard to know them, and their problems. I knew what to say.
The content lesson: Find your people and love them hard. When you know your ideal audience, the words that will help them come more easily.
Positivity draws people together in a way that sympathy can't
Grace Brennan marry me. If you don't know, Grace came up with the #BuyFromTheBush campaign. Again, for those outside Australia, #BuyFromTheBush started as Instagram account to draw city eyes to country sellers, and support our regional communities through a horrific drought. As a result, over Christmas, parcel delivery through Australia Post (our postal service) rose 40%.
The content lesson: Ask yourself, how am I bringing people along with my story? Your brand of positivity WILL be different to someone else's. @confettirebels has #ShakeYourTitsItsFriday. I spent Friday writing love poems for people on Instagram. Yours will be your own thing. Find it!
Respond to need
This made my heart sing. Again and again, the mentors spoke about social media as a way to chat to your audience and understand what they need. Small business is awesome at responding quickly, they cried. We have so much opportunity to understand our people, others said.
The content lesson: Every piece of content should exist to respond to a need. We can't always give people exactly what they want - lower prices, free shipping, more time - but we can give them what they need to know. Your process, your price, how to book, how to buy.
Work hard once
Yes. Yes. Yes. As someone who has had to break a bad habit of creating a new template every time I tackle a new piece of work, I think this might be my new mantra. Thanks Stevie! (find her @steviesayssocial).
Plus, it applies to so many things. Create an awesome piece of content: chop it up and share it everywhere. Write an email to a client once: 'can' it to use again and again.
The content lesson: Use the mantra of 'work hard once' to be strategic with where you spend your time. I always ask, "which audience needs this content first?" For me, that's you guys. You get my email. Then it gets loaded as a blog. Sometimes I re-write chunks of email as Insta captions. Your system might be totally different, but the mantra stays the same.