Julie Solomon: How to Monetize Your Instagram Brand Even with a Small Following | Marketing | YAPClassic

Yeah, fam, I have really exciting news. After almost eight years of running this podcast, I finally was nominated for an I Heart Podcast Award, which is like the Grammys of podcasting. I'm heading up against the diary of the CEO, acquired, earn your leisure, and all these amazing shows for the best business and finance podcast. If you love young and profiting and you love the show and you want me to win, the best way to help me is to write me a five star review on Apple Podcasts and also to subscribe to my YouTube channel and engage on our videos. I also was nominated for an Indie Pack Award. It's the first ever independent podcast and creator awards. That's also happening in a couple of weeks and I was nominated for the best business and entrepreneurship podcast. I'm competing against Ice Coffee Hour and a number of awesome shows. And again, if you want to help me win these awards, please write me a five star review on Apple Podcasts and follow our YouTube channel and engage on our videos. I appreciate any support. If you guys have been to my free webinars, if you learn from the podcast and you guys know that I never ask you for anything, this is the one time I'm asking you guys to support the show by writing us a review or engaging on our YouTube channel. I hope to take home these wins and thanks again for supporting the show. Yeah, bam. If you've ever felt like you're shouting into the void on Instagram, posting endlessly but not seeing results, then this episode is your wake up call. And it's the app classic conversation I'm joined by Julie Solomon, business coach, author, and the host of the influencer podcast. Julie's a master at helping entrepreneurs and creators turn their online presence into profit without the burnout or oversharing. In our chat, Julie breaks down how to craft magnetic content that builds trust, position yourself as an authority, and create offers that actually sell. You'll learn her strategies for showing up confidently, leveraging DM automations to drive conversions, and transforming your audience into loyal, paying customers. But before we dive in, if you're a new listener, don't forget to follow Young and Profiting wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode. Julie, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. Thanks for having me back, friend. It's good to be here. I actually found out something new about you that I had no idea about. I went on Instagram and I saw this viral post, and it was like a pretty serious post where you talked about the fact that you're an influencer, you're a top thought leader in influencer marketing, you're an influencer yourself, you're married to an actor, but you're really private and you're actually an introvert. And so I wanted to ask you about that because I feel like I've got a lot of listeners out there who are entrepreneurs, business owners, they know they've got to put themselves out there, but they just feel like they're not social media people. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I did a post about what is real behind the Instagram facade. And one of those things for me is that I tend to be a pretty private person when it comes to my family, when it comes to my faith, when it comes to just a lot of things, there's a lot about my personal life that is very sacred to me and it's just not up for mass consumption. However, I battle with that because it's so easy to go on a platform like Instagram and to start seeing people that just, it feels like it's just so easy for them to just share everything and give everything and let people into just the really what I would call very private and personal aspects of their life. And for a lot of those people, that is actually what helps build that following and build that engagement and build that community. And so I'll second guess myself with this double-edged sword, if you will, of how do I show up vulnerably and how do I let people in? But I do it in a way that feels right for me. I do it in a way where I don't feel like I am basically marketing my family as a way to gain a following or using that as a way to build a business. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I have lots of friends that are in the content creator space that their brand and their business heavily relies on their lifestyle and their personal life and their family dynamics. But for me, that just never felt in alignment. And so I have to battle that. But the way that I like to focus on it is, and this really goes back to why I do what I do as a coach and why I love to help people build brands is that, yes, vulnerability is important and we need to be vulnerable no matter what we're sharing. But vulnerability does not necessarily equal having to open up every aspect of your life. Just as having a large following doesn't mean that you have to be overtly visible. Like you get to decide what visibility means to you. And the way that I really like to hone in on that is you can be inspiring and be visible without opening up aspects of your life that you want to keep private. You can build authority and create authority based content doing that. You can be educational and share educational based content doing that. You can be funny and share entertaining based content doing that. So it's really about getting clear on what you want your brand to be because brand at the end of the day is just your reputation. It is the perception that people have at whatever it is that you throw at them. As long as that is corralled mostly to where you want it to be, then great. But I think that's where people get lost is that they don't have it corralled mostly to where they want it to be. They don't have that clarity in place. And so they either find themselves oversharing or they find themselves holding completely back and it makes them feel like they're wrong in the process of trying to grow. I love what you're saying here because it's so smart. You've got control over what you share and you can position yourself in the way that makes sense. So you're an educator or you're a thought leader and people can still get a lot of value from your content without you having to share your kids faces. For example, like not everybody is that type of an influencer. You don't have to be that type of an influencer anymore. So I still hear till this day entrepreneurs, especially in person, like in one of my conferences and stuff, I'll meet successful entrepreneurs. And I'll ask them about their social media and they'll tell me, well, I'm not a social media person. Do you feel like entrepreneurs can afford to not be social media people anymore? I mean, not if they're trying to use the internet as a way to market and sell their products or services. And it's kind of the same way where even that word influencer, every person that is listening to this podcast, I know, I don't even have to know who they are to know that they're an influencer. They are a person of influence. And they could hear me say that and be like, well, no, but I'm a coach, but I'm an entrepreneur or I'm a course creator. Yes, but you still are a person of influence. You are showing up every day to serve, share and sell in hopes of persuading someone to think differently, move differently, create differently, buy differently. And so I think that it's about us really just realizing that we're all in sales, whether we want to admit it or not, we're all creating influence, whether we want to admit it or not. And it's really about shifting that mindset to really own that because I think that entrepreneurs are doing themselves a massive disservice if they aren't trying to the best of their ability to show up online and create visibility and create influence because that is what ultimately leads to conversion. And there's only two problems that people have when it comes to growth. They either have a conversion problem or a visibility problem. And most of the time that is due to their lack or their resistance towards really building a brand that attracts that visibility that they need. So for a long time, I was really focused on LinkedIn and I'm crushing it on that platform. And that was all I needed. But now I know that I need to step it up on Instagram and really start creating content just for Instagram. And I'm wondering, what are your top tips for business owners and entrepreneurs to create content on Instagram that's not going to overwhelm them, but will help drive leads and sales? Yeah, this is such a great question. When it comes to Instagram, because that's really been my platform of choice since 2013. So I have been there through the ups and downs and the in-betweens. And I think that where most people get it wrong