Lexie on Organic Content That Actually Converts

Lexie Murray0:00
Anyone that joined me last time knew that I just pretty much yapped away for an hour and didn't show anything slides-wise. And it's— it can be the same again. So essentially a little bit of intro. So I run a social media agency out of Sydney called Be Seen Socials. I started that on the back of a full-time influencer career when I was 17. So it's now been about 10 years and fast forward, we are an all-organic content creation agency, which essentially what— how I like to say it is we do everything that Instagram and TikTok will allow you to do for free. So we don't dabble into paid, we don't dabble into PR, we don't dabble into what other people I truly believe can do better. What we specialise in and are experts in is how we can utilise algorithms such as Instagram, TikTok for free in order to grow our businesses without actually paying anyone. So that's kind of— I've been working on some very, very lean— in fact, all my businesses are lean. It's one of my favourite things. We launch businesses from 0 to 100. So most of my clients come to me when they are at sample phases, or if they are— well, mostly are in sample phase, or they've just received their product and they want to take their business in what would usually take about, say, 2 to 3 years of a slow grind they usually like to catapult that into like a 4-month. So we created this thing called the Launch Package, which I guess for you guys, I kind of try and jump on, Boa, to give like a bit of an inside scoop into kind of what we provide and how you can go about doing that yourself. Because I think there's a lot of— there's no right way to launch a business. I've probably in the Launch Package launched about 45 to 50— wow, that's actually quite a lot. Yeah, 45 to 50 brands through that kind of intensive course, but the difference between what I talk about on BOA and like coming on as that as a client is we do the work. Today I kind of talk about how we do it, um, and like what to do, um, rather than obviously just getting in and getting the team to do it. Um, so essentially what I kind of— what we'll, we'll be speaking about today is very much like organic content creation. I will also say, and I think someone, I don't remember who it was last, um, last week, but someone said that this was like one of the most valuable things. And I got a DM from one of the girls after just saying that this was a really valuable part of what they took away was that Be Seen Socials, we've been around for 6 years now and I've been in the content space and I only hire girls with say like 2, 3 years of full-time content creation. Um, experience for brands. So when you guys come into running a brand, think about the fact that you are so multifaceted already. There's product development, there's systems, there's operations, there's customer service. There's all of these things you have to do and be good at that don't feel the pressure to also be good at content creation and marketing as a whole because the ecosystem is massive. And I think if everyone was really good at content creation and organic was that easy and it was so easy for videos to go viral and businesses to go viral, I would be out of a job. So I kind of want you to take that. I think that comes hand in hand with the pressure and that people feel to get it right. And, you know, videos not going viral because there's a certain thing that you look for. And I definitely wanna dabble into that today and try and give you as much kind of valuable takeaway of what we do as possible. So yeah, essentially what kind of Be Seen does it a little bit differently that I think is really important to kind of talk about and goes into what we're going to talk about today is obviously founder storey versus business content, because I think there's— they're very different. Both have a lot of merit, both are important, but both might not serve the long-term side of the business. So what I kind of want to get into and talk about is I always like to apply directly to businesses that are in the calls. So that's really important for me to do because I think if we're gonna— if one person can just go away with this being like, oh my God, I've pretty much just got a consultancy session with me for free, that is a great time well spent. And it also is super applicable. All of my knowledge is applicable to every diff— like all different types of brands. So, oh my God, I'm just like, I need to slow down. I talk really fast. I'm sorry, but it's also because we only have an hour. So I'm like, uh, and so With Be Seen, we have clients from the fashion space, which are considered like fun, cool, like exciting industry, excitement, exciting brands, all the way to brands that are not as sexy and not as exciting. On the spectrum of that, we've launched like law firms. We've, we've got Cobbs and Poppins popcorn. I think that's quite fun personally. We've got Coco, Coco Bella and Rokabye, which is like FMCG brands all the way to like lots like skincare niche brands that go from like Wesfarmers Health all the way to like brand new fresh market problem-solving brands. And so to me, content creation, social media management is like riding a bike, but every brand of bike is different, but you still know how to do the basics to ride it. So that's kind of where I want to get to today with everyone is kind of just understand the fundamentals because the thing is, is in my business is I don't do everything. I don't do the content creation for Be Seen as well as my own, and then also do operations and then blah, blah, blah. But I also think that having to invest in all of those things and not figure out what you can do yourself is also a cop-out. Because I think there's these, um, business owners that will jump on like panels and say like, you need a team for this, a team for that. But my clients don't have that money. Um, that's like so bluntly, like I don't really know how to say that outside of just we We have to do things leaner than that. So that's kind of where I want to get to today is how we can figure out how to get to that point without, you know, large cash flow. So there's 3, 4 points that I want to lead the conversation with. One is obviously content that drives conversion, kind of going down the whole like, what