Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with Kirby Monestime

Curt Anderson  00:09

Oh, we’re oh my god, David, how are you doing? I’m great, Kurt. How are you doing today? Happy Friday, man. How are you?

Damon Pistulka  00:16

I’m awesome. Awesome. Well welcome everyone. Once again to the manufacturing ecommerce cassettes series. It is Friday, Kurt and I are excited today. It’s a great day we’re hitting spring. Clocks roll forward. It is my time of year because man when they roll backwards I just get sad until that that winter solstice and the days are getting longer. So this is a good this a good week for me. I’m excited. But I know that Kurt take it away my friend,

Curt Anderson  00:45

guys happy Friday. Welcome Dan bigger we’re right on time at 132 on the east side of the world, the West Side reds and 32 for Damon. So guys, we have an amazing incredible program here on manufacturing ecommerce success with my brother from another mother Damon Pistulka. So guys, I hope everyone is everybody sitting down out there for this one. This is this. This is a biggie This is a big program. Kirby. How are you my friend? What’s happened, dude?

Kirby Monestime  01:13

Hey guys, I am doing great. Thank you so much for having me. I want to be a brother from another mother too. How do I get into this action?

Curt Anderson  01:19

You don’t you? You already are man. Yeah, this is awesome. So Kirby do me a favor. So I know. I know. It’s not quite Italian. Tell everybody your last name for me.

Kirby Monestime  01:32

So my last name is Mona steam. It is French actually

Curt Anderson  01:35

it’s a French so I might go like a little Italian flair. Mana steamy. Yeah. So anyway, so guys, we have Kirby. He is a social media expert. And this is this is such a blessing for Damon and myself to get Kirby. So Kirby was awesome. You and I connected at a networking event. And we have fierce networkers on the program. Today we have John McLean. Oh, we have Dan bigger from attesa these guy I don’t know. Yeah, we don’t know bigger networkers than these guys. We’ve got down the house. Ingre. We’ve got Kenny, Kenny, a lot of great folks on the program today. So welcome, dropping out, let us know where you’re coming from. But Kirby, you and I met at a master connectors meeting recently, you know, and I’m going to be brutally honest. I went to that event, I was invited. And I’m like, I don’t know if it’s my crowd. My folks and I met you I met Philip I met like two or three people are blown away. And you are a master networker. Tell us a little bit about yourself. We’re gonna in before you do, we’re going to take a deep dive in your corporate career. But just tell a little bit about yourself your master networking superpowers. And let’s hear a little bit about Kirby. Sure. Well,

Kirby Monestime  02:39

again, thank you for having me here. It’s great to be here. Master networks is amazing. If you haven’t heard of it already. It’s an amazing networking group. And the reason why I love it so much is because we get to understand each other as people just not as entrepreneurs, or as businessmen and women, but as people with passions. And I’m a person with passion. So I love to meet other like minded people with that same influence. My name is Kirby Mona steam again, I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, super excited to be here. My superpower is just connecting with people. I love connection. I love getting to know people. I love supporting people in their journey and allowing people to know that they have a partner. In on many occasions, you will meet different marketing companies that are really in it to just get in there, create a strategy and exit out the back door. I am interested in creating partnerships, seeing your business grow, and giving you the tips and tools from a marketing perspective that are really going to make you successful. So that’s that’s part of my superpower. That’s

Curt Anderson  03:48

awesome Kirby and gals in the house gal, welcome and Happy birthday to you, my friend. And so again, guys drop into chatbox. Let us know that you’re here. Let us know where you’re coming from. Please, please connect with Kirby. You are you’ll be so grateful that you did his his enthusiasm is just contagious. What a great guy he is. So Kirby unite. What an awesome event that was again, like Damon, I’m telling you I can’t I can’t get over with a well run networking event. That was Matt Kirby. We jumped on a call and like Kirby, I usually don’t do this on the first day. I’m like, dude, would you come on our Friday program? I’m like, our folks need to hear from you. And so this is fantastic. And so what I want to take a deep now we’re going to take a deep dive. Sure he has extensive corporate experience. I mean, like you really worked for the who’s who, JP Morgan, General Electric, American Express. So and now you’re an entrepreneur and I love when I talk with folks that have this vast corporate experience on how you brought this into your entrepreneur journey, if you will share with us like how you how your career kicked off, high finance. Let’s let’s go there. And you were a social media pioneer at these companies. So let’s take a deep dive there if you could, please.

