You are listening to The Design You Podcast with Tobi Fairley, episode number 292.
Welcome to The Design You Podcast. A show where interior designers and creatives learn to say no to busy and say yes to more health, wealth and joy, here’s your host, Tobi Fairley.
That’s right friends, we’re rolling into the last eight episodes of this year and really the last eight episodes that brings us up to number 300, which blows my mind sometimes. I’ve been podcasting, I guess, that’s five years. Only three, maybe four episodes have ever been replays. That is a labor of love, I tell you and I have loved every minute of it and we are not stopping now. We will wrap up this year with the perfect little bow with episode 300. And then we’re moving into some exciting things, some changes in the near year for the podcast, new types of interviews.
I have all kinds of things planned for you that I know you’re going to love. But in the meantime, we’re going to finish strong with these last eight episodes this year. And I’m bringing you a lot of interviews with members of my Millionaire Mentorship program. So one of those people is Kricia Palmer. She’s here today. She’s been on the show before and you can go back, check the show notes and find that previous episode if you want to know more about her specifically and her design business.
But she’s a doctor turned interior designer. And today what we’re talking about is social media success. I have mentioned her no less than 10 times in my recent social media three-part workshop that has been amazing. And it’s all about showing up on social media like a pro. In fact, you can still buy it if you want to, the three recorded episodes or sessions, if you go to tobifairly.com/getsocial. But I wanted Kricia to come in because she has been working on her visibility and growth in social for a while.
And she was really frustrated and not having a lot of success and so this summer she started doing things differently. She started changing her mindset, being more consistent, throwing out the perfectionism and really showing up in an imperfect but effective way. And I wanted you to hear from her specifically, I wanted you to hear what she’s thinking, how she’s planning, how she executes the reels that she’s putting up all the time and the success that she’s having, the roadblocks, she’s hitting, all the things.
Because it’s so helpful to hear from a person when you’re wondering, you’re seeing their success but you’re wondering, how did they do that? And what were they thinking? And how often did they post, and all the things. So that’s what we’re talking about today is really how to be successful when it feels like Instagram is conspiring against you and social media is hard and all of the things. So I know you’re going to love this interview with my friend and doctor turned interior designer, Kricia Palmer.
Tobi Fairley: Hey, Kricia, welcome back to the podcast. You’re one of the few people that has been here more than once, so welcome.
Kricia Palmer: Thanks, Tobi. I’m super excited to be here a second time. Thanks for having me.
Tobi: I know, so fun. So people can go back, we’ll put it in the show notes, they can go back and listen to your original episode if they want to. But you really talked about kind of your transition from doctor to designer and there’s some good stuff there. But I don’t want to take up all of today’s episode with all those things. But you could give, why don’t you give people just a little recap about who you are, what you do in case they haven’t listened to that episode before.
And then we’re going to dig into some stuff about really showing up, being visible, all the scary things that we need to be doing in our business.
Kricia: Sure. So I am a physician, what I say, a retired physician, I practiced medicine, pediatric allergy and immunology for several years. And then decided to leave medicine to stay at home with my two boys. And during that time, discovered my passion for interior design. And ended up going back, getting my interior design degree. And now I have my own business, House Calls for Physicians where I offer interior design services to other women physicians around the country.
Tobi: Yeah, so cool. As I was hearing you say that, you might have told me, but I don’t know if I ever, and this will be a little bit off track, but I still want to know this, I’m curious. When you say you found your true passion, what was that? Were you on the Internet? Were you researching stuff? Were you looking at magazines? What does that mean that you found your passion for interior design?
Kricia: Well, up until that point, I didn’t really have a lot of exposure to interior design. Growing up in the family that I was in and the people that I was surrounded with, I didn’t even realize it was a thing. So I wasn’t really exposed to it. I do know that when I was little, I would draw out my own dream house floor plans and I would rearrange the furniture in my bedroom and I loved that.
But it wasn’t until probably I was in medical school and residency and this dates me a little bit. But it was when the show, Trading Spaces came out on HGTV and that’s when HGTV was brand new and it was very decorating design focused. And so I fell in love with that show. And I remember sitting there and watching it and thinking I want to do that, that’s me, that’s it. And so it was at that point that I sort of started dreaming about it. And I was not happy where I was at and then ended up making that transition later on.
