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​Russ Johns 0:27
We are back with the Pirate broadcast. We are having a great conversation today and as we evolve in expand our horizons in what we're doing day to day and I was on a conversation last night about talking about the people that are acquiring skills right now as they're quarantined are the ones that are going to make big headway, big moves and continue to grow in the future and today we're going to have Krista talking about this And we're gonna be talking about social media, and possibly a few other things about life, liberty, the pursuit of whatever we're pursuing. And so Krista, thank you so much for being here and taking time out this morning. I know you're busy and got a lot of things going on. So I appreciate the fact that you're here and welcome to the show.

Krista Mollion 1:18
Thank you, I'm so excited to be here. It's, been a while that I've been a fan of your show. So happy to be a guest.

Russ Johns 1:25
Well, it's nice to be able to make connections like this. And, even in social media, there's we're all busy, we all have a lot of things going on. And it's nice to be able to reach out and have these kinds of conversations, because a lot of people may not know, you or they may not know me, and because they see your name, who said Who's this Russ character who's this, what's this pirate broadcast all about? So it's a way of discovery, interesting people talking about interesting things and so hopefully we can we can meet that goal today. So how are you holding up? What are you working on? And what do you focus on doing next?

Krista Mollion 2:06
Well, believe it or not, this doesn't really rattle me that much. So my heart goes out to people who are affected by layoffs or financial hardships, or, of course, the illness itself. But I definitely don't feel that it has changed that much my day by day because I've been a business owner for 20 years. And for the past four years, I've been solo. I've been out on my own so I work from home. I'm a digital nomad. So fits really in with your pirate broadcast.

Russ Johns 2:38
Yeah.

Krista Mollion 2:39
And before that, I've managed remote teams. So my entire career I've actually always worked with teams based in different time zones, different languages, different cultures. So I'm very much in the water, swimming. Very comfortable in this and I think for people who are used to working a nine to five in an office environment. There's a lot of feelings of social isolation going on, right?

Russ Johns 3:08
Right.

Krista Mollion 3:09
Being at home. And also the feeling of how do I stay connected with people. They don't know how to manage that remote environment. And lastly, it's productivity. When you're at home, you're not used to being in work mode. So how do you switch gears and still get things done? Right and add that on top of people have kids now the kids are out of school? So there's a lot of challenges going on right now that, I don't really have that problem, but I really sympathize with people who do right now.

Russ Johns 3:42
Yeah, Well, you're a mother.

Krista Mollion 3:45
Yeah.

Russ Johns 3:46
And you've done it remotely. So it's absolutely possible. And I've been doing this for years and this is my day to day activity. There has been almost no impact other than The fact that we limit ourselves to going out and getting food or groceries or anything like that. And we're just being smart about it in self quarantine. And the business side of it, though, is really not changed hardly at all. And I'm busy now as I have been in the past. And I think it's really important for people I did a webinar last night on different tools you can use to use video, because I'm a fan of video. And I think if you're doing zoom sessions, or you don't have to isolate socially, because there are so many tools available now, this happened 10 years ago, it would be a completely different scenario. And so we're fortunate, in fact that we have so many tools that are available to us now Facebook Lives, live streaming, all these opportunities are out there. And before we jumped on you were started to talk about how people learning listening to podcasts or audio books and things like this. This is a learning opportunity for a lot of people. And so what do you what are your thoughts about that? love to hear your thoughts?

Krista Mollion 5:12
I definitely agree fully and I run a book and podcast club over on Facebook, inside a Facebook group that I call sassy business losses, in line with My Sassy method, because I don't think that people have dedicated enough time and priority to continuous development of themselves. I think that is such a shame because I'm a lifelong learner. And that's a priority of mine, which means right now is the best time for example, not only to be listening to audiobooks and podcasts and expanding your mind and finding people to follow, who have interesting things to say and interesting experiences that will drive you further but also it's a great time to be learning new software like last night I just purchased a whole Creative Suite package advanced Adobe Premiere Pro editing.

Russ Johns 6:13
Yeah.

Krista Mollion 6:13
Because I really want to take up my editing a notch I'll admit that I'm one of those IMovie people, because even though.

Russ Johns 6:23
There's nothing wrong with Imovie people.

Krista Mollion 6:23
Well, what I'm saying is like this is a great time to say okay, I've been putting it off. I've always wanted to dive in deeper and learn these things. Not only do we have the tools available to us, but right now a lot of companies are giving discounts hefty discounts to help you out they're like we know that you may be stuck at home now probably in quarantine and we're going to do some great sales. So take advantage guys of thinking this is the best time to learn and if you need any pointers reach out to me or us because rust is a great example. I often tell people about you. Because I think that the way you've set up your live stream is amazing. And you're very much a role model for people

Russ Johns 7:10
Oh thank you!