Kirby Monestime  04:59

Sure. So my career pretty much started off while I was in college, I went to I grew, I was born and raised in New York. I went to CW post for my undergrad. And I, I received my degree in business management with a minor in marketing. But I was driven, you know, my parents said to me, Listen, we don’t have the money to pay for your education. So if you want an education, you got to go out there and find it. And so I ended up working at a supermarket full time, and I also went to school full time. And then and when you know, that supermarket job trailed off, I applied for a job at JPMorgan Chase in their credit card division. I’m doing credit card customer service. And that’s where my career started. So as I was in school, I was doing customer service, having people curse me out call me names, but also helping people build financial wellness. Yeah, yeah. David, I,

Curt Anderson  06:00

we have that all the time. People call us names. Yeah, after a while. So

Kirby Monestime  06:04

yeah, people still call me names, too. But I know how to handle it a lot. Yeah. And so why when I graduated from college, I was still working for JPMorgan Chase. And immediately, after graduation, they offered me a job as a Quality Assurance Manager. And then after a year, working as a Quality Assurance Manager, I was offered a job as a Marketing Communications Manager in their marketing division. So I worked there. And I did that for 10 years, I ultimately led a team of folks who were responsible for any of the marketing initiatives that we, that we created, they were responsible for the communication of that to not only the internal teams, but also to, you know, to the external environment, which were people who had credit cards. And so I manage that I worked there, like I said, for 10 years, I ultimately, they ended up moving their operations to Delaware. And I didn’t want to move from the great city of New York to, you know, a great city like Delaware, just in case anybody out there is from Delaware. Um, so I didn’t want to make that transition at that time. So I accepted my package after working there for 10 years. And then I moved on to working actually moved to Atlanta at that time. And then I got a job working at General Electric, in their consumer finance division. And I managed all marketing campaigns, they were lifecycle campaigns, so retention ways to keep the clients on board with us. Everything from direct mail pieces to social media strategy, to a number a number of other traditional marketing channels. When I was working at General Electric, somebody who I used to work with, at, at a, in a previous role, contacted me and was like, Hey, I’m at American Express. And there’s this great job here. And I think it would be awesome for you, um, you know, would you be interested in coming on board? So I was like, hey, yeah, great. That would be that’d be awesome. So I accepted that role at American Express ended up moving back to New York, and in accepted a role at American Express doing lifecycle marketing. So again, it was everything from retention to a little bit of acquisition strategy, but it was more about how do we retain our existing clients? What is the experience? How do we communicate with them. And then I also was then promoted from that role, because they wanted to imagine working for a large company like American Express, and being asked to help create the social media division for credit cards. And so that’s what I did. To that role. I created an entire social media strategy, I managed that strategy. I had some staff that worked for me, that were responsible for executing that strategy. And that became part of my overall career journey. And, and here I am today, I’ve worked for some other smaller companies. For anybody from New York. I’ve worked for turnover watch companies. I don’t know if you guys have heard of that. I’ve worked for an event production company as a branding specialist. I worked for a hair extension company as a marketing director. My client then and so you know, I’ve done a number of jobs where marketing is the specialty I’ve led marketing teams, I’ve created marketing strategy, and I’ve also executed on marketing as well.

Damon Pistulka  09:42

Nice. Wow. Dude, that’s cool. I just want to highlight a couple people out of here today. I mean, we got Dan Dan was he did someone say networking? I can just tell by listen to Kirby. He’d be awesome at a networking event. Oh, you guys. And we got Adam Baker, new new attendee

Curt Anderson  10:00

acres we just connected today and we are nearby as matter of fact, he’s in Erie, Pennsylvania, Erie. And that’s where Dan bigger went to college. My wife went to college. Oh my goodness. And so Adam will have to connect. So thanks for joining us today up and we got Kristina Harrington, Christina. So Chris, you and Kirby definitely need to connect. Yeah. President, CEO of Gen Alpha technologies. We’d love you, Chris, for joining us today.

Damon Pistulka  10:24

Gail, sign up, shoot up show up. Gail Robertson. Oh, yeah, we just got we just got some sleep. Right.

Curt Anderson  10:30

If I had the hair extensions, I’d be really suited up Damon, you know? Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  10:34

Yeah. See that? Let’s just take a quick look at this. I just gonna need some extensions.

Curt Anderson  10:40

This is the place but Kirby. I love that you shared your background. Yeah. Why I love this. So our show is manufacturers and E commerce. And then I hit it for years. I’ve always preached like an E commerce. Let’s follow the big boys. Let’s are big boys and big girls. What’s the depot doing? What’s Amazon doing? What are the major corporations and because they have the dollars, they have the budgets? Why figure it out on our own? I love that. And that’s a big reason why we want to join the program today is because your vast experience. What year was that, that you were working at American Express doing social media? Can you share that?

Kirby Monestime  11:16

Oh, Kurt was that was probably about 10 years ago,

Curt Anderson  11:27

10 years ago. So the thing is, you are truly a pioneer when you think about it, like I know Facebook’s been around. But I mean like the true term of like social media, social media marketing kit, you know, you started hearing that buzz 2007 2008 You know, LinkedIn was on the scene, YouTube, so on and so forth. But for you to be at the footprint of one of the largest corporations in the country, kind of spearheading their social media department. So I just absolutely love the direction your background. So now let’s fast forward a little bit. So again, vast corporate experience, I want to now your you have the entrepreneur hat on you have shared a very powerful story with us about your entrepreneurial journey, your inspiration, please, if we would be so kind, let’s hear your your inspiration and entrepreneurial story.