Tobi: Yeah, that’s so good. I don’t think I asked you that question before, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard that. But I very vividly remember that show, watched it all the same time I think. Do you remember when that was, what years those were?
Kricia: So I finished medical school in 2001. So it was late 90s, early 2000s.
Tobi: Okay, yeah. So I was just finishing design school, which I’d gone back to. I know I was either still in design school or I was practicing my business, but I was all very new to it too. But I remember every episode of that and all the people and all the characters, all the designers, nobody wanted you to paint their fireplace, brick. There were all these rules, all that stuff. Yes, I vividly remember that. So that’s so fun.
Okay, so today I want to talk about, so the last time we had you here was a little newer in your business. It was more about the leap and how you had kind of tried to ignore a little bit of even this calling to work with doctors and all that. But today I want to talk about how you’ve really gone to the next level, which could mean a lot of different things for a lot of people, but the next level from where you were in your visibility, in the way you show up in your business and your offers and all these things.
And so one of the things we’ve worked on together is this idea of showing up and being seen and growing your social following. And you have, you literally leapt probably what, four or five, six months ago. You leapt in a big way and started showing up completely differently and got really major results from it. And I just wanted to have a whole conversation about that, pick it apart and see what you were thinking.
Because so many people are always looking for the magic pill or the magic bullet or how to outsmart the algorithm or how can I show up and get these ideal clients? And you did the work and you did the work even when it was hard and it wasn’t getting you results. And then all of a sudden it started getting you results. And I want everybody to go on this journey. So let’s talk about that. What was happening? What were you thinking? What were you looking for a few months ago when you were like, “Okay, I’m going to do something different, I’m going to go next level with the way I’m showing up?”
Kricia: Yeah. So a couple of things. I will say that I had really been trying to grow my social media audience for several years and it was super slow. So that was hard because you don’t have any of that positive feedback of more followers or more likes. And during that time I think I was really just trying to find my voice and I was new in my business. And so I think what happened when I got to that certain point a few months ago is number one, I had done a lot of, had a lot of coaching and done a lot of self-coaching.
And I finally as an almost 50 year old woman feel very comfortable in my own skin. So a lot of that was a result of years of personal work. I’m a people pleaser, I’m a perfectionist, over-achiever and I was seeking validation from my job, from my business, from other people. And I think a lot of it was just the personal work that I did that. I finally feel like I really love myself. And that helps to be able to show up authentically. And for me not to, it’s always vulnerable I think when you’re showing up on social media or in your business, but that helps a lot.
So a lot of it was, I think, that personal work. The other thing is that I mean, there would be times when I would just be like, “That’s it. I’m quitting. I’ve tried all this stuff. It’s not growing.” And I would let myself feel that way but I would always sort of come back around, I’m also very driven and very determined. So if I could get myself back to a place of curiosity, I think that that helped. So I decided in terms of what I post and how that process works, I wanted it to be fun for me.
Because I feel like if this is, if I’m dreading posting content and I’m making my videos or picking up my pictures and writing my captions and it’s a chore. I think that that somehow translates, how can I expect other people to be excited about it if I’m totally hating it? So I decided, I’m going to make this fun and creative. And I’m going to stay curious and really understand that it’s just about finding what works and trying different things. I think that those were two things that were probably my biggest mental shifts during that process.
Tobi: Yeah, that’s so good. I just wrapped up teaching this three-part workshop on social media literally today as we’re recording this. And it’s so interesting that you say all of those things because today we really worked on finding your voice, which you just mentioned. We worked on staying curious, being willing to be a beginner, all those things. We worked on something else you said, but really just, the level of, I was saying, you think you’re going on a social media journey because this is a tool you need in your business, but what you’re really going on is a self-discovery journey.
And you’re going to know yourself more than ever if you really get to the level of doing this work that we’re talking about because that’s what it’s really about. And so I love that you said all of that. And we talk a lot about staying curious which you and I have gotten accustomed to that, because we both went through Life Coach School training. And we both, I think really lean on that emotion of curiosity a lot but it’s such a beautiful tool because if you stay in that place of being intrigued or interested or thinking you’re going to learn something.
That and self-judgment and scarcity, they can’t coexist at the same time or they don’t do that very well. Curiosity sort of nips that other kind of narrative in the bud. Talk about that a little bit.