Krista Mollion 7:10
Of why should I bother doing a live stream? And how do I even know how to set one up? and repurpose? Because people imagine that it's a big hassle. So they imagine that it's just how does it give value to my business is the first question I get. And then how do I actually repurpose or maximize the reach? And it's gonna take up way too much time and energy. And I say, Well, it's true. There is some initial setup, but look at Russ, look how he's able to get his show on multiple channels and promote it and I just think you do an excellent job. So congratulations!

Russ Johns 7:48
Thank you Krista! I really appreciate that. That means a lot because I know thatI I've spent a long time in radio and television broadcasts, advertising and things like Like that, and I wanted to do this years ago and I continued to bang on it's like, what is it really and sometimes you just have to kind of move the needle back and forth and discover what it is. And this is really efficient and effective. You know, we're broadcasting, we're live streaming to Facebook, my facebook group, pirate broadcast, you should go over there and join pirate broadcast page, and then my personal profile and then YouTube and Twitter on Periscope and then LinkedIn live. Not everybody has LinkedIn live, however, you can still upload it in, bring it into LinkedIn as a as a YouTube link as well. I mean, it's not it's not an impossible. So it's really and then being on all those platforms. What it is, is it increases your visibility increases the opportunity for you to be seen, be heard and be talked about. Right? And that's really what it's all about. And it's really you know, because people can go in here here's Angie on. She's on Twitter, and Periscope, and Angie's here Gabriel's here is from Facebook. Hello, everyone. Good morning Russ and Krista. Join the social isolation. People This is like a dream come true. Yeah, the most opportune time to self learn YouTube audible podcast video course. There's so much you can do and learn. And then yeah, he was my role model Gabriel.

Krista Mollion 9:38
Ah.

Russ Johns 9:39
Hey, I have to tell you, Krista. We had a first Gabriel and I jumped on a Instagram Live. Two of us both of us together.

Krista Mollion 9:49
Yeah.

Russ Johns 9:50
He's got his pirate pioneer. We got pirate permission yesterday. So it's like things, but these are things that anybody with, if you want to do it, it's not for everyone. It's not for everyone, not social media isn't for everyone. You know, I think every business needs to have a social media presence. I think you went to Social Media Marketing World and I'd like to talk about that a little bit and see what things are coming out in 2020, or different marketing trends, but I know video is one of the top of the list.

Krista Mollion 10:29
Absolutely.

Russ Johns 10:30
So talk a little bit about that and find out and share what you can about what you discovered in social media.

Krista Mollion 10:37
Yeah, well, I think that I'd like to, I'd like to leave your audience with with one piece of wisdom regarding my take on the whole video, social media, whatever you're doing, whether it's for yourself or for a bigger company, make yourself a channel. So instead of thinking I'm going to be on social media Be a channel. And if you consider I am a channel every time I go on social media, whatever platform I'm using, I see myself as a channel, then you'll have a whole different mindset about how you show up. And when you think of yourself as a channel, then you can decide, well, if I'm a channel, how do I want to broadcast? Do I want to do it via long article post, maybe I want to be a long form blogger, right? There's a lot of thought leaders who have now LinkedIn is giving beta newsletter privileges, which I'm lucky enough to have I got invited to be part of that initiative. So it's a lot like LinkedIn live. So video is very powerful, but it may not be the only way for you to show up. So if you're a channel, just imagine if there's a little subscribe button next to your head, like what do you want them to subscribe to? Are you going to be how would you want to show up for your audience and once you do that, then we can talk more How important is video or how to interview people Or should it even be a live stream? Should it be a podcast? There's so many ways of being a channel. But instead overthinking it, it's better to go back to basics of seeing yourself that way.

Russ Johns 12:13
I love that. I love that concept. I love that idea. Because what that also does is twofold. It allows you to focus on what you want to put out there every day that brings you joy. If you're a writer you like to write if you if you like video, you can produce video. And it also increases your focus because you don't have to think about what am I going to what am I gonna create today? It's just like, I know, I want to create something with this platform this channel today and put it out there. So it's

Krista Mollion 12:46
Absolutely

Russ Johns 12:47
A brilliant strategy. Well, thanks for bringing that to the table, Krista.