is, what is a business that's better off being polished and a company that's better off being like building in public, because I— just for context, I'm building both of— I'm building two of those companies. I have one business right now that I'm building to look quite polished, which is a tech company, um, and then I've got Be Seen that I can go on there on my personal account, cry on the internet, talk about our failures, talk about things. And then I've got— but then also my clients sit all in between. So there's— that's something I want to talk about. Second is obviously converting like visibility. So kind of just like some direct pointers on like what your account needs to look like, how it needs to feel, how it's going to cut through. Because there's a big difference between like our blue ocean clients and our red ocean clients. And I'll say right now that I have very little experience in like blue ocean strategy. So if you came to me saying, by the way, I'm the new Uber. I'd be like, okay, like, which is why my tech company I'm doing a very specific way because that's me launching a blue ocean strategy, um, because it's a tech company that's never really been done before. And then we've got red ocean strategy, which is brands that have multiple competitors, which is like activewear, skincare, like skincare, anything that's direct to consumer that has a huge competitor list, which means that our marketing has to be our biggest point of difference unless you're coming in with a problem-solving element that is truly revolutionary, that then becomes your marketing. So I guess there's kind of a spectrum across them. By the way, there's nothing wrong with being a red ocean. Red ocean has so much excitement. And that's why, like, if you come to me with like a skincare brand and you're a problem solver and you've been using it for 6 months and you're ready to take it to market because like you've trialled it and your friends have trialled it, blah blah, and like you've got all of that kind of data to back it, like I'm ready to go, like my mind will go a million miles an hour. So, and then obviously I've also got parts about like leveraging like social partnerships, kind of a little bit about the influencer side, publicity, like kind of like taking the brand to public and all the kind of opportunities that might not become, might not be obvious. So you've, people always ask me the question of like, oh, how do we do that as seen in Vogue or as seen in blah, blah, blah. There's a few like kind of ways we kind of utilise that as well. So that's kind of an intro. Um, in terms of where kind of Be Seen sits, um, in this conversation is this is the last one to chat to, but I don't want everyone to like be left hanging. So afterwards, I didn't do this last time and I did get questions obviously about it afterwards. It was just about how to kind of find us and like what to do kind of post this conversation if you do need more support and things like that. So bscenesocials.com.au. Open to like all conversations in terms of like something that might fit for you, whether that's like a one-off content creation shoot where we work really close with you, perfect what we need. Because another thing about Be Seen that I probably should have led with when I said about how we started is I started Be Seen at 21, um, which is kind of crazy. I think about it now because Be Seen was not what it is now. What it like back then when I was 21, it was like this little girl just like trying to figure out what doing. Now we are 16 women, um, all full-time content creators, social strategists, creative directors for our clients. And all of our clients sit around the very early stage of business all the way up into like the Maryvale, the COBS Popcorn, Misguided, like huge big businesses. So we sit across them. But my biggest passion, my most exciting brands, which is so crazy because I don't— I get excited about like those big ones that come through, yes, but when a, when I've one single woman founder comes to me with a brand that they're ready— that a direct-to-consumer brand, and they kind of have a pathway, but one we can build together, that actually like makes my heart race a little bit more than the bigger ones. Um, so what I kind of— so we've got like the one-offs where we build out con— like a single content shoot where we deliver everything at once, and then we have obviously the handheld packages, which means that we can run the socials for the brand, and we build that up together includes the influencer campaign, includes the talent. So Be Seen, we are 16 content-facing women. So that means that we will talk about the brand, we will do UGC videos, we will do influencer standard content. And that's another thing that I didn't speak on last time, which I feel I realised was a mistake, was that there's a difference between the content that you can absolutely manage yourself and the content that needs to be done in an expert lens in order to make your business, like, provide that social proof to people that are outside of you. Because founder content provides a story, influencer UGC content provides validation, and both of those can exist at the same time, and both of them need to exist at the same time. And I'm not about to say that— I, I don't confidently say that you can just launch a business purely on founder content that you create yourself. I think there was a place for it But I just think at the moment, like where we're at at the moment, social is so noisy. And if you are channelling one specific type of content, which is raw, it's messy, it's the— all of those things have its place, but also like key points, validation, market, like market research, um, info, like UGC content that provides value that is going to convert. In ads and in organic, that is multiple people talking about your brand and giving and making it aesthetic. There is always going to have to be a place for that. And so that's kind of what I want to talk about today. I'm going to go through some chat stuff and I kind of think that maybe this would be the right time to open up questions because I just don't want to talk at you. I kind of want to see if maybe like someone wants to put their hand up and be like, okay, this is my business. Like, let's use you as a case study and build that through.