Kricia: Yeah, for sure. Early on the mindset that I had, I think for a long time I just thought that there was something wrong with me and that Instagram didn’t like me. And that everybody else was growing but I would do the exact same thing and nothing would happen. And it’s so easy, I think to have that mindset because honestly, when you’re posting and you’re not getting any kind of feedback, that’s what it feels like. So then when I started really just kind of letting myself get curious about it, well, I felt free to try different things.
So, would this reel do better with music or without? Or is this a reel where I just show pictures and I have a voiceover or do people respond better when it’s my face on the camera talking? And so when I started just testing out those ideas and seeing the results from that, it became more fun because it’s like figuring out a puzzle or solving a mystery. People aren’t seeing my posts, because you can see how many people view it. So, it can be great and if people aren’t seeing it, you’re not going to get any feedback. So what can I do to get that message in front of more people, how do I do that? And just being curious about that.
Tobi: Yeah, I love that. So you’re just basically, when we say, curious, you’re just starting to ask yourself questions. It’s truly being curious. You look at a reel like it’s not yours almost. You’re looking at somebody else’s thing because I think it’s hard sometimes when it’s ourself. But if you’re just looking at it in almost an unbiased way and you’re like, “Oh, this is fascinating, this is interesting. I wonder what happens if. I wonder if this would do this well if it was this way or if it was that way or if it had a different caption or a different title.”
And it’s like almost being in a laboratory, if I pull this up or if I flip this switch, if I turn this knob, I wonder what happens here, right?
Kricia: Yeah. And looking at it more of an experiment. So recently I used a couple, I’ve never used a Canva template for my reels before, but I found one that I really liked and I used it a couple of times. And I noticed that the visibility on Instagram went way down. So one of the things I thought, well, I was talking to my husband about it. And I was like, “I barely got any views for this.” And my past reels had been getting a lot of exposure and a lot of views.
And so my thought was, well, because I know if you upload videos from third party platforms, it affects the algorithm. I thought, well, I wonder if it was that Canva template, which I don’t know if it is or not. But at least asking the question, I was able, I can go back and remake that same piece of content without using that and test it.
Tobi: That’s so fun and interesting. Yeah, I love that. Okay so one of the other things that you mentioned and I touched on too, a second ago is that this whole process, so I think people want to think it’s just, what do I call it, transactional, it’s a formula, it’s transactional. If I do this, then this will happen. But what really it is, is this whole journey of self-discovery.
Because even what you were just saying, it’s still also about self-discovery because to manage your mindset through this just doesn’t work, I’m quitting again to going back to curiosity again and again and again and again. It’s still not, that’s just about you and yourself and your mindset and how you’re showing up and what you’re thinking. So I want to touch back on this idea of, so one of the things you said that really stood out to me is that for the first time, I’m really comfortable in my own skin and I really love myself at age almost 50.
I was just this morning in the car listening to and I was reluctant to listen to it because I haven’t followed really, but I’ve been hearing everybody talk about Will and Jada and she’s crazy and gossiping and whatever, but I hadn’t really heard of the specific gossip. But I saw that she was on Jenna Kutcher’s podcast. And I was like, “I’ll listen to this. I guess it’s going to be about her sex life or her marriage and all these gossipy things.” It was unbelievable. I’m going to go listen to it again maybe tonight. But what she was really talking about is this.
She’s really, really, actually loving yourself, actually feeling worthy, actually finally being comfortable in your own skin as a woman. And I don’t know, she’s probably somewhere near our ages. But talk to me, what does that mean? Does it mean you don’t judge yourself, your voice? Because I’ve seen you show up in a much less perfectionist way, in all kinds of ways, not even just about you, but about your content. You’re like, “That’s good enough or the lighting here is good enough, or I’ll walk around outside and it’s fine”, or whatever.
Way less perfectionist than I know you to be and that most of us are. And you got the biggest results you’ve ever had by putting out not perfect content on a regular basis. Is that tied to this worthiness thing and the self-love? Unpack that a little bit for me.
Kricia: I think it is and that was years of coaching and becoming a coach and a lot of therapy. But I think that a big part of it too was this realization that, well, I mean, nobody’s perfect, of course. And that sounds really cliché. But at the beginning of my business and how I was approaching social media initially was I did want it to be perfect. I was thinking of how I wanted to be perceived by others, how I wanted my business to be perceived by others. And that is important, that’s a part of it, but it prevented me from really being able to show up in an authentic way.