is that they get so lost in having to have to do it a certain way or trying to beat some kind of system or some kind of algorithm. And what I have noticed throughout a decade plus of supporting people on Instagram and coaching them in order to build a brand and visibility there is that, yes, it's important to understand things like hashtags and SEO and viral hooks and all of those things. But really at the end of the day, it just comes down to, do you have value based content that is specifically talking to the person whose problem that you solve? And are you showing up as an authority and as someone that can educate them as being that solution provider as consistently as possible? And most of the time, people aren't doing that because they're so focused on these things that really just don't matter at the end of the day. And that's why, Hala, you know, I have a lot of people that will come to me and it's wild that they've got tens, if not hundreds of thousands of followers and they make no money. And I'm thinking, how do you have all this and you don't make money? And it's because maybe they figured out a way to go viral or maybe they figured out some kind of giveaway process to gain a following or maybe they did some collabs. But because they weren't creating that value from the get go, because they weren't thinking about what do I specialize in? What is my offer? Why do I want to pick up this phone and post something every day? They completely missed the boat. And before they know it, they're three months in or three years in or 10 years in. And then they come to me and they're like, Julie, I don't understand how I've kind of been trying to grow and piecemilling it together. And maybe I've gotten to a thousand followers and nothing's happening. Or maybe I've gotten to a hundred thousand followers, but still nothing's happening because I'm not making any money. And so what's happening here? And so I think that for growth on Instagram, you really have to think about that through line. Are you just creating content just to create content because that is just a hobby? Or are you actually creating content to solve a problem for somebody to be of service to someone, to be a solution provider for someone? Because that's how you actually end up monetizing it. And those are two completely different focuses. Totally agree with that. And also from a sponsorship perspective, it's also important to think of this. Because if you're just creating mindless content that's going viral, maybe you're reposting viral videos and you've got this huge broad audience, but nobody knows what you stand for. You're not the actual influencer. Your content went viral. You didn't necessarily go viral. Your ideas and your products and services didn't necessarily go viral. It's just content, right? And so it's hard to get brand sponsorships when you actually are not an influencer and your content just went viral because there's no way to really describe your audience. It's hard for brands to understand who they're targeting exactly. So that's something else to think about. Yeah, I call those people cold creators that they are showing up to create content, but there is no warmth behind them focusing on building the know, like and trust. And we even see this with a lot of massive influencers out there. You think about Charlie. I can't remember her last name, but she was on Dancing with the Stars. Her family had a reality show. Her sisters went viral on TikTok. And now it's like not only is there all they talk about is how their mental health is just like all over the place. They can't show up. They can't be consistent. They're not happy. They're not fulfilled. But a lot of the brand deals that they've started to do, whether that's product lines that they've launched or what have you, have now been pulled off the shelves because they're not converting. And the reason why is because they didn't take the time to build that know, like and trust with their audience. They didn't take the time to really build a brand around the reputation that they wanted to have. They were just creating content for the sake of creating content and doing it on TikTok and blowing up. But now they don't have anything to show for it. And there's a lot of creators that that has happened to over time that have gone on to maybe get a Sephora makeup deal. But then a year later, they don't have any makeup in the stores and it's because it can't sell. I want to get really practical and nitty gritty right now. I know one of the ways that I'm planning to put out educational business content in a way that's not going to overwhelm me is I'm setting up a tripod and I'm just going to film myself during the day doing my normal tasks, washing the dishes on my computer, on the phone, in a meeting. And then I'm just going to put LinkedIn hacks, social hacks, podcast hacks, whatever I'm trying to teach as captions on the B roll. And I feel like that's an easy way for me to put out some business content. I see a lot of other influencers. You do this, Jenna Kutcher, Amy Porterfield. A lot of people are doing this to create educational content that's entertaining, but easy to do. Any other thoughts and ideas of like what's working in terms of post format or things like that? Yeah. And I want to scale us out a little bit because if people don't have an understanding of the foundation, there's no strategy that's going to be able to support them. So when coaches, entrepreneurs, creators come to me because they want to build a brand online and they want to be able to monetize that. There's three challenges that consistently come up. One is they don't know how to build a brand that attracts what I call a faithful following. So we can talk about that. They don't know how to hold space to either sell their offers online. So again, they're creating content for the sake of creating content. But when it actually comes to them creating an offer, be it a course, a consulting agency, a member of the partnership, what have you, they kind of get stuck. And so they don't know how to sell themselves and they don't know how to sell multiple offers out there. They don't even know how to position themselves for brand partnerships. Or they're terrified of selling. They're terrified of showing up, being seen, sharing their wisdom, sharing their education and their authority because they don't want to be judged and all of the things that come with that. And so really with the first piece of this is building a brand that attracts. And so as I mentioned before, a brand is essentially your reputation and how you're showing up in your messaging and your content and how you really use that in your marketing. And a brand has to feel magnetic from the get go. The brand as a whole, it's not just the piece of content, but it has to feel magnetic to the viewer, to the potential follower. And the way to make it feel magnetic in your messaging is to speak directly to one person. And people will always say to me, Julie, I feel like you're talking directly to me. And that's because I am. I am talking to one person, whether that's my email content, my real captions, my Instagram stories, my podcasts. However, it connects on so many different facets and levels that different types of people are able to identify with the brand because I'm putting it out for one specific person. And that's what makes it so attractive. And so it's not like I have to only talk to this type of demographic or that has to be rigid in this way. But I'm talking to one specific type of person with one specific type of problem. And that's why attraction versus repelling is so important. If you're going to attract the right people into your world, you also have to repel. They're the same coin, just both ends of the coin. And in order to, I think, really accomplish this, you have to be so hyper focused on who you're talking to, because there are a lot of restrictions and a lot of things that we can't control when it comes to Instagram and the algorithm and the changes when you're in that space. But if you go into it with the strategy of knowing who you're talking to and talking to that one person, it really, really helps. Here's the other thing, too, though, Hala. I get a lot of people that will come to me and they're like, but Julie, I know I can help a lot of people. So it's hard for me to talk to one person when I know that I'm meant to help a lot of people. And my answer to that is always, well, of course you can. Of course you can help a lot of people. The truth is, even in my own business, Hala, and you know this, there's many things that I do in my business. I have courses and coaching containers that include a lot around money mindset, strategy, sales funnels, messaging, content creation, scaling offers, brand