Boa host13:07
Okay.

Lexie Murray13:07
Well, we're up. Are these your questions or are these questions from the team?

Boa host13:13
So this one's from BN, uh, Belinda. Um, B, I know that you sent me this question last week, so if you wanna ask Alex yourself, you're welcome to.

Lexie Murray13:23
Um, does the algorithm affect who you're sending my post to? Okay, let's go question. Hey. Yep. All good. Um, So question number 1 is obviously under 300 followers, lots of them are friends and family. Does this affect how the algorithm sending my post to? Absolutely. So essentially Instagram algorithm is one thing. TikTok algorithm is another. What I like to look at them as is Instagram algorithm is treated like your Facebook algorithm when you post, um, to your friends and family. That is the limitation that happens when you just post as if you are just going to your friends and family, cuz Instagram is for people that know you. TikTok, on the other hand, is for people that don't know you. So what you're going to learn from the TikTok algorithm is that it will reach people that do not know you, very similar to a commercial that is played during your TV ad or when you're on YouTube and you're watching something and an ad comes up. So the way we treat that, treat them, is very different. Instagram, we have little hacks for them. Instagram is going to— it can't be as raw and real because You have to show up as the best version of yourself now. Raw and real works, but it's a very fine line because people— do people want to buy your product because they know you as a founder, or do they want to buy your product because of the problem it's solving? So where I fundamentally find a bit of a problem in that is, A, you're relying purely on yourself, which means that you're never going to be able to delegate this, um, part of your business. You will be the face of the business forever. The second Belinda is not the face of it, you will no longer— like, people may no longer convert because of the product itself. That is not always the case. I will say it's like every business is different. My strategy is never the same. But if you're just kind of asking me purely from like your perspective in terms of— also, Belinda, what is your product? That might actually help me. I realised I didn't start. You just got to unmute. Maybe it's not working.

Boa host15:32
I'll jump in for her. She owns a styling business.

Lexie Murray15:35
Okay, cool.

Boa host15:36
People choose her style.

Lexie Murray15:37
Okay.

Boa host15:38
Yeah.

Lexie Murray15:39
No, no, no, you're fine. So obviously with— oh yeah, you got it.

Boa host15:45
Sorry.

Lexie Murray15:47
Okay. So essentially what you're, you're like, your consumer behaviour is different to a direct-to-consumer brand. So your entire consumer behaviour when you're looking at your social strategy needs to be outside of like someone doing like a quick sale that's obvious. So very similar, BCN Socials. We are B2B, which essentially means that I am not actually selling a jacket. I'm not selling earrings. The consumer behaviour is very different. So your business is very similar to the likes of real estate mortgage broking, um, long-term decision-making that comes into play with whether someone's going to invest in that. That means that your content pillars need to be very different and they need to be— there needs to— so the way that I would do this is I would do 4, look at only doing 4 posts per week. One of them would be a styling tip outside of, like, outside of, like, trying to sell what you do. It's just an— that's your expert pillar. So you're doing styling videos outside of, like, the most obvious. So that would be your expert pillar. Then you've actually got to do your what you do for clients. Be Seen hasn't— like, we've had to crack that where we kept being funny on the internet and like doing all these things that people would come to us asking for things that we don't actually do because we didn't make it clear enough. So your, your fourth post or pillar is going to be promotional.