Tobi: Yeah, it feels more of a proving energy or something, right?
Kricia: It was proving, yes. And so first of all, once I let go of that and I realized, is it more important for all these reels, which I don’t even know if they’re going to drive traffic or not. I can spend hours and hours and make them completely perfect and put them out there and that’s not sustainable for me. I don’t know if that’s sustainable for many people just because it’s so time consuming. Or I can just make them and if my hair’s out of place or if I have a strand of hair across my forehead, if I can be okay with that. just to get it out there if I know that the content of it is good.
Then I’m just going to keep going and I think that once I was able to let go of that perfectionism, it helped me to be consistent. Because it’s really hard to be consistent if everything has to be perfect, I mean, it’s exhausting. And so I’m just now, I have been consistently posting reels for a while now and now I’m at a point where I’m actually going back, taking a step back. How can I up-level these even more? But that would have been too much to do to try to do [crosstalk].
Tobi: Well, and that was after you did what, June, July, August, September, almost five or six months of putting them out in imperfectly. [Crosstalk.] Yeah, that’s so good.
Kricia: Yeah. And I even, I was putting out design and decorating tips and in the back of my mind, I’m like, I need to be capturing leads. I need to be selling at the same time, but I just, I know how my brain works. And in my brain that means I’ve got to sit down and I’ve got to dedicate days to mapping out this huge plan. And I think that that would have, almost, I was concerned about losing my momentum. So I just kept doing it and I feel now I’m at a stage where I’m like, “Okay, let’s think about this strategically again, let’s go back.”
And since I’ve found out what was working, now I can go back and kind of revamp things if I need to.
Tobi: I love everything you’re saying. And I think you’re hitting on so many things. I hope everybody listening is just, I know they are having aha moment after aha moment. Because even things like, so you kind of touched on efficiency. You’re like, “If I have to make this perfect, if I have to shoot that part again even if it was only 30 seconds, because that hair was in my face. It’s still 30 more seconds that I could have just already gotten it posted.”
And so every one of those little things that you just let go, which of course you had to go on this journey of self-love to be okay with that hair over your face. You do, I mean you really do because otherwise if we’re like, “Oh my God, how embarrassing.” We would never put that up. So if you’re like, “Oh my God, it’s just a hair and I’m not taking 30 seconds or three minutes or 15 to redo that.” That’s a whole other level, I think that a lot of people aren’t getting to and aren’t thinking about. And then I love, because you said, “My goal was to just keep going”, which is so smart.
And then the next thing that you said that was so smart is you said, “Because this is what we do.” We get, we take a course or we take a workshop or we read a book or whatever and we’re like, “Okay, there’s seven steps that I have to take. I have to show up on reels and I have to get the leads and I have to send out an email following it. I have to have a downloadable and a lead magnet and all these things.”
And in theory all of those are great and you want to ultimately arrive at the place where all seven steps are in place. But what I think we accidentally do as humans is we’re like, “So I have to start seven steps at one time and have them all happening or it’s not worth it.” And I love that you were like, “You know what? I’m not going to worry about leads right now.” And it’s even more profound in hindsight, because you went from, I don’t know, 1500 followers to almost 9,000.
Your brain could have been telling you, that’s 7500 or 8,000 people that I’m not collecting leads. And you could be kicking yourself right now or you could just say, “I will worry about that later. My only job right now is to keep going and to show up and to get consistent.”
Kricia: [Crosstalk.] And in the back of my mind I knew what I needed to do. But at that point with everything on my plate, I knew the best plan for me so that I didn’t just lose momentum, I knew I just needed to keep making a reel every day. And there were times during some weeks because I used to batch my content for the month. I don’t really, I do something a little differently now. But there were times when I thought, okay, I need to post a reel today, but I really want to have a plan.
So I’m just going to sit down and I’m going to map out all these topics. And there’s nothing wrong with that, I still do that at times. But what would happen is that would have prevented me from getting a reel out that day. So instead of that, I said, “No, Kricia, just make the one reel and every single day. And so that just helped me, I think, maintain that momentum.
Tobi: Wow, it’s so common sense. But it’s so absolutely mind-blowing because none of us do, we don’t do this. We don’t do this, this way. So what was interesting to watch from the sidelines because I have been your friend and your coach and your whatever, all the things. And I was watching it happen. And then you started telling me the results and I was really watching.