deals, online coaching, and how all of that works together. I teach so many different things. But the thing that matters is that I have this A to Z situation happening. And this is what anyone that's listening, you need to start thinking about your brand, your messaging and your content this way. In essence, I'm going to draw a line from A to Z. And this is where I introduce who I'm speaking to and how I can help them. And so it's you are here and through my content and through how I consistently show up and through all the different facets and ways that you're going to connect with me. I am going to get you from here to here. And that is where everyone's brand brilliance lies. Everyone has a unique way that they do this, that only they do it. So in order to attract, in order to build a brand and a following that's sustainable, it has to speak to one person and it's got to create that transformation and that through line with everything that you do. The other thing that I think can let people off the hook is that they feel like when they do that, they're like, OK, well, how am I going to get my podcast and my emails and my content? How am I going to get all of this to connect to this one person? And it's like, well, let's just be honest. In order to be intrigued and attracted to someone's brand, you don't have to identify with 110 percent of it. All you have to do is kind of identify to one facet of it. And so don't be afraid to talk to that one person about the things that they're going through, about where they're at now and about how you can help them. Because that's going to attract more of them into the various facets of the content that you create over time. And so that's really where I love to start when I'm working with people. And that's what we do inside my revenue growth lab. You know, when I really can get some of that high touch support with people, we do some of this in my mastermind as well. But it's about really creating that foundation first so that when things do start to pop off or when things get challenging or when Instagram wants to change the algorithm for the 15th time in the day, it's not going to dictate your ability to grow, to convert and to be visible. Yeah, fam, you just realized your business needs to hire somebody yesterday. How do you find great candidates fast? Easy. Use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other job sites. Indeed, sponsored jobs help you stand out and hire fast. With sponsored jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for relevant candidates so you reach the people you actually want faster. And it works. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed get 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. What I love about Indeed is knowing that my job post is getting the visibility that it requires. 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And I want to understand what do you feel like when it comes to building a brand on Instagram? I know you have your brand mastery masterminds. You're working with people every day on how to build their brand. What's holding them back? What do you feel like is holding them back from building a brand that attracts people? Well, a big thing is and we mentioned this a little bit earlier is that they're not thinking of their brand as a business. So they're showing up online and they're wanting to grow a following and they're wanting to create content, but there's no through line of, OK, but why? I'm a firm believer in you have to have something to sell at the end of this. Otherwise, you just have to get really honest with yourself that what you're creating is a hobby that's probably not going to make you a lot of money. So whether you're selling your own products and services or whether you're selling your own platforms, right, be it a podcast or things like that, you have to have something that is monetizable. And most people, they tend to get lost in that when they're just focusing on building a brand or content creation solely. So that's the first piece that I really love to walk people through. And this is what we do inside the Revenue Growth Lab. It's really about how are you selling offers and how are you creating content that doesn't feel salesy and how are you able to create and maybe sell multiple different things at once? You know, an example of my own business, I've got courses, I've got coaching containers, I've got masterminds, I've got a podcast that I monetize, I've got brand deals that I do. And because I have positioned my brand in a way that there is a timeline of these offers and there's a through line with everything that I create that leads to some kind of monetizable call to action, it works. And I think that most people tend to get stuck there, they don't focus there. And then before they know it, they either have no visibility and no conversion or they've started to build visibility, but they're not making any money off of it. And that is the fastest way to burn out. So question for you on this. I know you mentioned that you have a revenue generator program. Can you tell us about this program? What can people expect from it and how they can sign up? Yes. With the Revenue Growth Lab, it is simple. It's a three month container where you get access to myself and my executive team and we come in and we help you grow revenue. So it is perfect for people in the online space that have any type of online digital product. So if you are a coach, if you're a course creator, if you're an online educator of any kind, if you have a membership, you want to do more brand partnerships and collaborations, anything like that, we're going to help you grow and scale that. And so we start with that authority building process, making sure that your content is really streamlined with who you are as a brand, really putting in a lot of that, what I call, magnetic messaging, that attraction based messaging that needs to happen. We focus a lot on that and really painting the picture of talking to that specific type of person. And then we hone in on sale strategy. A huge part of the three months that we're working together is we've got to get you out there. We've got to get you in a place where your content is actually selling for you so you don't have to sell. And we have to create an ecosystem that really feeds into each other. And so you're able to be sustainable a month from now, three months from now, three years from now. And so a lot of that is really looking at someone's offer suite. Do they have an offer suite? Do the offers that they maybe currently have actually speak to one another? Or are they siloed out randomly all over the place? How do we bring it in? And then how do we really create the funnels and the systems and the automations that are needed, not only on the messaging side, but on the actual sale side to allow you to be able to make money while you sleep, to be able to make money while you're creating content, to be able to make money while you're making breakfast for your daughter, whatever that may be for you. The reason why we set it up that way is because, again, I just see so many people that they either get lost focusing on one thing or they start focusing on all these things that pertain to building a brand, but not really monetizing the brand. And to me, what's the point? You know, the more money that you make, the more impact that you can have, the more that you can give back to charities that mean a lot to you, the more that you can support your family. So what's the point in that? Or what's the point in exhausting yourself with maybe all of these offers that are out there maybe sitting on a kajabi somewhere, but they're not built out in an ecosystem that actually sells itself? And that's what we focus on. I've got so many questions. But first, tell us how people can sign up to the Revenue Growth Lab. You can actually go to juliesolomon.net slash profiting. When you get to that page, you're just going to see a form. You quickly fill it out and then you'll get on a call with my team. We love to talk to people. That's the other thing too. I think a lot of times people get lost in the weeds because they just don't have someone to talk to. And so I am a huge believer in putting people first always. I love to build relationships. I love to really know the people that I'm going to be working with. And I think having conversations is important. And so you'll fill out that form, we'll get on a call, we'll talk about your specific goals. I think another thing that's important to note is that the Revenue Growth Lab is not just some course. Like you're not going to join it and then you've got recorded modules that you have to watch. This is actually where me and my team actually come into your world and we become your team for three