Boa host17:19
What do you do?

Lexie Murray17:20
How to get in touch? What you're going to— like, what your services are, packages, spell it out. I was in the mindset back in the day, and if you asked me this like 4 years ago, I was, I would have a very different answer, but I used to be very protective about talking about my packages because I used to get scared people would copy. And I used to be like, well, I don't want to say that like our package includes 4 posts, 5 posts per week because people are gonna see that and then they're gonna copy me. I get copied every day. There is like a Socials by Sally comes up every 5 minutes, but Be Seen is still standing on our own two feet and we have absolutely been copied. Those packages get like screenshotted and put in like a different colour and put on someone else's account, but the delivery will never be the same. So at the end of the day, you are like, if that's gonna be the difference between a client understanding what you do and not understanding what you do and swiping and going elsewhere like that, that to me is a no-brainer. So I like, whereas my answer for that used to be quite different. So that's your pillar to spell it out the easiest you possibly can, can do. So package 1 is this, package 2 is this, this is what I offer. It's got to be as clear as that because if your consumer behaviour isn't buy this earrings, cheque out now, then it has to be simplified. Timeline, onboarding client timeline, what does that look like? So that's where you facilitate the understanding of like the business and what you do. Then you've got the third pillar, which is going to be your customer. So it's going to be everything you're providing to the customer. So it's going to be customer testimonials. You're going to have to build that yourself through friends and family, styling them, telling— asking for their feedback, things like that. That customer pillar needs to be customer testimonials, but it also needs to be providing value of some sort. Then you've got your aspirational industry pillar. That's a fun one. That's the one you can probably have the most fun with. It's providing you, it's setting you up to be in line with who you aspire to be. This one is your Vogue, what I like to call the Vogue for free, or like the Forbes for free, which is essentially where you kind of put yourself at that level. But because you're talking on, so Fashion Week obviously was there last week. My first pillar would be, here are my first, my top Vogue, 4 Vogue articles. That I like and my takeaway from them. So it's putting you up to that level. It's like a little bit of that kind of like be as you wish to seem. Fine line. Don't start making claims. Literally just give your expertise as a stylist in this industry and be like, I've been a stylist for 50 years. 50 years? Why did I say that? That's wild. That's way too long.

Boa host20:04
5 years.

Lexie Murray20:05
Fuck. 10 years. Fine.

Boa host20:07
Whatever.