But it was really fun to watch, but one of the hardest parts and the hardest hurdles to get over is what about the first 30 to 60 days. And for some people it could be four months or six months or it could be two weeks. But what about that time that feels like forever, that it hasn’t gotten traction and none of the reels have kind of gone viral or caught on too much yet.
And you’re still forcing yourself to show up every day, while that other little voice in your head is looking at those numbers or potentially looking at things and going, “Nobody’s watching, nobody’s listening. This isn’t working. This is a waste of my time.” Because I think so many people quit when they’re right on track.
And if they would have just stayed the course, their results would have caught up with them a little bit later, because that’s kind of also how social media and the algorithm works. But they quit right before they would be crossing that goal post or whatever and they never see the traction. So what were you thinking in those moments?
Kricia: Yeah. So I’m actually having to go back to that right now, because I mentioned this to you before, Tobi, but I had just such massive growth over the past three months and over the past, I would say week and a half. All of a sudden it’s really, really slowed down. So it’s really easy now for me to go back and say, “See, there is something wrong with me. Instagram doesn’t like me.” And so I’m having to tap back into some of those things, some of those ways that I was able to get through that at the beginning.
And I think that one thing that, I heard a story that I always kind of go back to. And I’m a huge 80s fan girl. I love Stranger Things. It’s one of my favorite shows. And the brothers that wrote and produced that show are the Duffer brothers. And I read an article where they presented or they pitched that show to, I think at least 15 networks over years and years, and it was rejected by 15 networks before it was picked up by Netflix. And it’s been a huge, I think next to Wednesday, the biggest Netflix show.
So I always kind of go back and think all I have to do is just not quit. Even if I’m not just, just don’t quit, just keep going, be consistent. Keep showing up and keep trying new things. And as long as I don’t quit, I’ll see results. It may not be tomorrow. It may not be next month. But I think that’s what happens so many times is people just quit.
Tobi: Well, because we let the results dictate the action. We let the validation dictate the action. And you obviously had a shift this time and you weren’t basing whether you showed up and did a reel every day based on the analytics that we use, the reach, there was a different motivation there.
Kricia: Right. And that’s when also I realized, if I’m going to be consistent and show up even when I’m not getting much of a response. It’s got to be because it’s fun for me. So I feel, I can tell the difference in my energy if I’m thinking of a topic or coming up with a reel and I’m just like, “Oh my gosh, this is so boring, if I have to say this [inaudible].”
And honestly, I mean I think there’s a balance there because other people might not know it and I have to make myself do things that I don’t want to do. But at the same time, I can also get into the mindset where, okay, let’s have fun with this. Let’s see how we can present this new tip because if I’m having fun, that’s my result.
Tobi: And when you’re having fun doing that stuff, what are you thinking about? Talk to me a little bit, give me an example of one of them and why you think it’s fun. Because I think sometimes we even as business owners and moms and we wear so many hats and there’s so many things to do and you’re trying to squeeze something in between two other meetings. And it’s hard to tap into fun sometimes.
You just came out of a financial meeting and you’re about to go pick the kids up at school. And you’re going to squeeze in some scheduled fun by making a reel in the middle. You have to be thinking about it in a certain way or know what fun even is to you, I think or you’re lying to yourself and it’s still going to feel like a chore.
Right. Yeah. And it doesn’t always feel just completely thrilling either. But I try to get just into that creative space. So if I am doing something that’s just kind of more left brain, whether that be just maybe working on a design project or looking at inspiring pictures. But also thinking, okay, what is a really cool way I could explain this that’s different? Or what’s something that as a designer we all take for granted, but somebody out there would have no idea? So just kind of trying to think about it in a fun and creative way. And usually if I do that, it kind of gets me excited.
Tobi: Which is also just curiosity all over again. Curiosity and creativity are basically the same, they kind of have the same root. They’re both about just play and exploration. And what if I do this and what if I paint this color on the canvas? And what if I make a line over here? It’s that same really process I think to tap into both of those things.
Kricia: Definitely, I agree.
Tobi: Yeah, that’s so good. So really showing up. Well, what was your motivation to be more visible? Was it more clients? Was it just that you were damned and bound and determined that you were finally going to get some more Instagram followers? Was it something else? What was driving this goal for you, do you remember at that moment?