months. And we build out an entire ecosystem and funnel strategy and offer suite that is completely specific and unique to your business. So it is not going to look the same as anyone else that may be going through the experience. So there's a lot of one-on-one capacity and support here. There's group capacity and support so you can learn with and from other people and network. And there's a lot of just really high level hands on support to make sure that what you're actually building can feed itself and sustain itself. And so I love it. I also love doing the funnels. People get scared of that word. I love a funnel. I can't wait to ask you about this. I'm ready to talk about many chat. Yes. And we do all of that because that's the other thing too, Holly. Like I'll see these brilliant women come into my world and they've got an incredible offer or they've got an incredible brand or following or platform. But they get so stuck with this idea of like, how do I automate? How do I create systems? Who do I need to hire? What do I need to do? That they just kind of freeze and they don't end up creating the momentum that they need to actually build the business that they want. And so we solve that problem for you inside the revenue growth lab. Guys, you know that I usually don't ask my guests to talk about their courses. I usually try to avoid that. But with Julie, I've known that she's been doing this for like over a decade. She's like the OG Instagram influencer marketing sponsorship person. Like she knows everything about this and she's been teaching it for years. So if there's anybody that you're going to learn from when it comes to branding or pitching, converting people for your business on Instagram, especially Julie is your girl. So I would highly recommend anything that she sells or teaches. I even like want to send my team to just go do it just for more learning. So let's talk about automation because this is a big thing. We just implemented this at Yap. We do it for our clients now with many chat. And usually these types of automations are against terms of service, but many chat is not against TOS with Instagram, which is awesome. So I'd love to understand how you're using DM automations to help close the loop and drive sales for your business. I use all different types of automations. Oh, amazing. I use DM automations, email automations, webinar automations. So much of my business is automated. So many chat is just one tool. And as you said, for those that are listening, it's everyone I feel like is doing it now. You'll see the standard reel and you'll see a caption and then it will say comment a word in order to get my freebie or access to my training. And the back end of all of that is set up on many chat. And so the way that we do it is that we have various offers and because of that, we have various mini chat automations. And so when you're talking about Instagram specifically, I will use a mini chat automation to either get someone to download a freebie, listen to a podcast, go to a free training that I have or apply to work with us. But then once that happens, there's a whole other slew of automations within our CRM that involve the trainings, the emails, the payment processing and all of that. And so that's the beauty of automation. I know that it can sound very overwhelming, especially for people that don't feel tech savvy like I am. I'm not a tech savvy person, but I will tell you, just to be blatantly honest, the first million that I made back in 2017, I went from $250,000 to $1.3 million in nine months because I set up a trust funnel. I call them trust funnels and I had the proper automations in place to support that. What kills me for people is when they trap themselves in this stage of either having to live launch all the time because that's not a sustainable online business model, or they're having to create these new programs or experiences every month to make money. They're having just to constantly be on and that is not freedom to me. That is not time freedom. That is not getting back any kind of mental real estate in your brain. That is just putting on some gold handcuffs and handcuffing yourself to a new time constraint and resistant experience. And I believe in doing a lot more with less, which is why the automations are so important. And so that's how we use mini chat. But I will say first, automations are not going to work for you unless you have your offers set up. And I would love to talk about this for a moment too, because I think that a lot of times people will think, I'm going to choose to make an offer and let's say I'm going to do a coaching offer and I'm going to make this very low ticket because I'm going to tell myself that if it's less expensive, that's going to mean that more people will buy it, when in fact that could not be further from the truth. So essentially what I want those listening right now to remember is that people love spending money, like they love spending money when there is a clear transformation on the other side. And that's what I was talking about earlier about that. You've got to get people from A to Z. So if you've got a clear, distinctive transformation in each and every one of your offers, no matter how many you have, it doesn't matter if you have one or 10. Someone will never choose something less expensive if it doesn't give them the solution that they need. They'll either watch free content or they'll listen to a free podcast if they can't afford it. But if the transformation is going to give them what they need and it's distinctive enough, they will buy at whatever price. It would be like if my eyes were burning from the sun and I was like, OK, I'm going to go get sunscreen instead of sunglasses because sunscreen is less expensive. And it's like, I don't need sunscreen. I need sunglasses because my eyes are burning from the sun. So it's like, yeah, those things are similar, but like I'm going to go buy the sunglasses. It doesn't matter if they're more expensive than the sunscreen because what I need are the sunglasses. I don't need the sunscreen. And so I think that that's really the first step of going back is like we've got to really refine the offers first. We got to know what you're selling, know who you're selling to, understand the transformation that it provides so we can actually price it accordingly. And then at that point, then you can set it up on automation. And I see this all the time. And I don't know, Hala, and maybe those listening have that experience. For example, someone coming into I have a program called Pitch It Perfect that helps people land paid brand deals. Someone's not going to purchase Pitch It Perfect if what they need is the revenue growth lab. Even though Pitch It Perfect is cheaper than the revenue growth lab, they're not going to purchase that if what they need is the revenue growth lab. And so that's just another mindset thing of those that may be listening. If you keep either holding back on creating offers or if you're creating these really low ticket offers, because you think that's going to get you to sales faster, it's just not the case. And what that ends up doing and how this relates to automation is that if you don't have your offer streamlined from the get go and you're not making the money that you need to make to sustain your offers, then you're just going to keep creating more and more and more and more offers thinking that you need to create more in order to make more money when really you probably just don't have it effectively strategized out. It's so true. It's like if you don't have a converting offer, if you automate it, it's not going to make it more of a converting offer. So let's stick on the brand messaging piece of your offer. What do you feel like are the do's and don'ts? I know that like we should be talking in outcomes. We shouldn't be sharing all the hard work that it's going to take to accomplish the outcome because I could scare people away. Like what are some of your tips in terms of how to brand message your offer? Yes. So I am a huge believer and I coach people on getting away from pain point marketing, which is what you're talking about and more into desire based marketing. So what I mean by that is that someone that is currently in pain, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're ready to get out of it. And the reason why is because a lot of times people don't really know what they may be looking for. They don't know why they're in pain. They don't know why this is happening. And I'll give you an example. Let's say that there's someone who maybe they want to lose weight. We'll just say that because that's like an easy example. They may Google search how to lose 10 pounds in a healthy way. And then maybe that takes them to a podcast