Lexie Murray20:09
And here are my major takeaways from Fashion Week from the lens of Vogue Australia. Then you've got fashion weeks all over the world. September is Paris Fashion Week. Here are my 3 fashion trends that I think are going to happen. You get to do that every week and that should be your most exciting pillar. But then you know that Tuesday's coming and that's where you're going to be talking about your, your services because at the end of the day, we're here to make money. And my clients, we are all about the excitement thing. But I will say as well, anyone that is in direct-to-consumer, I'm talking about this and allocating it to Belinda because she kind of put her hand up first. When I'm talking about direct-to-consumer brands, we are very strict on the way we talk about pillars is very different to other agencies. Other agencies will probably say we've got these really defined pillars. Monday's educational, Tuesday is blah blah, and I definitely stick to that. But when you go get this, when you do this right, all of the content should merge to the same. There should be no difference between educational content that isn't promotional, that isn't aspirational, and isn't customer-focused. And I will say it takes a long time, like it takes an— it's harder said than done, but we are very much in the mindset that like your promotional pillar should not be obvious when you're— if you're a skincare brand, your educational content should also sell the product. That should also be really aspirational and sit you at that level of kind of the— or up against all your competitors. That should also directly value the customer. So that's kind of like where it sits in the styling perspective, because you also need to know, like, you're not going to look at brands that are like your fashion you should be looking at fashion brands to fulfil that fourth pillar, but you shouldn't be looking at it as a way of talking to your audience because it's a very different way. You're consuming, you're, you're asking someone to part ways with money to get a service. You're not parting ways to give, to get like product or to like, it's not as simple as that, which is why I'm pretty like, that's where my expertise actually comes in because of Be Seen Socials. Like we don't, we aren't buying a skin— like, we aren't a clothing brand, whereas our clothing brand clients are clothing brands. So I sit with you in the same kind of, I guess, complexity. Um, trial reels are really important. I've hounded on that like a lot last week, but it's the only way that— if you're hyper-focused on Instagram and that's like your platform of choice and you're not growing, a lot of the time it's under the fact that you're obviously just posting to an algorithm that is literally designed to unless you're ready to pay for it, not send you out. You will get lucky. There might be like a one or two videos that hits like the 1,000 view mark, but that is not a job well done to me. Like I'm seeing like 100K views, 200K views. Oh my God, sorry, my phone was going off. Um, um, so 100K views plus with the trial reels. But I'm also gonna say as well, like, I'm not the per— I'm not gonna— the, um, mentor to come up and like be that this delusional. Quality content comes first. You and like their lighting is important. Length of video, all of these things that are very, very difficult to learn when you put a founder lens on. If you have a strong founder story, let your founder storey be rough. Make it be real, make it be raw. And then fill the other pillars with strong influencer content, strong UGC content, strong like videos that people's like full-time careers have been put into. Otherwise you will just like— the, the cycle will continue because there is obviously a reason why this type of industry is so saturated with experts, and it's because like not— like there is no way I could be a stylist. In fact, holy shit. Like, I couldn't. Like, I couldn't. There's no way I could be a stylist.

Boa host24:40
You look beautiful.

Audience member24:40
Oh my God, thanks.

Lexie Murray24:42
But like, but there's just, but there's no way that like I would have the systems and processes for it. But no, but no content creators will. Like, I'm sorry, but the amount of times I have clients come to me with like these formulations of product that I'm like, okay, I'm so in marketing. Like, I'm so in marketing. And they're like, I'm so not in marketing. I am in like product development, operations, finance. And I'm like, great. So that's why we work well together. And that's why BScene has obviously expanded the way we do. And I think it's a bit of a cop-out to come on here and be like, you can just make sure, like, make sure you clean the camera and make sure you have really good lighting. And like, I really want to just say that it's as easy as that. But it's, it's honestly so— there's so like, your marketing ecosystem is more than just one specific pillar of you jumping on the camera because you've got like, okay, Belinda is going to sit down on her Friday afternoon. She's given herself 1 until 4 to film content. Imagine that being the approval and the ideas and that side of things. That's kind of where I'm getting with it, if that makes sense. But then your founder content being angled in a way that fulfils what it needs to fulfill, because a lot of the time A, like agency content creators, they will fill the expertise, they will fill the expert pillar, the UGC pillar, the influencer pillar, but the founder pillar will never be replaceable and it should never be replaceable, but it should be angled in a way that makes sense for who the customer is because I'm not gonna lie, Belinda, you absolutely should never cry on the internet. You should never.

Audience member26:27
Stop—

Lexie Murray26:28
like, you and I should never talk, talk badly on bad client experience. We should never speak on the raw and reality of the service we're offering because we need to be experts in our, in our field. So when you're talking about being raw and real, I could not recommend less talking on a negative experience you've gone through because you're a customer-facing brand. It's the same with— someone's just mentioned mortgage broking. My mortgage broker clients they are showing up to our shoots. We've got two of them. They show up to their shoots poised, ready to go. They do not take the raw and real approach because their clients are Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, client, like huge corporate businesses that are ready to take on their service as an expert. And being raw and real is going to diminish that message in a split second. So that means that the curation of content needs to be professional. It needs to be mic'd up. It needs to be it, because the thing is, is I don't think a lot of us want those low-hanging fruit clients when we're in service. I don't, which meant that I needed to shift my way of speaking about myself, speaking about the services, speaking about the girls. I am no way in hell getting on the internet being like, so one of the girls resigned today because like we are like a toxic workplace and I'm gonna try and change that. And I'm just like, you know, like, no, that's not happened. But like, I'm just saying that, that, and Sorry, Lexi.