Kirby Monestime  12:12

Sure. So this is a story that’s very personal to me, but I’m happy to be sharing it with this audience. Kurt, I trust you. And and I think it’s important when we tell our story. And one thing that I always tell my clients is your message is your message. That’s the way people connect with you. So I’m happy that I have the opportunity to share this story with you. When I was growing up my parents, I’m one of five kids, I’m number two, you know, we grew up on in Long Island, New York. You know, we we were a close knit family, five kids, just a lot of expenses. As you can imagine. My dad was a very spirited individual, he really wanted to, you know, he didn’t have a college education. But he wanted to make sure that he gave his kids the best of what he could give them. And he worked his butt off. And in, he had small jobs here and there. But none of those jobs really cut it, none of those jobs brought him the satisfaction or just all of the things that he wanted to provide to his kids. So he started down a path of I want to be an entrepreneur. And I remember growing up, you know, seeing his passion. And whenever he had a new business idea and a new venture, he was excited, he was charged. Um, but unfortunately, you know, that didn’t end up as well as we would have all liked it to under. And he tried so many different business ventures and failed at so many of them. To the point where my family had a family bankruptcy, we lost the childhood home that I grew, it grew up in, and we had to move from place to place to place. And it was a very sad and challenging thing. And for me, luckily, you know, I was around the age of 1112. But you know, I had younger brothers and sisters that had to experience that as well. And I’m being super honest, you know, it’s it, you know, changed my thought process as I was growing up and my relationship to money, and how I view money. And it put and I’ve always I’ve spent a lot of time in a scarcity mindset. But I’m so excited to now know and accept the fact through a lot of therapy, but to know and accept the fact that there’s so much abundance out there in the world. And it’s just a matter of if we’re ready to grab it and take it. And so you know my dad, because of that, like I said we lost our childhood home we moved from place to place. And I was always inspired by that to say if I can help people in any way that I can to achieve their passions, to then not go through what I went through The trauma that I went through as a child, but also to not grow through the trauma that my dad went through trying all of these different entrepreneurial journeys, that I was going to do exactly that. And so, you know, I couple years ago, I took that step and created my business content redefined. And my goal is to help small businesses, entrepreneurs, and people who understand that there’s value in marketing, and who want to create a marketing strategy, but who want to ultimately connect with their ideal target audience. I don’t tell my clients, hey, go out and send your clients a bunch of emails. I actually one of the steps in my processes, I have a one hour or so interview with my clients, I want to know about you, what’s your inspiration? What’s your passion? What, what drove you to creating this business? And now tell me about who your customers are? What drives them? What drives them to spend, who are they, how old are they, like, those are all important factors when you are creating a marketing strategy. Because if your customers or if your clients are, you know, 20 years old, as an example, and I’m telling you, okay, go market to them in Facebook, the chances are that you’re probably not going to get as many conversions, you will get some because there are still 20 year olds that are on Facebook, but the majority of that population is not living in that channel. So it’s so important, as you know, when you are working with an agency, or you’re working with a marketing person that they understand kind of your who your clients are, and what your client’s needs are. But all of this, you know, my business and the things that I do, and the passion that I have, you know, started with my dad, I admire my dad for who he was the effort he put into it, and what he did to make sure his children were good. And he took everything out of him. But he did everything he could to make sure his children were good. And I’ll never even though it was traumatic for me, I will never ever forget the effort that he put into it. And I did ask him about it. And you know, when I was starting my business, I did my research. And I said, Dad, I just need to know, you know, I’m starting this business and you tried so many different things. Why do you think you weren’t as successful as you want it to be? And he was honest, he was like, son, when I was creating my businesses, we didn’t have marketing coaches, we didn’t have people like you, who will take the time to talk to people about how they drive their leads, and how they build connections and how they connect in different channels. He’s like, I didn’t have that. So I had to drive blind and unfortunately, I crashed. But with the with you being out there and helping people and talking to them and leading them and guiding them and inspiring them. He’s like, you know, hopefully that will help to change the world. And that’s part of what I want to do is help change the world.

Curt Anderson  18:01

Moment of silence, right? Yeah. I just everybody. Just, let’s just savor that.

Damon Pistulka  18:07

Breathe it in.

Curt Anderson  18:09

Kirby, dude. Thank you. What a blood what you are. You are Yeah, man. So let’s I want to unpack a few things here. Sure. Guys, what? Like we’re hearing this moment right now. Just hearing this inspiration. Kirby. Thank you. God bless you. This is such an awesome conversation right now. You have great chat going my dear friend Nicole. Yeah, Nicole’s here.

Damon Pistulka  18:31

Here. We are dropping in her anger. It’s like she’s she’s saying thanks so much for sharing story. Kirby and

Kirby Monestime  18:40

gore. Thank you. Thank you for

Curt Anderson  18:42

what’s awesome. Oh, again, guys, you absolutely want to connect with Kirby here. As you i i don’t need to tell you he is just amazing. Just a breath of fresh air. But let’s talk about that Kirby and you and I bonded I hate to Izmir fat gal. I just shared my story with you a little bit. Unfortunately, my father, my family went through a similar experience that Kirby went through. And that’s a great thing about our country is you know, built on entrepreneurship game and I we have some folks, we’re gonna we have some great guests coming up in the future. From the History Channel. We’re gonna be talking about some business history on our program on Fridays. And what’s great is our country is built on manufacturing, built on entrepreneurship, you know, in taking that chance, taking that risk. And you know what, kudos to your father for taking it. Yeah, never, you know, he doesn’t have to take it to the grave of like, I never took a chance he took that chance. And you know what, it doesn’t always go as we hoped or planned. And look at what it’s in. Maybe it didn’t do it for him. But look what it’s done for you. And so many entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, Damon, I know you have a few things that chime in here. That’s his you’re an entrepreneur. There’s a lot of solopreneurs on the program here or you’re an entrepreneur, your manufacturer, you are not alone. Okay? You’re not alone. It’s not it’s not you know, if you’re not hitting your goals, or maybe you’re not hitting the mark. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Damon taken away What’s on your mind this