or maybe that takes them to an opt-in. And then they'll find something there and then they're like, oh, well, you know, maybe it's because I need to be on keto. And so then they start searching like examples of a keto diet or and then they'll research some of that. And then that will lead somewhere else. And what happens is that these people are still in this analysis phase. They're still in the phase where they're just trying to figure out why this is happening. And how could I find a solution and is there a solution available? If you talk to that person that's in that pain, it takes so much longer to poke the pain and poke the pain and poke the pain until they're ready to make a buying decision versus somebody that has had what I call their enough is enough moment. So what I mean by that is that there's other kinds of buyers out there that they've already done the research. They've already listened to the podcast. They've read the books. They've tried this. They've tried that. And they're done. Enough is enough. I need a solution and I need it yesterday and I need to pay someone to help me fix this problem now. That person is going to be way easier and way faster to convert as a buyer. The best way to call those people in when we talk about attract versus repelling, and it makes sense, right? If you just focus on pain point marketing, who are you going to attract? A lot of people that are in pain versus if you start to really hone in on desire-based marketing and future-pacing people into the desired existence they want to be in, yes, you're in this pain reality now, but this is what's possible on the other side, then you're going to start attracting people who are actually looking for a transformation. They're actually looking for a solution. They're not just looking for more validation of their pain. Does that make sense? Yeah. So it's like you just keep talking about the transformation, keep talking about the outcome instead of talking about the process to get there. Yes. Instead of talking about the how-to's, and I love this example that I love to give to people, let's say if you wanted to go on your dream vacation and you called up a travel agent and you're like, okay, I want to go to Bali and she was like, okay, I know what I need to tell you. Let me tell you about what the bathroom and the airplane is going to look like on the way to Bali. And you're sitting here like, I don't give a crap about what the bathroom and the airplane looks like. Tell me what I'm going to feel like when I'm sitting on the beaches of Bali in a hammock with a pina colada in my hand. Sell me the dream, sell me the desire, sell me the transformation. I don't care what the seat looks like in the plane. And I think a lot of times that's what we're doing. We're selling the features, we're selling the how-to, we're selling what you're going to get instead of really painting that picture of the desire. And I think that that's where if most people can start just really focusing in on that, they're going to see a massive difference not only in their engagement and their following, but most importantly, who they're calling in and how faster they're going to convert those people. There's so many places that I want to take this conversation. One of the things I want to talk about, because I think we both have this in common, is that we really punch above our weight when it comes to like sponsorships and monetization. Now I have like 240,000 followers on LinkedIn. I've got 700,000 podcast subscribers. I've got a big following on certain channels, right? But even so, I make just as much money as my podcast, as somebody who has a podcast four times as big as me. And I see this all the time, right? But it's because I'm good at business. I'm good at actually getting the sponsorships. And some people just aren't good at business. So this is more of like a mindset question for the people who are like, well, I only have 2,000 followers. Like maybe I'll get to 10,000 followers, but like, what's that really going to do for my business? Can people make money with sort of a niche smaller following? A million percent. I can't tell you how many students and clients that I have that make thousands and thousands of dollars a month with 300 followers, 800 followers, a thousand followers. A large following does not equal more money. It just doesn't. And I think a lot of times, for some reason, just people make up and tell themselves that. And what's interesting about this two-hala is that Instagram has now come out and said that a large following does not necessarily equal more monetization. Brands have come out and said, we actually want to work with nano and micro influencers over the macro and the celebrity influencers because they have a more engaged audience. They convert more consistently for us. Their audience trusts them more. They're more engaged in the content that they're creating. And so that's just a huge myth that needs to be busted. Higher following does not equal more money. In fact, in my Pitch It Perfect program, the majority of people that are landing paid brand deals consistently daily, weekly have less than 3,000 followers. They're making far more than the ones that spent all of their time trying to get to some magical 100K number or something like that. And it goes back to what you said, Hala, about you may not have the biggest podcast in the world, but where your genius really lies is understanding what the podcast sponsors need and want and what's going to actually get the deal done. And that's where you spend your time. That's what you invest your relationships in. That's what you make sure that you're educated on and you're on the tip of the arrow on. That's what you hustle for not only for your podcast, but for your network of podcasters and the people that work for you. And that's why you're able to get that done. It's really about the intention because where your intention goes, the energy and the money will flow. And that is just a mindset shift that I think people need to really reframe for themselves. Because two, each level of growth is going to require a different mindset level. And to me, I like to think of it more about money. It's like the following ship is great, but it doesn't really matter if no one's engaging with you. I would rather have a thousand followers who are literally eating up everything that I say and buying everything that I offer versus a hundred thousand followers that could give two flying craps about what I'm doing. And that's just me personally, because the thousand followers that are buying and showing up every day, that's more sustainable than the hundred thousand that aren't. And this goes with the trend across all social media platforms. I just interviewed Gary Vee and we talked a lot about something called interest graph algorithms. We're now basically all these platforms, Instagram included, are more focused on interest relevancy than people going viral and having celebrities and massive influencers. It's more about ensuring that good content gets to the people who want to see that content. And it's not really about massive virality anymore. And we're going to see this more and more. So now that I've brought up algorithms, let's just spend a couple more minutes on Instagram. I really want to understand what's hot or not on Instagram. For example, one of my friends hit me up on DM, one of my best friends, and she's like, hey, I noticed your team's not using hashtag. And then I freaked out and I went to my team and I was like, what's up? Why are we using hashtags? Where did this come from? And then Kate on my team was like, hey, there's new guidance that hashtags are out. And I was like, oh, okay, good. My team's not sleeping at the wheel. It's like some change. So talk to us about hashtags, talk to us about the changes on algorithm. What should we know? Hashtags, I think, still work on a platform like TikTok, right? Because TikTok is more of a search engine. It's an SEO like YouTube is. Instagram is not yet. They're trying to get there. They're implementing more AI, which is why now if you go to that search tab, you'll see like the AI stuff up there. You see them trying to get there. But the platform, the infrastructure of the Instagram platform was not built as a SEO platform. So things like keywords and hashtags, it may allow you to search for something, but it's not going to really optimize your content the way that it does on a TikTok or YouTube. So I agree with your team. I don't waste any time on hashtags. I think they can be useful if you are searching for a specific type of thing. Like for example, a couple of weeks ago, I was searching blonde by a large hair, right? And so I put it into the search. In Miami or something, right? Like in a specific location, I