Kricia: I think it was two parts, one is my business to get more clients. And I think you taught me this. You need clients, but you also need fans because the fans will then go tell maybe some potential clients. So one was for my business, to grow my business. But another part is just, I think I really do, there’s a part of me that enjoys being in front of the camera, sort of that performing part of it. And so I enjoy that. So part of it is just kind of that motivation to really want to grow that audience and be kind of more seen on my platform.
Tobi: Yeah, I love that. Yeah, you’re an introvert. And so I think it’s interesting because some people may be thinking, well, I don’t enjoy performing, and I don’t like being seen. But you are an introvert yet when people are thinking that, do you have any advice or thoughts for them? Do we all ultimately want to be seen but we’re just afraid to be seen? Is it harder for an introvert? Do you think that, I mean, of course you don’t have an experience of being an extrovert, but what you know about yourself as an introvert?
Because I know some people are going to think, well, that’s all great and well but I hate performing and it’s not fun to me to make a reel. And I want them to have a little insight where they can kind of tap into some of your insights there.
Kricia: Yeah. And I am very introverted. I mean, I definitely, I will say that when I do show up on camera, I would say introverts I think are the more social interactions I have or the more times on my camera, my energy gradually goes down. Whereas I think with an extrovert, the more they do that stuff, they’re getting more energy. So it is still draining for me. I enjoy it, but it’s still noticing that it’s draining.
So I think almost developing that self-awareness around, I know when I’m in the right frame of mind to create the reels or to shoot the reels and not be completely wiped out after I create all of this content. So just kind of having that self-awareness around that.
Tobi: So for you is that a certain time of day? Do you do them in the morning? Do you just do them when you feel like it? Do you just do them individually each day? Do you batch anything? How do you manage your energy around that?
Kricia: Well, for the past three months where I’ve just wanted to stay consistent, I was actually just coming up with a new reel each day. And it was usually around mid-afternoon after I had kind of completed the majority of my work for the day and then I would shoot my reel. And I’m usually more energized in the morning, but that was just the way it worked out best for me to be consistent. I’ve just started to try to batch some of the content.
So for me, as an introvert what helps is planning out kind of just brainstorm the script or the topic and kind of know ahead of time what I’m going to be posting about that day. And so I create that for the week and then I actually go and physically create the videos and each reel each day. So that helps me, so it takes some of that pressure off. I don’t have to think of a topic and shoot the reel. I already know what it’s going to be about. I already know what I’m going to say, all I have to do is execute it.
Tobi: Yeah, I think that’s great. And it makes a big difference because anything that we can remove as a barrier because if we get stuck in the, what am I going to say then you won’t ever get to making the reel. So you were putting that on a different day. So if you got stuck with it, you could work on it while you were in the writing mode. But it wouldn’t prevent you from making a reel that day because you didn’t put it right in front.
Kricia: Yeah. The other thing I would say for people that aren’t really a fan of being on camera is that what I ended up doing was shooting a bunch of my little, I always start my reels and this may change. I’m going to experiment with some other stuff coming. But this was working well so I have my face on camera talking at the beginning and at the very end. So I tried, since it was just really short clips like that, I could batch those and shoot them all at once. And then that way on a day-to-day basis I’m not having to be on camera. I’m just pulling from those and then filling in with pictures and a voiceover.
Tobi: Yeah. So if anybody’s like, I want to be camera ready or I don’t want to not have to put on makeup or whatever. It’s editing on those other days and you’re only shooting the little intro and outro essentially on the days you’re camera ready.
Kricia: Right. Because some days if I go work out and I’m just working from home and I may not put on makeup all day. I don’t want to have to get dressed just to shoot my reel. So if I’ve got some of those, I can just, and I may not be in the mood to be on camera, but that’s okay because I already have some of this batched. So on a day if I just can’t do it, I can still be consistent.
Tobi: Yeah, that’s super smart. I love that. Awesome. So anything else you’ve learned in this process, I mean, we’re mainly talking about Instagram. I know you’ve done some TikToks but it’s really at the end of the day, we’re just saying you showed up on short form video consistently every single day, five days a week or seven or five, five days a week?
Kricia: So it was five and I just this past week it’ll be six or seven. I’m trying, I’m going up to six or seven times a week. So I just decided that last week.
