Rebekah Radice is the founder of RadiantLA, a digital marketing training and development company, International Keynote Speaker, creator of the PREP Performance Method, and the author of, “Social Media Mastery: A Comprehensive Guide to Strategic Growth.”
With over 20 years of experience, Rebekah has trained thousands of growth-driven leaders on her PREP™ Performance Method.
Through this four-step process, entrepreneurs to enterprise get the skills, systems, and processes necessary to improve social media engagement, generate quality leads, turn conversations into conversions, and increase revenue.
Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss:
- Being authentic on social media is more important than ever in order to use social selling to cultivate our audience. We can leverage social media to gain new clientele by telling stories and just sharing what goes on in our lives in the day-to-day. Social media might be the first place people find you, the last, or somewhere in between – but it is crucial nonetheless.
Show Highlights
- What’s the difference between social media, social selling, & social networking? [2:30]
- How can we use social media to create new customers? [10:00]
- Do you think that social media for service-based businesses is a first-line or second-line of ‘attack’? [15:00]
- What ONE social media site drives the most amount of traffic, generally? [19:30]
- Where can our listeners find you online? [21:00]
Special Offer
Get your FREE download for The Social Selling Blueprint – The 4 Step Process To Using Social Selling Successfully In Your Business. Learn how to convert your social media audience into clicks, subscribers, and sales. Download here: https://rebekahradice.com/socialselling/
Links
- Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale
- Rebekah’s Website: rebekahradice.com
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Transcript:
This is episode 134 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I’ve got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump and Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It’s called Jump and Scale and it’s free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to your business. So go ahead, sign up for free. That’s jumpconsulting.net/scale. I’ll see you inside.
Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump.
Bella: Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta and today I’ve got a delight for you. From the moment I met Rebekah, I was excited. She is just someone who you want to be your gal pal, but not only that, she’s incredibly knowledgeable. Rebekah Radice is the founder of Radiant LA, a digital marketing training and development company. She’s an international keynote speaker, a woman after my own heart, creating the PREP Performance Model and the author of Social Media Mastery, a comprehensive guide of strategic growth. With over 20 years of experience, Rebekah has trained thousands of growth-driven leaders on her PREP Performance Method. Through this four-step process, entrepreneurs and enterprises get the skills, systems, and processes necessary to improve social media engagement, attract quality leads, turn conversations into conversions, and increase revenue. Without further ado, welcome, Rebekah. Thank you for being here.
Rebekah: My goodness, I’m so excited anytime I get to chat with you. So we have a whole audience full of pet sitters and dog walkers that are just—well, the industry is exploding, and they are scaling their businesses at rapid rates. We’re going from easily a hundred thousand all the way up to seven-figure businesses, and they are really trying to separate and differentiate themselves. I’m excited to have you on today because we don’t get to talk too much about branding and how it really changes on social media, because I think we’re just all trying to not be afraid of social media, let alone actually portray the same type of brand out there. So what’s the difference between social media, social selling, and social networking? Let’s start with that basic foundation.
Rebekah: It’s a great question, and I love your audience and what you’re doing, and I can totally attest to the growth. I live in the LA area, and we have dog walkers everywhere. Whether you work at the studios—because I’m right around the corner from Disney and Warner Brothers—a lot of people just can’t get away. It’s such a wonderful feeling to know, as a Chihuahua mama myself, that you’ve got somebody coming in that you totally trust, that understands your pets, understands the environment, and can really reduce that stress too. For us, that’s such a big piece of it. High-stress dogs don’t like to be left alone, so I think it’s just such a wonderful thing that we have the ability. I don’t remember another time in history when we had people like that who could take that stress out of our lives too—of “Crap, I can’t run home for lunch; what am I going to do?”—and have somebody come in and take care of that part of your family.
Bella: Yeah, it really just started in the late nineties, and even when I got in the industry in 2002, we were still trying to educate everybody. But the rapid rate—believe me—Rover and Wag have come onto the scene and spent billions of dollars on advertising and have really helped educate the world that people can come in and care for your pets. As such, everything’s getting really saturated, and everybody is a pet sitter now or a dog walker. It’s pretty hard online because we often get devalued since we sometimes don’t do a good job of explaining that professional level.
Rebekah: To your question, you know, just the different ways that we’re using social media—you really can. You can elevate awareness around your brand. You can elevate awareness around the whole pet sitting industry where a lot of people still aren’t aware that that’s a thing. Education, first and foremost, is a terrific way to use social media because social media is creating that conversation. It’s conversations like you and I are having on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, and then we’re able to take that into a conversation like this.
So for that pet sitter that’s maybe running a Facebook page or has a Twitter or Instagram account and they’re using it to create awareness, it’s just starting with a conversation. A lot of times it’s talking about: what are those frequently asked questions? What do people need to know to hire you to do what you do? What are their fears, their concerns? What keeps them from pulling the trigger or from picking up the phone and calling you? Answer those things using social media, and when you do, you start to naturally move them into that social sales opportunity. They are ready and willing to hire you because you’ve built credibility, created authority within the space, educated them, shared your ideas, and explained your thought process and how you care for animals. You’re stripping away myths, misconceptions, and concerns, creating a natural progression instead of that push-pull feeling we tend to have with social media.
Bella: I love it. And I think you could speak on this too—having that journalistic mind when you go about your day. When things come across your desk or you hang up the phone from that person you just helped—maybe their grandmother passed away, and they need a pet sitter and aren’t sure who to trust—it’s turning real-life examples into stories using a journalistic mind to tell those stories on social media so that it isn’t that push and pull you just mentioned.