feel like it helps. Yeah. And just to like, maybe I'll find some like reels or photos for inspiration, but we're not using hashtags in the way to like actually convert someone or to gain followers. I think it's just more about an awareness tool. I do think where people are really winning on Instagram as of now this year, and we're recording this on May 16th, 2024, I think that what's coming back, which is really exciting to me is more of that what I call talking head. So it's where someone is standing in front of the camera and they're literally just talking and they're sharing either an authority-based piece of content, an educational-based piece of content, an inspirational-based piece of content, or an entertaining-based piece of content. Those things are doing really, really well. Of course, things like inspirational quotes and things like memes always do well in terms of being shared and saved, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the account is going to be followed and that there's going to be a no-like-and-trust build with that creator itself. So that's just a little nuance with content like that. I believe in having hooks. So what I mean by that is a subliminal hook, a pit stop hook, what's going to make someone stop scroll, and you can do that either visually or you can do that with the actual caption. Other things that people will do, and I know that I can do this on video, like if I was starting a reel, for example, I could start by kind of like making some noise with my mug because that catches people's attention. Or, Holly, you have a really pretty necklace on right now, so if you were going to start a reel, you could tap your necklace and that would be a subliminal hook. It catches people's eye. So those things do really well. Also, starting your reel in the middle of what your quote-unquote script would be. So you'll see people say, yes, but, and then they'll go into what they're saying and so they're not starting it with, hey, my name's so-and-so and today I'm going to be teaching you about this. It's like, yes, but did you know that this is really this? That is a lot more intriguing. And so it's just about doing those things in the talking head format that I think are doing really well. Instagram also just said that they are favoriting, whatever that means for them, reels that are around 30 to 90 seconds right now versus the ones that are 7 to 8 seconds. So the 7 to 8 seconds reels, they may get more views because they kind of go on that loop, but they may not get the longer reach and engagement and saves and shares as the longer form. So longer form content is coming back, talking head content is coming back, and another thing, and I preach it a lot inside my programs, I'm a huge proponent of Instagram stories, Holly. That's where I really feel that people convert. So you may get more reach, you may build the no-liking trust, you may get more interest in feed content, but where you're really building that long term like, oh, I want to work with this person, I want to buy from this person is in Instagram stories. So my rule of thumb that I share with a lot of my clients when it comes to a content plan and a content schedule, and this is for any of those people who don't have any more time in the day to create content. This is just my personal take and what I have seen that works well for people in terms of consistency. If you can just create anywhere between three to four pieces of content a week in your feed, this could be a carousel, this could be a reel, choose your own adventure, just three to four pieces of content. Don't worry about doing content on Fridays because that is just a crap day for engagement and views. So take the day off, go on a walk, enjoy your life. But Monday through Thursday, three to four of those days, create a piece of infeed content. And if you can just try to show up at least once a day on an Instagram story, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and maybe a Saturday or Sunday, and not just with a post of something or not with just a repost of something, but show up on Instagram story talking head like your face, your beautiful face in front of that story, sharing something, you're going to see a lot more engagement, not only short term, but over time, and that will lead to more sales. So that has just been my tried and true, the thing that I always try to do, and it really does go a long way. And I noticed that the more that I do that on stories, people will be like, you did this story and it made me think differently. Or you said this story and it got me over the fence, or you shared this on your story, and I'm ready to work with you. That makes a world of a difference, especially for entrepreneurs, coaches, content creators, online educators. This is so good because I feel like nobody brings up stories. Everyone talks about Reels, but I'm with you. I feel like I could get 50,000 views on my Reel or on a post on LinkedIn, and I never look at who's looking or whatever. But I'm always checking who's in my stories. And I can tell it's like super fans are in my stories watching every single story to your point. If you start a story where it's like a video of your face, and that's the first story on your page, and you let it run, and then you don't post anything else, you let it basically expire. Exactly. Let it go through the 24 hours. Yep. I have such a hard problem actually sticking to that because I just want to keep sharing my stories. But whenever I have something really important, I'm like, okay, I can't post again, I have to let this run out. And then I get so many more story views. And then you can retarget people in the DMs who's looking at your stories. I have my team doing that all the time. Yep. And especially when you have a small following, like let's go back to that for a moment. There's just so much goodness with a small but mighty following because let's say if you've got 1000 followers on Instagram, and let's say 200 of them are in your Instagram stories, you could literally take 10 minutes every day and go and individually message those 200 people. Thanks for following. Thanks for being a part of my community. Why are you here? What kind of content would you like to see from me? What is most helpful for you? Ask those questions. That builds the foundation and the baseline for in the future. When you do hit those bigger numbers, you're going to have that foundation of faithful followers that are just ride or die for you no matter what. They are here for you and it's because you were there for them. And you took 10 minutes out of your day to have a people first mindset and to actually care. And I cannot stress enough how much farther you will go if you see the positives in that instead of just constantly telling yourself that you don't have a big enough following. Yep, gang. Here's the hard truth. I had to learn the hard way. If you're running a business and you don't have a clear picture of your cash flow, you're flying blind. There was a time when I was approving expenses and making decisions without fully knowing what was going out of my account or when. That's a dangerous place to operate from as a business owner. So as we started to scale Yap Media, I needed a change and all of it improved when I started using Intuit QuickBooks BillPay. It's a bill management tool inside of QuickBooks that brings all of your bills, vendors, and payment details into one organized dashboard so you can track and pay everything in one place. With QuickBooks BillPay, you can see what's due, control approvals, and understand how each payment impacts your cash flow. 