Tobi: Yeah, so interesting, so which again is an experiment. So at least five days a week for the last three to four months, you’ve done this every single week. You’ve made a short form video, you’ve put it out in the world on at least Instagram, if not multiple platforms. And you do put it on multiple platforms because you share it to Facebook. You put things on Facebook.
Kricia: On TikTok, yeah. I have my son transferring them all to TikTok. I was paying my son to take them all and put them on TikTok. And then he kind of got lazy so I’ve got to talk to him about that.
Tobi: Anything else that stands out that you’ve learned in this process? Because this is not the end all be all. This is not to tell people that just likes matter and all that. What I’m trying to show people is that they can take control of their visibility. And that a lot of times what I notice with people, myself included, is if we would just show up. I can look back and think if I had just been doing a reel a day for six months or eight months or 12 months, I wonder where I would be now.
But when you’re looking forward at it and it feels daunting and you have all these to do and you’re like, “I don’t feel like it.” We kind of forget that. You almost have to go out in the future and look back and see what results you could have created to get your attention. But as you’ve shown up, as you’ve done this, as you’ve gotten the results, as you’ve seen the followers, anything else really stand out either about the process or you personally as you’ve kind of gone on this journey to be more visible?
Kricia: I think I was actually writing down some thoughts this morning when I was thinking about all this. And this is one thing I wrote down because I think this, coming back to this makes the biggest difference for me. Because I still go through, I mean right now I’m not getting, my growth has slowed. So I’m struggling with, oh, my gosh, here we go again. But I wrote down, when you’re trying to grow your social media, you’re going to always think something’s wrong with you. And that the algorithm is conspiring against you and none of it is true.
I really say, but that is just my perception, that is not true. I’m going to keep showing up.
Tobi: So that would be anything, people, whatever their narrative is. If they’re like, “My voice sounds horrible or my face is weird or I’m too big or small or I’m too old or my content is boring.” Whatever the narrative they’re saying in their head. If they added that, but that’s just not true to the end of it?
Kricia: Yes, not true.
Tobi: That is the big takeaway, whatever you’re believing that’s negative, that’s going to stop you is just not true?
Kricia: Right.
Tobi: Yeah. It’s so good. Which isn’t that true about everything? Any time we coach on anything we’re like, “But I don’t want to do this thing.” I was coaching somebody earlier who was wanting to change their entire audience to a completely different age group because they were believing that there was nobody in the age group they were currently working with that, he had money or was tech savvy or whatever the thing was. And it’s so funny that our brain will serve us up a sentence, a narrative and we just can pick it right up like it’s the truth.
Kricia: Like it’s true, yeah.
Tobi: But it’s not, at least not completely true. And a lot of times it’s not true at all. But at least there’s some lie in there of maybe not every person in this age group is poor. Not every person in this age group is not tech savvy and doesn’t know how to shop online. Not every person that we painted with this broad brush. Yeah, that’s so funny. So I love that. And we spend a lot of time, I think trying, tapping into what is true. But we don’t spend so much time weeding out the stuff in our brain, all the things, all those stories and narratives that are holding us back that just aren’t true.
That’s so good. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming to talk about this. I’ve talked about you a lot lately as an example, not just because you’re getting amazing results, but to give people hope because you’re a normal person with a normal business. Who also was not getting results and who changed and started doing a few key things, thinking a few key things differently and then you did get results. And of course, there’s no guarantee that that’s going to happen to every single person in the same way.
But for some people it could be they could get 10 times the results you’ve gotten. But I think that it’s been such a beautiful opportunity for me to say, “Look at this case study of this person who has done this thing. And look at what they thought, what they did, how they showed up and what happened. And are you willing to go try that too, to experiment with it too. There’s no guarantee you’ll get her results, but you also could get way bigger results. Are you willing to do this work, to go through that, to think that way, to shift?”
And so I really wanted to capture your actual thoughts, your actual kind of process in a podcast, so people could hear it. Because I think the minute I say that, they want to say, “But how did she do this or what was she thinking here? Or what about when this happened?” And I just wanted you to be able to say that stuff so they could hear.
Kricia: Right. Yeah. And this is actually perfect timing for us to have this conversation since my growth has slowed down. And I’m battling a lot of the story that I was telling myself. We’ll see, it was short lived. And I’m not going to grow anymore. I’m not going to get to that 10,000 Instagram, which I’m really close. So I love that we’re talking about this now because that curiosity is starting to come back. I have to tap back into that if I’m going to keep growing.