Damon Pistulka  20:01

Well, I mean, I disrespect your father so much because he was trying to deal with the pot best possibly could very family me. Yeah, he was he was a probably enthuse and Thursday, Isaac about the business ventures, but really, behind that was providing the best he could work for his family. And I mean that, that if nothing else, he should stand tall because he did that, you know, he could have could have not done that could have worked on jobs that didn’t do that didn’t get him a chance. But he took the chance and went out and tried to do it.

Kirby Monestime  20:36

And you know what I love about this story that has such a happy ending, because my dad is so proud of me today. He will every time we talk, we talk every Saturday, I make sure that because he’s in Atlanta, I’m in Florida, I make sure I call him every Saturday, somewhere between nine and 11. And we have a chat and every conversation he says to me, so how many new clients do you have? What are you working on? Now? You know, I feel like he’s living vicariously through me. And he always says to me at the end of the conversation, I love you. And I’m so proud of you. And to hear those words, you know, from your dad, who went through this journey, and is humble enough to accept the fact that yeah, you’re doing your thing, like you’re doing your thing to succeed in life. Maybe I didn’t. It’s such a powerful thing.

Curt Anderson  21:21

That you know, you’re debt and, man, this is good. I, Kirby, shame on you, man. You’re like, you’re like, just give me chills right now. So this, so I knew it was going to be good. But it’s, it’s good or than good. I was. Well, what’s your dad’s? What’s your father’s

Kirby Monestime  21:38

name? Albert. Albert is my middle name as well,

Curt Anderson  21:41

you, you. So you tell Albert that we we sent him he is an absolute hero. And again, that entrepreneurial spirit is what makes our country so wonderful. So great. He brought that into you. And so this and thank you for sharing that story. I know it’s a vulnerable story. And we have a bunch of awesome people here in guys take that story is just a total inspiration on what you’re doing on a daily basis. And as parents as entrepreneurs, this just everything about this is just such a great story, Kirby, thank you. Thank you. Thank

Kirby Monestime  22:11

you. Thank you for sharing. Let’s all right,

Curt Anderson  22:13

let’s roll up our sleeves. Let’s get into business. Right? Okay, you are the king of connection strategies, if you will, at least I think you are. Let’s walk through let’s you’ve shared some really powerful strategies, really unique strategies. And again, we’re targeting we speak to manufacturers, marketing is a little bit new to a lot of manufacturers pre COVID. You know, word of mouth, trade shows sales reps, this whole online digital world wasn’t a top priority for them. I wanted you on the show begin again, if you guys miss it vast corporate experience, relentless entrepreneur, great social media pioneer Kirby, take it away, brother, talk a little bit about some of your strategies when you walk your clients for the first time through that process.