Krista Mollion 12:51
And if anything I learned from Social Media Marketing World. Again, it's not to be too platform dependent. So obviously, at Social Media Marketing World, you'll find an expert in any and every platform multiple. And so whatever you're feeling like do you want to do advance Twitter skills, you'll find a lot of Twitter experts, a lot of LinkedIn experts, Instagram, Facebook, live streaming is becoming more and more popular podcasting. So we were lucky because it took place in early March, this big conference with thousands of people and we were twofold. Lucky is number one, it happened right before we found out the seriousness of this CoVid. So we'd already heard that it was around but our conference was not much affected by it. So people were a little bit cautious about shaking hands and like, oh, there's this virus that may hit the US. But it definitely went through that we were able to have the conference. And number two that right afterwards. I think the very next week down in Florida, they had pod fest. Yeah, so so there's a few conferences that I find are very useful that I like to attend. In fact, I actually dedicate a large portion of my budget to my personal development. So that's something we can talk about too is like, for me personal development means I need to have some paid coaching. I think a coach should have a coach or just I want to have experts in my corner, who I'm learning from. And so I've always got budget for that. And I also have budget for conferences, including travel, whether or not I'm speaking at them, I just want to go network and learn. And decide would I ever want to speak at this conference? And would I be able to give value at this conference? So, guys, it's very important to think about that when you think do I make enough money am I charging enough? Well, if you're going to be at the top of your game, whether you're an employee or a business owner, you want to become an industry expert. So not Not only your own channel, but also are you continuously learning more that you can give back to your audience, whether it's your colleagues or company, or whether it's your clients. So dedicate some budget to try and attend a conference. And I think we're going to see a shift based on this corvid to more and more online summits and virtual summits. So Social Media Marketing World is one of my favorites. If you haven't been there, definitely go because I met a lot of LinkedIn influencers, who you'll see here on LinkedIn if you guys are tuning in from LinkedIn, as well as other platform experts. But you also notice that they resell the whole experience online for people who couldn't attend. So there is a virtual ticket guys, and there is a way to purchase the follow up recordings of the conference. So I think more and more we're going to see a shift away from pure live events to offering in some capacity permanently a virtual ticket.

Russ Johns 16:09
I don't disagree with you at all. And I think there's going to be a lot of shifts in the real sea. In the next year, 18 months that will have people thinking about, well, what is it that I really need to do? Where do I spend my time? How do I spend my time, because when we're all busy and everything is normal and rushing around we just get in the groove of life. And now that we're kind of happened to be slowing down a little bit. It gives us time to reflect and kind of refresh our mindset and saying, Okay, well, maybe this stuff I'm carrying around is baggage rather than benefit. And so let's let's understand that. We may want to shift and educate ourselves on something or a new platform or a new way of thinking and then go forward with the, new education a new set of skills. So Gabriel said Krista is right on pegged all the talking points. Perfect strategy.

Krista Mollion 17:10
Ah, thank you, Gabriel. I want to give a shout out to another coach. Who is Frasier Cameron. If you haven't heard of him, I highly recommend checking him out. He also has LinkedIn live, but I don't think he has a show like you at all. But he, he said to me, busy as the new stupid. I had a post go viral shortly before the outbreak. It was in January, where I said, Please Stop bragging about working until 2am in the office, show me that you can get all your work done, be productive and be home in time for dinner with your family. And that will impress me.

Russ Johns 17:53
Yeah.

Krista Mollion 17:53
And this post went viral in two cents because a lot of people applauded and said thank goodness somebody find said that and other people attacked me saying I'm a CEO and I know the only way to success is not to take shortcuts. I work 80 hours a week. So we do live in a workaholic society. And I don't want to say it's particularly bad here in the United States, but it has trickled over so I'm half French half American lived in Germany and Russia many years I'm well traveled. And I do think Americans are notorious for being the most workaholics I mean, we all know that the French like their their enjoyment, their wine, the Spanish the Italians, life is is equally important to work. But I do think that you can do less and get more done. Have you ever challenged yourself guys, this is the time to challenge yourself is you're not busy. You don't have to run out and be commuting and have a busy day at work and come home right now. You're kind of in this still Stand mode at home. I challenge you to be okay with that to get comfortable in that stillness, and then reflect on your time management reflect on your priorities. I don't like email, and I don't like long meetings. I'm a big fan of 15 to 30 minute meetings. I'd rather have more frequent touch bases with you. Just check in meetings and be like, let's book 15 minutes or 30. What do you think we need? And you'd be surprised that once I reduced the timeframe from 60 to 15 minutes, we actually get more done in 15 minutes, because we both know that we only have 15 minutes, we get to the point.