Boa host28:00
I am mindful of just getting through everyone's questions.

Lexie Murray28:02
Sorry, they're not coming up for me, so I need to open them separately.

Boa host28:06
So fine. I might read Paris's out and Paris, you'll have to ask yourself.

Lexie Murray28:11
Wait, I see them now. I can read them now. Sorry if that helps.

Boa host28:14
That's okay.

Lexie Murray28:16
Sorry.

Boa host28:16
Thank you.

Lexie Murray28:17
No, that's good. Best ways to— wait, actually, maybe we read it out so that we can actually have a conversation.

Audience member28:23
Good morning, guys. So I was essentially just asking for advice on like organisation of content. So I have 3 very different businesses. One will be closing as I transition into these other businesses. So I'm a nail tech currently. I am a videographer and content creator like you, and I am starting a shoe business as well.

Boa host28:39
Okay.

Audience member28:39
Very, very different businesses.

Boa host28:41
Totally.

Audience member28:41
And like in the past month, I actually made a post on LinkedIn. Like I posted like 45 things across all platforms, had really good engagement, really great engage, um, engage followers, all that sort of thing. But like I was burnt out by the end of it. So I just wanted to know more about your organisation process. Like I'm starting to use Notion for organising content and all that sort of stuff. And also for like client organisation too. Um, and I'm I'm also wondering if like you could, I guess, give me some advice on creating content for a business where you don't have samples yet. Because my shoe business is sort of a niche one. So it stems from my own personal story. I got my foot fractured. I can't wear normal shoes anymore. So I'm sort of combining orthopaedic shoes with a luxury high-end fashion shoe for the everyday user. And that way, so like, you know, you don't have to go out and have painful feet when you're going out to a nice event because like we all hate painful shoes. So just like advice on like how to create content around that personal storey and stuff without having a sample.

Boa host29:35
Okay.

Lexie Murray29:35
Firstly, I love the fact obviously you've got the businesses and you know that they're very different. So you actually have acknowledged that the approach is going to be really different. So I kind of, I firstly love that. Notion's obviously my huge one. I definitely am like big in like having those plans out. I also think as well for the businesses, you need with the burnout, you need to identify immediately if you are doing everything yourself, you need to identify like which, what social is valuing by by each individual post, because I think my way of working now is very different. If you asked me this 4 years ago, my answer would be organisational structure and, um, scheduling tools and blah, blah, blah. Very different. My thing is now where your value lies is in probably the quality of that content rather than the quantity of the content. So what my— what was the middle business? You've got the nails and then—

Audience member30:27
so nails. I'm a videographer and content creator. Yeah. And filmmaker.

Lexie Murray30:31
Okay, well, that stuff's obviously easy because, you know, like, you can just, like, post up— like, you just— with that, you literally just post, like, what that content is. So I feel like we can probably just, like, assume that one. But with the shoe brand, I think because you're designing something and the design element and validation to the market is going to be very important, I think the early stage of this business is going to be very different to the exit stage of the business. So I think you can have a lot more fun with the actual design element of it and become a little bit more raw and real. With people because you're not necessarily coming in as an expertise. I'm— what I mean by that is you're not an— tell me if this is the wrong word— something— and what, a foot doctor? I forget the word.

Audience member31:15
Podiatrist?

Boa host31:16
Yeah.

Audience member31:16
Yeah.