Kirby Monestime  22:56

Sure. So the first thing that I want to share is that, you know, with manufacturing, I presume that there is retention, right? So you have a lot of people that buy products, and they’re connected to those products. So they do it over a lifetime. And so many manufacturers are like, it’s great, I probably don’t need a ton of marketing, I don’t need to invest in that. I’m probably the wrong answer. Because, number one, there’s tons of competition out there. And as the world progresses and becomes more advanced, people become more progressive and more advanced, and they become more aggressive, and they become more assertive. So it’s very important for all the folks out there in manufacturing to understand that your existing clients are probably going to be poached by somebody else that does something that you do that could potentially offer it to them at a lower price, or with a better service component or something different than you’re doing. So marketing is your channel, that’s going to really help you stay engaged with your audience. And one of the the, one of the mistakes that I see a lot of marketers make is something that I mentioned earlier, it’s about, okay, coming out the gate with a strategy. You can’t come out the gate with the strategy until you know your audience. Because we suffer from this thing called ego consumption. We allow our egos to tell us Oh, this is a pretty product. This is what people want to hear when nine times out of 10. What you think people want to hear is not what they need to hear in order to sell your product or service. It’s not. So we have to abandon the ego for a minute when it comes to marketing. And we need to take the time to identify our client. Our target is our ideal target audience if you don’t already know who they are thinking about who they might be. A good starting point is do an assessment of the people who are buying from you today. That will give you an inkling of what your ideal audience is. It’s kind of like That notion of who are the people in your neighborhood, you know, or birds of a feather flock together, it’s that same type of notion, right. So if you don’t know who your target audience is, my advice to you is start by analyzing who your existing clients are, and identify your ideal target audience. The second thing is just like I told you my story, you need to tell your story as a business and as individuals, because people buy from people they know like, and trust. And if you can be vulnerable with your target audience, they will be more connected to you. And you never know who’s going to listen to your story and say, Oh, my God, that happened to me, I want to work with that person, or Oh, my God, that person has so much passion, that’s what I need in my business. I want to work with that person. So really, for me, I when I talk to my clients, it’s always about, okay, what are you doing to connect with your target audience? Sure, you have a million customers. But there’s a way that you can talk to a million customers, social media is one of those ways. And when it comes to connection, you cannot just have a social media page, you cannot just have an Instagram page, you have to have a bio on your Instagram page that talks about how you help people use an eye help statement, don’t just say I’m a business that does X, Y, and Z, you say I help people achieve this, or I help people grow their business by doing X, Y, and Z. So remember, in your bio, have an I hope statement. Social media is also not just about coming up with content, but it’s about understanding what’s relevant. And it’s also about taking a stand. You know, I it’s I think it’s a little bit of a controversial issue, because sometimes people like to please everyone. But people are also attracted to other people that take a stand or stand behind something and are passionate about that stand that they take. Because if you I don’t remember exactly how the saying goes, but you know, if you fall for something, fall for anything, something like that. If you don’t take a stand, then you’re falling for everything else that’s out there. So people as individuals, consumers want to know, what does this brand that I’m subscribing to that I’m paying all my money to? What do they stand for it, and you know what, guys, it’s okay. Sometimes your customers are not going to stand for the same thing as you. But what they will respect is that you did take a stand, nevertheless, you did not try to appeal to this huge, broad audience, you took a stand, and that you are there and you’re committed to your stand. And that’s what they’ll appreciate. So social media is not just about posting, you know, it’s about engaging, the key to your success in social media is engagement. And I always talk to my clients, when I create a social media strategy for you. It’s not okay, I’m going to create three posts per week, and I’m going to post them for you. It’s about how am I going to connect with your audience? What interactive media are we going to use? How are we going to integrate video into your overall social media strategy? How are we going to be talking to your consumers? Are we going to be looking at the people who are leaving comments? Are we going to be responding to those comments? Are we going to be going outside of your page and using hashtags to find out where conversations are being aggregated? And then are we going to start talking to those people and asking them questions and welcoming them to your page, so that they ultimately understand what you stand for, and how you’re going to benefit them as a social media or in that social media channel. So that connection is key. It’s not just about posting, it’s about building conversations. It’s about asking questions, and also listening to the answers. It’s about taking user generated content, right? So taking content that people giving you or give you and reposting that information, because that makes me feel special, right? If I gave you if I told you, Kurt, I love that black jacket that you have on, you look amazing in it. It’s awesome. It gives you that real distinguished look, right? And you take that information that I said about you and you post it on your social media page. Now it makes you it makes Kurt feel good. And it makes the audience Hey, this this this guy is really connecting with the audience. Right? So connection is key. That’s the that’s the tagline for my company. It should be the priority. If you’re talking to a marketing agency who’s not asking you how you’re connecting with your audience. I challenge you to think about if that’s going to be sustainable for the long term.

Damon Pistulka  29:49

Yeah. I just I just I’m just speechless. You’re just going right down the list.

Curt Anderson  29:56

We’re distracting. Like we should just turn our cameras on. Yeah, he’s

Kirby Monestime  29:59

like You know, I need you guys here. I needed it. I need to see.

Curt Anderson  30:04

So Damon, you got to pull up some comments here.

Damon Pistulka  30:07

I gotta pull some comments. I mean, you know, like, John, but gluino John, I mean, he’s just going through John. He’s talking about you know, know who your audience is. So we got Elizabeth stopping by I think she’s close a first time listener but man it is just going on fire

Curt Anderson  30:23

in the scene as a whole to be preached Nicole’s like,

Damon Pistulka  30:26

Nicole, fires like mad it Yeah, so got Christina was the guy that’s rolling so fast, I can’t really even see it. We got Chris, Chris Young had some good comments in here too. And so many people, because because you are hitting that the heart of this curvy is like, if you get on social media, and think you’re just gonna post stuff all day long, and you’re gonna get some sort of magic, you know, from it. Right. And I always, I tell people and I, and I’ll just say, I’m a beginner, this is this is you can post, but the money the business relationships are made in engagement. Yeah,

Kirby Monestime  31:05

absolutely. 100%. And, you know, this is the thing, make big businesses out there are spending seven to 10% of their annual revenue on marketing, right? So marketing is it works if you do it correctly. Yeah. And you also have to understand, you know, I train my clients to understand, you also have to be patient with the process. But you have to trust the universe. And you have to trust that if you are operating with integrity, that good things are going to come back to you. And so I always talk to when I talk to my clients, the first things I like to ask them is, do you do you have goals, and are your goals measurable? Talk to me about what those goals are. Because your marketing strategy is going to be very different depending upon your goals. If your goals, if your goal is I have 1000 existing clients, and I want to keep them engaged, I’m going to tell you something very different than if you tell me I need new I need to drive new leads. So it’s really important that you have goals, but that your goals are measurable. I also talked to my clients about gratitude, and conscious thinking. And I mentioned before abandonment of the drive at home, right? They’re driving, for abandonment of the ego. It’s so important in your marketing, to use conscious thinking, and affirmative statements, not pompous and arrogant statements, but affirmative statements, where you are really talking to the universe. And you’re saying, This is what I want from my business. And this is what I want from my clients. So I’m going to be very thoughtful in my approach and how I communicate, and having measurable goals as your first start. You know, I challenge each of you if you don’t have goals for your business already, which you may not if you’re a small company, or you may have goals that are not achievable, or you may have goals that are not measurable. But I encourage each and every one of you to look at your goals, revisit them and ensure that they’re measurable and ensure that you have a timeframe stacked up against them of when you want them to be achieved. Because that’s really going to help your business drive forward. But it’s also you’re also telling the universe, this is what I need and what I what I want for my business. And by affirming it. I’m saying that I know that the universe has that for me and I accept it.