Russ Johns 19:38
And it's really about focus. It's really about, hey, we there's only a decision that needs to be made on a couple of key points, and then we can move on about our day. You don't really have to, there's not a long discussion that needs to take place. There's not a long committee agreements that need to take place. It's really cut and dried at most discussed discussions. And so if you can cut it down and reduce the time that you spend, you just received that is you just got it back in your life. It's like

Krista Mollion 20:10
Payback your time. I mean, busy really is not smart. And thinking that working longer hours makes you a hero is even dumber. It's not about the time you put in, it's about really, what are you accomplishing? And, you know, I'm a big fan of having a personal mission statement. So very few people do that. But I I'm a big fan. So I always like to ask, Well, what are your actual goals? and revisit those goals as frequently as you need do check ins with yourself and be like, you know, six months ago I made these goals. I've made progress but is this have I shifted have I pivoted The only thing that is certain in life has changed, right?

Russ Johns 20:55
Yeah.

Krista Mollion 20:56
And people need to get uncomfortable, but get comforted. With being uncomfortable. There's a lot of anxiety going around right now I find because of the unknown, like, when will this be over? Will it be over by April? Will it now there's people saying the schools might be closed through the end of the year, there's a lot of anxiety because people like certainty, they like routine, they like to know what's going to happen. But as business owners, I can tell you that we never know what's going to happen. We only set goals and we drive our progress and we touch base. Is it working?

Russ Johns 21:31
Yeah.

Krista Mollion 21:31
Should we do it but stay agile guys, because the more time in your ways, right?

Russ Johns 21:37
Yeah. Constant justments along the way, constant adjustments along the way. And be be resilient too. Being resilient I think is really key because we don't have control over a lot of things that we would love control over and it's just give yourself permission to take a break. And breathe it in and say I made progress. I haven't nothing worked out exactly how I wanted it to. And it still continues to work out at work out in the direction that I'm headed. It's like this show, I love getting up and doing this show and being able to have conversations like this, and it just kind of sets the tone of my day. And it's like, I wake up with gratitude. I have the fact that it's like, I get to talk to somebody amazing. And just, you have control over your life. You have control over your day, you have control over your thoughts. You just have to take that initiative and make sure that you're not freaking out about things you don't have control over. So

Krista Mollion 22:45
Or just stop trying to control everything, not just not just freaking out, but can we just accept that you may not always have control over your time, you may be on your way to an important meeting and your car breaks down and you have kids kids are the best way to test your patience and your resilience, especially now if you're at home with them, and there are so really what we need to do is we need to not only stop freaking out, but just accept that. There's a lot of things I can't control. But the one thing I can always control is my mindset, my attitude. Sometimes we just have to break down and laugh. So whenever I get stressed out, I kind of do my laugh therapy and I want to thank shout out to Miss Suchi, Miss Suchi if you don't know her S U C H I.

Russ Johns 23:32
Yeah.

Krista Mollion 23:33
She actually is a laugh therapist from Singapore.

Russ Johns 23:37
Oh she's beautiful!

Krista Mollion 23:37
She's beautiful. So everyone if you get stressed, we need Miss Suchi right now because it's the time that sometimes you just have to laugh.

Russ Johns 23:46
Yeah. It's not a bad thing. So what as far as business and branding goes right now. I know. It's kind of a A touchy subject I'll say, to be because we're all in this same thing together. And we still, there's many of us that I mean, there are a lot of businesses that are reducing it. Also, businesses are actually closed. So branding and media and advertising is going to take a different tone. And I just kind of wanted to get your thoughts on what you feel is important or what you feel is appropriate for this type of environment from your perspective.

Krista Mollion 24:32
Absolutely. Well, I'm a real business veteran, because I lived through the recession of 2008. And it was a very difficult time. And that taught me a lot about resilience. And I just posted yesterday all about this. So I'm going to be posting a lot of tips that I have to recession proof your business, recession proof your career, and as well as just how to pivot how to pivot. So what we're doing facing right now is a pivot. In the beginning of March, all kinds of companies had big promotions, big campaigns, big event planned. March is a very popular launch month. So everyone was getting ready to launch these programs. Some of them were able to march 1, I saw some successful launches. But a lot of them got stuck because suddenly, this whole quarantine ruined our plans. And now they're like, Well, what do I do? Or even worse, your business diminished? Maybe even suddenly, right? If you're a small business, and you were told, well, you need to you We don't need your service right now. If you're connected to a physical location like a brick and mortars, then you're or tourism for example, or retail even. So, what we have to do right now is, number one, a lot of people know they canceled their lunch. That was number one. You can't continue You're marketing to people as if nothing has happened. And we will forgive you if some emails went out that shouldn't have gone out. And then you realized, but here's what you have to do is, as soon as possible, you have to send out a special email to your audience, letting them know that you're still in business right now, and that you're there to support them during this time, whatever their needs may be. That's number one. And number two, go gentle on people. Because what I've seen is there's kind of two schools, there's the School of, well, you paid for something, and I don't care if you lost your job I'm not gonna, I'm not going to acknowledge that and, and then there's the others who say, look, we're all in this together. If you need to cancel, put your membership on hold right now. I will give you a grace period to do so and here's the conditions. But if you decide to stick with me Here's how I'm modifying things to help you even more during these hard times.