Rebekah: Yeah, and what a terrific example, too, because that situation happens every single day in so many different ways where we have those moments of crisis or urgency. We have to find somebody—and who do we look to? We look to the people telling stories, making their business relatable, and putting emotion into their work. I would make sure you have a way to capture those moments—as you’re running around, having conversations, have a note-taking app where you categorize things: questions, solutions, fears, concerns, whatever the category might be. Keep a running catalog, then get those into a calendar system if you’re creating content daily.
Think about your buckets of content—maybe three different ones: educational, inspirational, and motivational. Start to drop those ideas into those categories and plug them into a calendar. For example, you might share educational content on Mondays, inspirational on Tuesdays, and a how-to on Wednesdays—like “What to do if your dog is choking.” Think about the key takeaway from each post, then create a system and process that takes the heavy lifting off of you.
Bella: I love that. And I think those buckets really help take away the anxiety of “What do I post?” If you make a conscious effort and say, “I have these five topics and I’ll post about three a week,” you take the pressure off. Maybe you give a dog a treat with your thumb tucked in so your fingers don’t get nipped—and you realize, that’s something you can share in a ‘Did You Know?’ bucket.
I want you guys to really think about and write down some ideas—pause this podcast right now if you can and think about common themes. The cool thing about this, and this will move us to our next topic, is how to find new customers for our business with social media. I’d assume one of those buckets could be “I want more customers,” so I’ll create a bucket that shows value or what we do. What do you think, Rebekah?
Rebekah: Definitely. I immediately think of the Dodo videos—they do a fantastic job raising awareness around animals’ lives. You can do the same thing. If you specialize in larger breed dogs, one of your buckets could be all about that—like how to feed a large dog without getting your fingers nipped off, or how to get them to go to the bathroom in the rain. Silly things that sound trivial but really matter to your audience.
It comes down to getting into the head and heart of your audience—what brings them to your social channels, what keeps them there, and what makes them curious enough to learn more. Think about the journey your audience is on—where they’re meeting you. If it’s their first time seeing you on Facebook, what do they need to know to feel calm or curious enough to take the next step? Put yourself in their shoes.
The beauty of social media is that your customers are already out there having conversations about what you do. They’re talking about their pets, their challenges, their cat’s kidney disease, wondering who will understand their pet’s special needs. Those conversations are happening—you just need to show up, listen, and create content that solves their problems.
Bella: Fantastic. So what I hear is people are already having these conversations, and it’s our duty to join or be a resource for the conversation—or to be so valuable that they find us.
Rebekah: Exactly. You mentioned that it can be hard to put yourself out there, especially when talking about what we do. But when you share what you do, your passion shines through. You show how knowledgeable you are. Don’t be afraid to tell those stories and expose a little bit of your day-to-day because people love to go behind the scenes and see what you do. Maybe you have beautiful surroundings—take people along for the ride.
Bella: I love that. And in all stories, just think about breaking them into beginning, middle, and end—it helps take pressure off and keeps you from feeling like you’re always promoting.
Bella: Do you think that social media for service-based businesses tends to be a first line of attack or a second line of attack? Do they go to Google first, then your website, then social? Or do they come via social?
Rebekah: Terrific question. For service-based businesses, it’s often word of mouth. They’re talking to friends—on Facebook or apps like Nextdoor. So I’d think about how you can do a better job of talking about what you do on social media so that you’re top of mind when those conversations happen. If you’re not sure people know what you do, ask them. Ask, “How would you describe what I do?” It gives you great feedback and insight.
Make sure people directly connected to you know what you do and how to hire you so they can recommend you.
Bella: I love that point. Ask people what you do—and the other caveat is, are they saying you’re a pet sitter, or are they saying you give peace of mind when they’re away? Is it emotional or tactical? That shows whether your message is being received the way you intend.
Rebekah: Exactly. It can be enlightening because we often think people know what we do—but they might not. They’re having those conversations, and you want them to know, “Hey, I’m seeking new clients.” Spell out who your perfect client is.
Bella: Can I give you an example? I’m looking for a new mom whose first child has four legs and who feels guilty that she can’t walk him as much now. Do you know anyone like that?
Rebekah: That’s a great example. Think about what that does to your brain—you go from, “Do you know anyone who needs a pet sitter?” to “I have a heart for small dog breeds. Do you know anyone with a Yorkie or Chihuahua?” You’re planting a visual in people’s minds. Then take it a step further and have those conversations on social media—in your groups, on your profile, in a natural way. Share pictures, stories, and show your passion. You’re training people to become that word-of-mouth extension for your business.
Bella: I love it. We’re almost out of time, but one last question. A lot of people are thinking, “Yeah, that sounds great, but you don’t know how busy I am.” If you had to leave our listeners with one social media site that would drive the most traffic, which would it be?
Rebekah: Facebook’s still the big boy on the block. It’s where people are comfortable, where we’re having personal conversations—which is critical in your industry. Balance your personal profile and business page. People want to know you’re real and connect with you personally. Facebook lets you do that and hit it from multiple angles.
Bella: Definitely. And when the CEO of Facebook says he wants to encourage more meaningful relationships, that says it all.
Bella: Rebekah, where can people go to cyber-stalk all your goodness and follow you?
Rebekah: Best place is rebekahradice.com — that’s my website and blog, and you can find my Brand Authority Podcast there as well. On social, it’s just @RebekahRadice. That’s R-E-B-E-K-A-H.
Bella: Awesome. We’ll put all that in the show notes too. You guys, if you loved this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback — tag us or leave a review on iTunes. And remember, when life gets you down, always keep jumping.
Thanks for jumping with Bella in Your Business. For more information, free articles, free coaching sessions, and more, go to jumpconsulting.net. And remember — Bella’s got your chute.