Damon Pistulka  33:34

Awesome. I decided to go let’s,

Curt Anderson  33:37

let’s recap a couple of things. Okay. So I I’m not even comfortable talking because every time I talk Kirby’s not talking so Yeah, and like the chat is on fire.

Damon Pistulka  33:47

I know I bought my phone here trying to figure out some people’s names aren’t sure it’s awesome curvy, girl. So good.

Curt Anderson  33:54

Guys, if you’re joining, I thought Elizabeth thank you joining us today and you may want to go back and watch the beginning of this. Oh, you have a connection strategist. Here we have Kirby in the house. Kirby I want to I want to recap a couple of things. You talked about affirmative statements Sure. creative marketing positioning and I want to get into your micro influencer because we wanted to cover conscious thinking and ego abandonment due

Damon Pistulka  34:19

to abandonment. Yeah, I

Curt Anderson  34:20

think I think Jen blog lino said like multiple mic drops we’ve had multiple moments of silence here like like we’re having a bunch of firsts here on our program today, David so good. So I Kirby let’s dig into you share with me micro influencers. I know Damon, you use this in the past Kirby, I actually love your strategy here. Can you like everybody? What are How do you tackle and how do you take advantage of micro influencers for your clients?

Kirby Monestime  34:45

Sure. So the first thing with if you want to find so influencers are great, because they already have a committed audience. The people that follow influencers typically follow them on multiple channels, they follow their bliss. They read their blogs, they follow them wherever they go, they buy their products, they buy their services, right? You can typically identify. So there are macro influencers, and there are micro influencers, micro influencers are smaller, they probably have, you know, 10,000 or less fans or followers, but they’re still very influential. Then you have your macro influencers, which are like your Kylie Jenner’s, and like the, those big people out there, where if you want them to represent your brand, you’re gonna have to come out of your pockets, right? Um, the good news is, and macro influencers are great, and I’m not, I’m not saying anything about them. They’re wonderful if you can afford that. But microsensors can be just as valuable for your business. So you might be asking, How do I find these people? Like, what do I do? Number one, there are companies out there like mine, that will do the work for you. And by the way, I’m a firm believer in being great at what you do, and letting the people who are great at what they do do what they do, right. So you know, if you can afford to do it, or actually, I’m not even gonna say if you can afford it, it’s a matter of planning out your finances, and being very strategic, but hire marketers, or hire people that specialize in their craft. So you can spend all your time specializing in your craft, and that’s where your money is going to be made. Because you’re specializing and what makes you great, and I’m specializing in what makes me great. So anyway, back to influencers, micro influencers, how are you going to find them? Well, that’s the power of hashtags. People are like, Why do I, you know, why am I adding all these things with a pound sign right in front of it? You know, on my social media pages? Well, those are hashtags, hashtags, aggregate conversations, they aggregate content on it’s what people use to come together as a community, with a like minded theme or thought in mind, right? So if I say hashtag Kirby, that’s all people who love Kirby and want to be part of Kirby’s world. Well, they’re gonna follow hashtag Kirby, I don’t want my own hashtag yet, but I’m gonna create it after that tonight.

Curt Anderson  37:07

And you have followers? Kirby, yeah,

Damon Pistulka  37:10

yeah, the followers are already there. I love it.