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Get more with Northwest registered agent at Northwestregisteredagent.com slash YAP free. By the way, on every social media platform, if you're DMing with someone and they DM you back, that platform is going to notice that there's a relationship between you two and they're going to start feeding your content to that person. So that person is going to see your stories more often, they're going to see your posts more often. So even if it's just a friendly conversation, it's going to just help you move the needle that much further. One last question on Instagram is how can we promote engagement? How can we get more comments, make sure people see our posts, make sure people see our stories, bring more visibility to our page, as well as getting more interaction on our content? What are the things that we can do and control? What we can control is how effectively are we asking questions that engage people to come into our world. So we're not just telling them, we're asking them. I think another thing is really letting more people into what you're doing. So let's say you're a graphic designer, show me the behind the scenes of what you're working on, show me the behind the scenes of what you're creating. Let me help you make a decision. Even if it's not the decision that you go with, you could show me two pieces of graphic design and you could be like, hey, I'm working on this for a client. Which one do you like more, A or B? I do that all the time. If I'm updating my podcast thumbnail, I'll be like, guys, which thumbnail do you like more? You pick it. I don't know what's good. That's the other thing too. Our followers always know what's best. They're so smart. They're so brilliant. They've got so many great ideas. And so I think that it's about bringing them into the conversation, asking more questions, asking them their thoughts, asking them what they want more of. And if you're someone that's listening to this and you're like, but Julie, I do ask and no one ever responds to me, don't have it be an open-ended ask. That's what I mean by you've got to be really strategic with what you're asking. You want to make sure that you're asking them a very specific question so they can give you a yes or no answer. And I think a lot of times we'll ask a question, but it's very general and open-ended, which doesn't make it feel personalized enough for someone to engage. So that's really huge. And then I think too, there's also so much power in peer collaboration that I don't think people really invest enough time in. And when I was first starting out, this was way back in 2013, 2014, 2015, I would collaborate with other at the time creators and online entrepreneurs that were similar to me. They had similar audiences. They were kind of on a similar path. Back then there wasn't Instagram stories or anything. So it'd be like, hey, let's do a, we would call them like a Instagram swap where I would go on their page for a day and they would come on my page for a day. And we would just figure out ways to get in front of other people's audiences. And I think that now in 2024, people have so much more opportunity now to do that than I even did 10 years ago when I was trying, because now there's paid communities that people are a part of. Like if you're someone that's purchased a course or you're in someone's coaching group, there's most likely a community portal in there of people just like you. How are you building relationships? How are you networking? How are you going out of your way to help somebody else and really focus on the relationship-based aspect of it and not the transaction-based aspect of it? And I think that that's a big thing that for some reason people don't, it's like a miss. People don't spend enough time doing that. And I think that there's so much opportunity for peer-based collaborations. You could do podcast swaps. You could do Instagram story shares. You could do a joint giveaway. If you're someone that's a course creator and you know someone else, it's a course creator, you could do what's called a JV launch, a joint venture launch, where you go into their world and share your course. They go into your world, share their course. You do a profit share. There's so many things that you could do. That's the stuff that I used to do when I was trying to grow. I did all of that. It helps build your email list. It helps build your following. It helps build your engagement. And so just focus on there, especially when you don't have a lot of money. It's your time. I always say this. Collaboration over competition, trade your audience with other people who have similar audience. So real collabs are working really well for me doing lives together. For example, me and Jenna, when we're doing our courses, we do lives together. That brings a lot of engagement. So I love the collab strategies. Okay, so we really spent a lot of time talking about Instagram. There was so much to pick your brain on. We don't even have that much time left. But I did want to talk to you about masterminds before we went, because I know that you're a big proponent of masterminds. You also have your own mastermind. And to me, masterminds are the future. I feel like masterminds are going to get so hot for entrepreneurs, for coaches, both joining and starting one. So we'd love to just get your guidance, I guess, of if you're an entrepreneur and I think entrepreneurs are at all different stages. At what point should we be thinking about joining a mastermind? And what kind of benefits do you think that will bring to your business? Because I have a mastermind. I've actually never been a part of one. Yeah, so masterminds are incredible. I've been a part of a few. My first one that I was ever a part of was in 2017. And I've had my own mastermind since 2019, 2020. And when it comes to, am I ready to join a mastermind or even like a higher level coaching container? Right? I always tell people that you have to start becoming really aware about where you are today. And what is that future next step for you? And what do you need to get there? So this is really about adopting a new kind of CEO mindset for yourself, being in the right rooms, having high level mentorships. I'm a huge believer in if you want to get somewhere faster, invest in and learn from a coach who has successfully done what it is that you're trying to do. I also believe that every coach that have a coach, I've been saying that for years. And especially a coach that's like five steps ahead of you, because it's just going to fast track your success. And it's going to be the best investment that you've ever made. So when it comes to masterminds, where there's a great benefit in mastermind is that you're typically wanting to find a container where the coach is exactly where you want to be. They're just five steps ahead of you. They have a great network and relationships. You're going to be in a really good solid room of other like-minded entrepreneurs that are probably around the same level that you're at and trying to get to that next level. And you want to be in a room that's going to push you. So this is not about staying where you are. This is about really pushing you past any kind of resistances or ceilings that you have on your ability to make more money, on your ability to grow, on your ability to really leverage your visibility and your next level of impact. And I think another big thing when it comes to any type of high-level coaching program or mastermind because they're big investments, right? Yeah. Some of them are like 50,000, 100,000 a year. Oh, yeah. Easily. And I just think that what people need to understand is that in order for you yourself to get to the level that is needed to do what you want to do, like to get to your next phase of money, revenue, impact, and income, you have to invest that yourself because you can never expect someone to invest in you or your offer if you're not willing to invest that yourself. Meaning if you're not willing to invest $10,000 in a coaching program or $25,000 in a master mind, don't expect to make $25,000. It's all energy. It's all connected. And so I think that that's what a mastermind does. And I'll share my own story of the first mastermind I ever joined was in 2017. It was $25,000. I had never spent that kind of money. It was more than my college education. I still had student loans from college. I didn't tell my husband because I knew that he would be like, are you flipping out of your mind? You're spending $25,000 to go talk to a coach? Like what? But I felt it in my bones, Hala. I just knew. I had gotten myself as far as I could get myself. I hustled my way to like $250,000, but I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to hustle to $7,000 alone. What got me to $250,000 was not going to get me to a million. And now working with so many brilliant women, I know that to be true about myself and I know that to be true about them. The mindset and strategy that gets you to $50,000 is not the same that gets you to $100,000. It's not the same that gets you to $500,000. It's not the same that gets you to a million. It's not the same that gets you to $3,000,000. Not the same that gets you to $5,000,000. Each level requires a new level of mindset, a new network, a new approach to building relationships, and a new approach to leveraging a higher version of yourself to call in that next level of your business. And so that's like a huge, huge thing. And I think that before you wrap up, talking about that, no matter what level you're at, whether that's you're making $10,000,000 a month right now or you're making $120,000,000 a month right now, you have to be strategic in not only your offers, which we've talked about, your messaging, the positioning at each stage, but you also need to be honest and strategic about who and what do I need to actually help me hold this next level? Because it's one thing