Lexie Murray31:17
No, like, you're not coming into that being like, hey, I'm a doctor. You're coming in as someone who struggled with the gap that you're filling, which puts you in a really great position to not have to watch what you're saying in a way that is like like, that's actually quite a fine line. Like, it's a grey area. So what I would be doing is I would be going and buying a whiteboard, and I would be saving mood— like, saving a bunch of different styles of content that is actually building product and building in public. I would do that with a very— like, make sure you're very specific about the style of content. When there's mistakes made, make sure that they're not ones that can be open to scrutiny in terms of like, I'm just very much like, I'm all about community, but not when it becomes to people's opinions in a way of like skewing you into the right direction. So I would kind of be like, this is what we're doing, this is how we do it, this is kind of what my plan is. And I would do like the whole whiteboard session of it, and then I would obviously try and get community be in there to some degree and do like, you know, those case study type of things where you have like surveys, where you have like discussions like this, and invite people in that have kind of experienced those types of things. But then have like, Belinda, your stylist, should actually come into this, right? And she should kind of be on the board of the conversation. And then bringing all these different people in and film and film everything. And then when samples do come, you're kind of bringing in the community to it. I think the case, the case study of 2 Raw and Real can be applied in this, in applied in this certain situation only because your customer will probably value that.

Audience member33:07
Can I ask in terms of that actually?

Lexie Murray33:09
Yeah.

Audience member33:09
I've been having this discussion with my sister who's starting a clothing brand as well. Where's the fine line in terms of making founder-facing content versus like, you know, more professional and just brand-driven content? Because with my idea for this brand, this is going to become global. Like I've had that interest from overseas already. Yeah. And so I don't want it, I like my other two businesses because they're so over space, they rely on me. I am the backbone of the business. People know it for me. I don't want this business to be like— it's based on my true personal storey because I did get a foot fracture. I couldn't work for it like a long time. It's very much driven from my story, but I don't want that to be the key for it.

Lexie Murray33:40
You need to be—

Audience member33:41
especially we're going global.

Lexie Murray33:43
Okay, I love this question. So most of my clients come in with that exact thing. They don't— they want to have a founder journey, but they don't want to be jumping on like this. Hey guys, so, um, yeah, it's, it's Lexi here. That is— so what we do is we speak about client— and I don't want to be be seen pitchy, but I actually can only come at it from my angle. We make you third person. We speak, we speak about, we interview Paris as the founder. Hi guys, we're here with our founder Paris today and we are going to be talking about the reasons behind blah blah blah's business and we're going to talk about the 3 key reasons why Paris designed the business this way. Then we interview you as the expert professional and we remove your ability to be be like almost like overly critic— like overly, I don't know, it's like accessible, accessible, not criticized, accessible. I think the problem is that when you don't have like a team behind you, you're kind of going into that— you're the only strategy when you are raw and real is that accessibility aspect that removes that global, um, scalability of the business because you're tied to that accessibility, which is the only way that got you to where you are. My way of doing it is going back to the kind of four pillars of things and having Paris as a core pillar, but having you spoken about in third person and having your founder content be curated. It's B-roll of you being raw and real, but it isn't actually you being that raw and real. And that to me is probably the most valuable way that I consume founder content too, unless it's on Paris's page. But we're not talking about your founder page. You can build a founder on the back of the— of your business being a professional, scalable, and, and best foot forward brand. Oh my God, pun intended. Best foot forward brand.

Audience member35:33
Yeah.

Lexie Murray35:34
Yeah.

Audience member35:34
And I think that's honestly a good point because I'm sure other people as well feel like I'm trying to build my personal brand and have that so that it ties into all businesses as well, which is so important.

Lexie Murray35:42
But that's always my question. And I sit with founders every day. It's my full-time job to sit with founders and say, what is your personal brand doing? My personal brand, to be so frank, is to make me more money. So I don't care to be going and doing personal brands for like online validation. I don't know if it's because I've been in the influencer space for 10 years now that it doesn't— like, this fulfils me more than a video, like a video photo of me looking cute in an outfit, like fulfils me now. So you need to ask yourself with this personal brand, are you actually doing it because you want the business to grow and you want to make money from the business and the personal brand is going to help that? Or do you want likes on Instagram?

Audience member36:23
Brand.

Lexie Murray36:24
Like, I genuinely—

Audience member36:25
all about the money.