Kirby Monestime  37:12

And I can’t wait to meet all the followers. So that’s what hashtags do, they aggregate conversations and content. If you’re on Instagram, you can go to the little thing that looks like a magnifying glass, which is your search feature, you’ve just put in that hashtag, whatever it is hashtag manufacturing that hashtag ecommerce. And you’re gonna see a bunch of people or a bunch of content, where that people are actually talking about manufacturing, they’re talking about e commerce, they’re posting pictures and photos about that specific topic. So what you do after that is, you start looking for hashtags that have the highest number of followers, right? And then once you find those hashtags with the highest number of followers, then you start, you know, you go onto that page. And then I would suggest you start following some of those followers or as following some of those, you know, high level people with the most, you know, followers. And then don’t just slide into their DMS and be like, hey, like, let’s connect together, get to know them, ask them a question. Ask them what made them so successful, ask them what’s their inspiration for their business, then when they respond to you, their audiences are seeing your, you know, your commentary. And that’s how you start to drive people to your platforms, then, you know, after you’ve built a little bit of a relationship with them, you know, connect with people ask them to do an Instagram live interview with you like the same way Kurt did with me, like, let’s connect, let me bring you on to this MSG, e commerce Success Platform. That’s the same thing that you want to do when you meet these, you know, influencers through via these hashtags, um, influencers are great, like I said, because they have their own following those followings are loyal to them. And essentially, what you end up doing is you connect with those, you know, with those influencers, you create a contract with them, which says, Hey, you’ll post this many times, or you’ll mention me this many times. And typically, if you’re working with a marketing agency, or if you’re working with me, I established that contract on your behalf. I talk to you about what feels good for you and what where your audience are going to where your audience is going to get the most value. And then we negotiate that with the influencer. But then the great part about it is then that influencer is a brand’s spokesman for your product. They’re going on to you know, their pages, their blogs, there any interviews that they’re on anything that they’re doing, and they’re talking about your products and your services. And then what happens you’ve got this audience of people that follow them that are like, Oh my gosh, I never thought about that. Let me look deeper into this manufacturer, let me look deeper into this product. And that’s how you build an engaged audience, which ultimately will become clients and buyers for your business. So at a very high level, you know, that’s, that’s, it’s, it’s about the connection. It’s about identifying them. It’s about looking at hashtags that relate to your business or area of expertise or your passion. It’s about then going into those hashtags, and finding the people who have tons of followers and engaged conversations. And another thing about social media, that’s very, very important that that is a misconception that I want to clarify today, when you walk away from this conversation is quality over quantity, I can have a million followers on my page, but they’re not liking they’re not engaging, that’s not going to be as successful for you, as if you have 500,000 followers on your page that are all talking to each other. Because when the conversations happen, the magic happens. That’s what people are asking questions. That’s when people are like, Oh, you’ve tried that product? Oh, I’ve had the same question. Oh, let me try that product. So I am very passionate about telling my clients that it’s quality over quantity. You want your audience’s talking, you want them asking questions, you want them commenting on your content, focus on that, more than you will focus on the number of fans that you actually have on your page, I will tell you, there are circumstances where you want to have a high number of fans on your page media. As an example, if you’re writing a book, or you expect to be or you’re trying to get a media placement, the first place they’re going to go is to your Instagram page. And they’re going to do their research there. So if you are working on a media strategy, and this is why it’s important to identify your goals and be and have a conversation with your marketing person or your marketing lead on that. My goal is to be on X, Y, Z TV show, you know in the next six months, but then I’m going to tell you, the number of fans that you have on your page are super important. And how can we create a strategy that only not only builds that number of fans, but that also builds your engagement? Because if I am a TV show producer, right? And I go to and there’s two people at there’s two people that I’m looking at one has a but they both have a million fans, and I’m like, Oh, which one of them am I going to bring onto my show? I’m certainly going to bring on one to my show where everybody’s engaging, where everyone is talking when they have the most likes, they have the most the most comments, right? Yeah, it’s always it always comes back to the connection and the conversations that people are having. And I mentioned this earlier, but I want to mention it again. I said ego abandonment. And Kurt, I know you love that. And I love it too. Because we perceive that we know everything. Listen, I’m in it with you, I perceive that I know everything about how to drive my business forward and what I’m doing. But I’ve recently said to myself, I need to be a little bit humble. And I need to listen to other people’s perspectives. Because nine times out of 10, what we have in our heads is not the message that’s going to appeal to your ideal target audience. It’s not. It’s not unless you’ve done the research. It’s not unless you’ve asked them if you’ve done surveys and social media, or if you’ve asked questions and people have responded, then that’s a different story, then you’re you know, then your ideas will match your your clients. But if you’re just thinking that the ideas that you have in your head are enough to build your advertising on, I’m telling you that you are headed for a path of failure. And we from my story that I told you earlier, I don’t want anybody heading down that path. So abandon your ego for a second, even though you may have been in this field for 3040 50 years. Abandon that for a second. And think about how the world is changing how people’s perceptions are changing. Wars, change people’s perceptions. You know, pandemics change people’s perceptions. So it’s very important to make sure that you’re checking in with your audience before you start marketing to them.

Damon Pistulka  44:25

All right, I don’t even know where to start again.

Curt Anderson  44:27

I’m John Doe. gluino the number three first time and manufacturing ecommerce success.

Kirby Monestime  44:33

I love John John have to I gotta use John Damon you got to pull up you

Curt Anderson  44:37

were gonna take it home in a second. You got to pull up angers comment like I lay the building on fire man. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  44:49