And then part of me, I like the challenge of it, I’m like, “Okay, how can I make this work? how can I?”
Tobi: Right. Now, everybody’s watching, now everybody’s listening. I cannot overcome this obstacle again. Do the same tools work? Do I just keep getting curious? Again, yeah, getting excited and interested and like it’s a puzzle all over again. And I think that’s what’s so beautiful about this because at the end of the day, everybody wants to think there’s a magic thing. Or if I get the right coach and they have this new technique or whatever. Almost everything goes back to this same stuff, which is what we’re talking about. What you’re telling yourself.
Kricia: There’s no list of things that anyone can tell you, and this I’ve learned because I was looking for that list. There’s no list of do X, Y and Z and then this is going to happen and it’s just going to take off. It’s just not the nature of how social media works. You just have to stay consistent and keep trying new things.
Tobi: And I would say that’s how entrepreneurship works. That’s how parenting works. At the end of the day, it’s the same story. You can look for all the things and yeah, you can pick up a tool here and there or a tip here and there. But at the end of the day you’ve got to be willing to feel uncomfortable, go through all the emotions. Go on a journey of self-discovery and just keep showing up anyway. And then ultimately you get to where you’re going.
But I love having people hear it again, framed in this context of this exact experiment, because there’s a lot of people out there going, “How do I ever grow my Instagram or my following or get new clients?” So thank you for being so transparent. It was so good. I learn something from you every time we talk about it again.
Kricia: Thank you so much for having me.
Tobi: Well, you’re welcome. I’m just mesmerized by your consistency. I’m not prone to be that consistent. In my human design, I don’t know if you do or not, but I have the little arrow that points towards inconsistency. Even though I can be very focused. I don’t like to do the same thing every day over and over again. So those are the kind of things I’m thinking about when I’m hearing stories like this. How do I make this fun or different so that I am willing to show up and do it every day? Or if I’m not, what’s my work around? Do I batch or do I whatever?
And so again, it is such a self-discovery journey even for those of us who are doing this stuff well, to get curious. What would happen if I showed up in this way? How do I make myself want to show up in those ways? And that’s really just what you did. So yeah, thank you again for sharing. It was awesome.
Kricia: Thank you so much.
Okay friends, so check Kricia out @kriciapalmer, I think @kriciapalmermd. I should have that correct. She’s on Instagram. There’s not a lot of Kricias. It’s like Tricia, but with a K K-R-I-C-I-A. We will have all those things in the show notes of the podcast. But check her out. See the reels she’s doing. It’s really fun to watch. You’ll see what we talked about in the show. You’ll see how she threw out perfectionism and just got consistent. And it’s definitely something that I recommend you try.
And don’t forget, you can still get our social media three-part workshop if you go to tobifairley.com/getsocial. It’s called Show Up on Social Media Like a Pro. And you all, these workshop series I’m doing have been so, so popular. People are loving them. It was three sessions. You can kind of be in and out on a topic, implement some things, I showed you specifically how I create reels, how to use CapCut to edit things.
And we got just amazing feedback. People were saying yesterday as we were wrapping up the last episode, “This is one of the best courses or workshops I’ve ever taken. This was amazing. Do more of these. Do more about social media”, which we will definitely do. We’re going to do more workshops in the new year. We’ll actually even have one more coming before the end of the year. But you can still sign up for this one if you go to tobifairley.com/getsocial.
And you can put all these amazing things that you learn today from Kricia and me to work with a little help from our three-part workshop series. It’s just 297. So I love to keep these affordable, keep them fast, keep them on as one specific topic so you can really learn to implement some things. So head over and grab the course and I’ll see you back next week with another great episode. Only seven from number 300, with another of my Mastermind members or Millionaire Mentorship members. I’ll see you here, same time, same place. Bye for now.
Thank you for listening to The Design You Podcast. And if you’re ready to elevate your social media presence and supercharge your interior design business, then sign up for my brand new live three part training called Show Up on Social Media Like a Pro. In this workshop series I will guide you through the strategies and tactics to shine on social media platforms so you can say goodbye to uncertainty and hello to confidence as you learn to engage, inspire and connect with your audience like never before. Don’t miss this golden opportunity to level up your social media gain and take your design business to the next level. Head to tobifairley.com/getsocial to sign up today.