to ask for something. It's one thing to try to manifest it. It's one thing to build relationships. But when it actually starts coming to you, can you sustain it? Can you hold what it is that you're asking for? And that's really the beauty of a mastermind. A mastermind puts you in a room and in a container and with other like-minded people that just blow your mind to next levels and fast track you farther than you could ever go yourself. And so I can't talk enough about masterminds. It was a huge transformation in my business. Three women that I met in that mastermind are now still three very, very close friends of mine that are in this online space that I have gotten to do so much life and business with now. And it would have never happened if I didn't just follow my fear and do it scared and just go for it. And I think especially in times like this when people are being affected by the economy, there's so much horrible things happening in the world. There's a lot of just sad, tragic stuff around us all the time. And now is the time for us to step up and lead. People need voices. They need to be reminded that they're not alone. They need a path that has been cleared for them. They need to remember that what they have to say matters. Their voice matters. Their impact matters. The message that they have matters. And it's more important in the darker times like this than it is even when we feel like everything is going great. And so that's just my final message to anyone that if you have an opportunity to invest in yourself, to join the mastermind, to join a coaching program, to get yourself out of where you are today and put yourself into the next level of who you're supposed to be, do not wait. Go all in. Trust yourself. Trust the people that are here to support you. And I promise you will not be disappointed. It's about time for me to join a mastermind. I feel like I need to pick the right one for me. And to your point, when you get to a certain level of business, let's say you're making a million dollars a year in your business, you know how to sell, you know the processes. There's a relationship and a mindset issue that you need to break through. And I think that's what masterminds help you do. Okay, my last, last question to you. And this is another fun fact that I found out about you that I didn't know. Before this research for this episode is your love of astrology. In the last conversation, in the last few minutes here, you kept talking about manifestation and energy. And it made me realize that I really want to understand how you use things like tarot cards, manifestation, energy when it comes to building your business. I was raised in a Christian home. So like, that was really foreign. My grandmother would be like, that's like the devil's work. We don't touch crystals and like all that stuff. That's like the devil's stuff. But as I got older and I was able to really root into just a belief system and a faith that felt really good for me and felt really good for my family, I allowed myself just to be more open to other things out there. And to me, what I've learned really about desire and attraction and manifestation is that it's not tied to any sort of religious belief or any sort of, you know, even faith belief. I think it's more of a spiritual practice, if you will. And it's more of a brainwork practice. I actually have been reading a book recently called The Magic Mind. And it's actually written by a neuroscientist and he talks about the connection between how the brain actually creates manifestation and how it causes you to manifest. It's about the neuroscience behind manifesting, which I found to be really fascinating because it takes the woo-woo out of it. But with that to say, I believe that what you focus on is what you get. And I believe that when you focus on the good, you get more good. And I know from my own experience, because I've done it, is that when I set an intention and when I decide to think differently and to expect miracles, miracles happen. And when I don't, they don't happen. There's a practice that I do and sometimes I'll pull cards, I'll read books. I love to go on a walk and be in nature. But there's a practice that I do at the beginning of every month, and it's called the I declare method. And I will go for a walk and I will just start saying to myself, I declare that X is happening. And it's whatever I want. And so I'll just use money as an example, because it's just a tangible thing. I recommend anyone to do this, go outside and go for a walk and just say to yourself, I declare that I'm going to make $50,000 this month. And if you're someone that has never made that, you can start to do an audit of like, okay, how realistic is this for me? Am I currently at 30K and I want to make 50K or am I currently at zero and I want to make 50K? Because we may need to audit it, depending on how close you are to it, but you want to get to a place where it feels a little bit scary, but also expansive enough. And you want to just start being aware, you don't have to judge, but just noticing all of the limiting beliefs that start coming up. Well, how are we going to get there? And what are we going to sell? And what are the, all that stuff, you got to quiet that noise down. And you're like, I don't need to know the how today. I've decided that I'm going to have a $50,000 month. And I tell you, Hala, when people ask me, they're like, Julie, how did you go from 250K to a million? How did you go to a million to two million? It's like, because I decided that I was going to do that. I decided that it happened and it was going to happen. And so it did happen. And so it's a method that I start every month out. It doesn't have to be about money. It could be about anything. Last fall, I wanted to go to Hawaii because I just wanted to go. I wanted to take my kids to Hawaii, but I was like, I just don't, you know, I don't know when we would go or whatever. But like, I want to go, I want to go to Hawaii. And I didn't focus on the how I just put it out there. And now we're going to Hawaii over the fourth of July. And it's literally something that came to us. I didn't have to plan it. I didn't have to figure out how we had some friends that were going, they called us up and were like, Hey, do you want to join us? And I was telling my husband, I was like, I manifested this. I literally was saying, you're crazy. And I'm like, no, I said last fall when I was walking in the park that I wanted to go to Hawaii. And because I didn't try to force it or control some outcome or suffocate it to death, it just happened. It happened downstream. Yep. Yep. I believe in that. I believe in setting your intentions. I believe in letting go of the outcomes. Don't worry about the how it's about getting the mind right and ready for what it is that you want. Love it. Well, that was such an inspirational way to end the episode, Julie. I end my show with two questions and then we use it at the end of the year really easy. What is one actionable thing our young and profiteers can do today to become more profitable tomorrow? One actionable thing that you can do today to become more profitable tomorrow is to tell yourself that you are worthy of it and tell yourself that every day. Make an actionable declaration, write it down, say it to yourself in the morning, look yourself in the mirror and say it, that you are worthy for whatever it is that you want, because that is always the first step is believing it to be true. And what is your secret to profiting in life and this can go beyond money and business? My secret to profiting in life, I think, is ease. That is really my goal at the end of the day, is that how can this feel smooth? How can this feel easy? How can I let go of the reins and just leave any resistance on the table? So I love that question of how can this be easy? And I love the declaration of let it be easy. Love this. And where can everybody learn more about you and everything that you do? I spend my most time on Instagram as we now know, so you can just go to atjoles.js, J-U-L-S, Solomon, S-O-L-O-M-O-N, to connect there. Would love to know what your biggest takeaway was from our conversation today too, so just feel free to slide into my DMs and let me know. I'll definitely chat with you. And if you want to know about ways that we can work together, again, you can just go to juliesolomon.net slash profiting. That will be the easiest one-stop shop. You're going to see a form, you can fill it out, and then my team will get in touch with you immediately to just talk about your specific goals and how we can help you. So that's juliesolomon S-O-L-O-M-O-N dot net slash profiting. Amazing. Well, Julie, thank you so much for your time. I loved our conversation. Thank you for having me again.