Russ Johns 27:06
Hmm!

Krista Mollion 27:06
Can we repeat that? Because that is like so important that people understand it's not. It's not black and white, you have to be moldable you have to be in this time you have to show up for people because believe me one thing, three months from now, let's imagine this is all in the US. We got it under control. We're back. And people will not forget how you treated them right now.

Russ Johns 27:31
Yeah, absolutely.

Krista Mollion 27:32
So don't worry about your bottom line. Don't worry about losing. Some people are in panic mode. And they're like, Oh they don't want to honor that. And I'm like, no, please show up for your people. Now, don't worry about the money as much because it is more. It's twice more expensive to you to acquire a customer than to keep one. So yeah, instead of focusing on Oh, I need more sales. How about showing up first. First, for your existing clients, write them an email, set up a Facebook Live. And say I want to talk about the situation. I want to reassure you what I am doing. during these times if I'm still open, if I've reduced my service, I'm giving refunds if I've cancelled if I've moved something, just give them a clear update. And then give them an exit plan if they choose to. And they will stick with you, because you did this.

Russ Johns 28:26
And if they have to leave for a little while they will return when they need

Krista Mollion 28:30
Exactly.They'll remember this.

Russ Johns 28:33
And they will also tell others about how they were treated during a challenging time in their business. Right?

Krista Mollion 28:40
Absolutely. Absolutley.

Russ Johns 28:41
So that's when I finally got into the comments in my phone here. So David Riley's here Jeff young can't stay long today but wanted to say hello Krista. Laurie Knutson is here. Krista Mollion Thank you so much. You've been looks like you've been making comments. Well,

Krista Mollion 29:05
I'm helping. I'm helping.

Russ Johns 29:08
It's it's really, it's really a challenge sometimes to see. I don't know why LinkedIn makes it so difficult on some people to make some comments because it's like I can't seem to get it all dialed in Mohammed's here. Well, Krista, I know you're busy. I know. And I really appreciate it. And I'm humbled by the fact that you were able to join us in and share nuggets of knowledge in the wisdom that you've acquired over 20 years of your business activities and life. And this is really the time to be kind as I always say, kindness is cool. And I really believe that I really it truly from my heart, it's really, if we could just be 1% commander in the world will make a huge difference, it would make a huge difference. So at any Last, shining moments or something you want to share with the audience leave it before you take off.

Krista Mollion 30:09
Yes. difficult times teach us exactly resilience. So what does that word mean? until you've actually experienced something like this, right? So the people who are going to make it out even stronger, are not the ones who are constantly worried daily checking their bank account, checking their sales numbers. Going out and trying to hard sell right now. That's going to be a big turn off. The people who will make it out stronger are the ones who embrace this difficult time. Take a deep breath, use it to kind of step back and use it as a creative retreat. So creative retreat, build your content, reevaluate your marketing and sales. Sales strategies. Take a class, work with a business coach, work with a career coach. This is the time guys to be sure that you are recession proof in case the economy goes in and sticks around longer than just the few months were, who knows if this economy economical relief will be enough to reboot our economy, we may still head into a recession. So I'm not trying to be pessimists. I'm trying to be realist. And so use this time use this time. Instead of going out and selling it's not a time to do hard sales right now. It's a time to show up for your people, but also a time to pull back and really see it as a blessing. And I love what you said about the daily gratitude. I have to say that that's a wonderful way of saying it.

Russ Johns 31:47
Yeah, wake up with gratitude and know that today is a gift every day is a gift, and we may not have it. So appreciate it.

Krista Mollion 31:57
Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

Russ Johns 32:00
It's an honor pleasure and thank you so much for being here. I really, and as you know, kindness is cool smiles are free and you enjoy the day.

Krista Mollion 32:13
You too.

​

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