He was laughing. That dad

Kirby Monestime  44:55

hurt. I got hurt. I understand man. That’s my goal to end And

Damon Pistulka  45:02

then John

Curt Anderson  45:05

Yeah I’m never in the room let’s I’m hanging out my buddy but that’s a no sir I Kirby we’re gonna take it home here dude so guys good I’m gonna oh my god like my Kirby you know I’m not a young man My heart can’t take this conversation which was a healthy you know you have like put this up between you and Nicole Donnelly yesterday Dan bigger Yeah. Running down. So alright guys I’m gonna I want to unpack two things and then we’re going to take it home Kirby ready? Yes, let’s do it. Guys everybody out there today First off, let’s let’s give a round of applause let’s like if you’re sitting down let’s go I’m standing let’s give a standing ovation for Kirby Kirby Do you are beyond the blessing guys? And this is for each and every single one of us. What do you stand for? What do you think? What’s your cause? You know what I mean? When you like Christina Harrington you know, like when you go to Gen Alpha like you feel like you feel their cause. When you talk with Dan bigger John big Lena like you feel the cause of attesa gal Robertson you know, like trying to help our manufacturers trying to help our clients that deep dedication, man and boy if you just you felt a passion, we’ve got a guy Adam here you just felt passion from Kirby coming right through. Computer. Here’s the other one. conversations happen. magic happens. Conversations happens. Magic Happens Kirby take it home, my friend what lasting advice for everybody to go out there and just crush it? What’s your lasting advice for everybody on the call? You got a good sense of what the crowd is today? What’s your our last words of wisdom from Kirby take it home? Brother, what do you what do you got for us?

Kirby Monestime  46:49

What I have for you is this. You have the power to do anything that you set your mind to, you have the power to create the business that you want to create. That includes the staff, that includes the revenue that includes the client, you have the power to do it. You just have to sometimes be humble and realize that you can listen to other people’s ideas, you can throw some of it away. But sometimes there’s nuggets of gold in somebody’s idea. It may not be the full thing, but there’s that one nugget that you’re like, that’s That’s it, that’s key for my business. So if I can encourage you to connect, the connection is so important. Connect with other people, listen to their stories, share your story, build relationships, people buy from people they know like and trust 95% of the time, people do not buy from a place of necessity. There may be an underlying undertone of necessity, but they’ve already rationalized in their mind, this is not the time I don’t really need this i don’t i It’s okay, I can live without it for six months, it’s too much money, once they connect with you. The time is now because they’ve connected with you and they’re like, I like this person. I trust this person. This person has good information, they have good knowledge. They they are they are passionate about what they do and what they say. They work out of integrity. And I trust that and I believe that so now becomes the time for them. It wasn’t the time 10 minutes ago, but now is the time so the connection is key. And that’s what I that’s that’s the nugget that I want you guys to take away from this

Damon Pistulka  48:39

number again, number four

Curt Anderson  48:43

Alright guys, we’re gonna Oh my god, I’m

48:46

like speechless. This is awesome. So thank you.

Curt Anderson  48:50

For folks that know us. You guys know Damon, I get real serious all the time. I’m gonna speak as a father Damon right now. This is a message to Albert. Okay, Kirby you can pretend you’re not here Albert. Kirby’s father Dude, you are the greatest success what an amazing father you are to produce this young man and the inspiration that you drove into this guy thank you for sharing your truth your inspiration what an awesome I got demon we get to do this every day man.

Kirby Monestime  49:21

Don’t get me crying on this.

Damon Pistulka  49:24

God on you don’t have to worry I’ve been there man it just happens Don’t worry that it’s me.

Curt Anderson  49:32

Kirby guys we’re gonna wrap up first off everybody what an honor what a gift what a blessing Kirby thank you for sharing your passion your expertise your energy you with us again we salute we think Albert What a monster success he is. Out of our books of course everybody on the program here guys connect with Kirby. You get a one on one with Kirby and you do nothing else get on a call with Kirby share Kirby’s information if you have folks are looking for a social media account. tes man if you if you Oh God unless you’re unless you don’t have a fire truck nearby you know maybe our truck nearby then don’t call me right and I guys go God bless everybody thank you for sharing your time Damon night we love doing this we are so honored and blessed that you share your Fridays with us. We absolutely love doing this and guys we have a great guest on Monday we have Katie in the House on Monday but guys go out absolutely crush it spread this inspiration spread this passion Damon take it away my friend

Damon Pistulka  50:33

well I will try I’d say I would say curvy man talk about filling the heart fill in the fill in the mind today thanks so much for that because you had this this just not not just the technical content about social media but the inspirational content because if you know we got to get on a one on one because if you know anything about me when it comes to the inspiration on what you were talking about that you hit home so love to thank you want me to be here it was Kirby incredible incredible I just dropped dropped his I’m just I’m just jacked about this. Today people aren’t getting Yeah, number five. Yeah, they’re not even gonna people are gonna be a bit around me after this today. But Kurt Kirby, thanks so much for being here, man. I’m just gonna say you know, we’re gonna be back again next week. I can’t remember Kurt. Do you normally finish up or guy I’m good. I’m like I might. I forgot our whole you know, we’ve done this 100 times now and I’ve completely forgotten man because you really you you help so much today and share it a lot of great information. Just thank you so much.

Kirby Monestime  51:37

Thank you guys. Thank you,

Curt Anderson  51:38

the world’s in crisis and we had a nice hour of alone time with Kirby you know, so what again?

Damon Pistulka  51:45

Thank you. We will be back again next week. Thanks, everyone for being here. The chat if people are amazing coming out doing this. I mean, we’re missing people. We know we’re not mentioning people but oh my goodness. It makes us happy. It makes us great. See content connect with each other that make those connections do the things you need to do talk to people build the relationships. John, you know, Hanta relationships like he’s talking about. Let’s just have a great weekend after this. Talk to y’all later, you guys