Lexie Murray36:26
Exactly. So what is your personal brand actually going to get you? And we need to sit down and be like, where is your energy going? Because if it's you being raw and real building this brand and it gets a few views and it makes the business not look as credible as it should, don't fucking post. Go, like, put your account on private and let's put, like, all this energy into making sure that the content on the business looks good. Because I think personal brands are really great. And by the way, like, you're talking to the fucking queen of personal brands, but I'm not going to come in here and say that like you need one in order for the business to be successful, because that's a huge cop-out and it's for people that have already done it that are saying that that's essential. I think it's essential, but it's for what you need it for. Anyway, I'm also conscious. I don't want to get—

Audience member37:11
I don't want to be so much. I appreciate it.

Lexie Murray37:13
No, that's okay. And obviously we can chat like with, with, um, with that stuff outside of this, because I know that this goes so fast. Oh my God. I'm a business fan and I'm struggling to find out.

Boa host37:22
Um, the next one, Lexi, if we could, would be Bonnie's. Um, just cause we'll dip back into the service space. So she's a mortgage broker. Bonnie, would you like to ask your question? Yeah, it's more, we kind of answered it with the lenders bank service as well, but it was more just like people only need me when they are having problems or they want to be fixed, like purchasing a house or refinancing to get a better outcome.

Lexie Murray37:48
So it was kind of just insane that with services it can, or it's like a different frame of mind with all the pillars that we have to Yeah. So essentially what you're saying is that you only, like, you're not, you're kind of one of the things that people only come to when it's in their mind. And that is exactly why you shouldn't, like, for me, organic should be your main priority and why it's a lot of my lawyer clients, my mortgage broker clients, their priority to be on organic rather than paid because people very rarely look at an ad and go, I need that right now. It's, it reminds me very much of when you have an ad that is on a, what's it called? When you're on like a, you see, I mean, White Fox is like crazy, but like an example where you see that kind of ad there and it's like you bank that for later. That is very much how you need to look at organic. So no one needs like a mortgage broker urgently. Oh, they do. But like, it's not something that you are going to remember in a year's time. That means that you need to, you need to consistently show up in a way that you will be the person people think about when that time comes. And so that's going to be very similar to like my lawyers and our mortgage brokers, which is very much just, you know what's so ironic about like my mortgage broker client is 50% of the reason they come to us is not because of they want to show up on social and beat an algorithm. It's so that when they are in rooms full of younger people that need mortgage brokers, they go, follow me, follow us on Instagram, follow us on TikTok. And that is, that's actually been converting to even more is that they're, because they're on those platforms, it makes them be the person on the platform. I've always said that if I wasn't doing the talking for Boa today, they would like someone else's, someone, another social expert will be there. So essentially Bonnie needs to be the one in the room, otherwise someone else will be the one in the room. So that's almost like a new way of being on social is because someone else, another mortgage broker will be in the one that will take your business for you if you're not present. And that's like, sounds competitive and aggressive, but it's not. It's just a way of thinking. Yeah, it's just the matter of fact. And as new people are coming into this, like, what I'm assuming you've already jumped on, like, 3 reasons why the budget works for, um, you know, and like being that person, right, to talk about it.

Boa host40:17
Um, I'd love to dive into Brienne and Morris's Question, Brandon, would you like? Hey, Lexi.

Lexie Murray40:25
Hi.

Boa host40:26
I have a fairly new business, so I have an existing bricks and mortar kitchen renovation business, which is old hat, but a new business, which is an online platform, which is designed to support like everyday homeowners through renovations, making decisions. Now, quite luckily, I don't need to make a lot of money out of that, that new business just yet, because my old business kind of takes care of that. So my focus at the moment is building community, building a following so that when I'm ready to launch my paid offerings I've got people to, to talk to. What I was struggling with on Instagram is the balance between like educational, informative content, which is obviously my purpose. Um, it doesn't perform as well as like I put a reel of like my husband laying grass and it goes like 30,000 views. Yeah, that doesn't feel like purposeful, but it gets views and it gets engagement and followers.

Lexie Murray41:18
Well, Because let's, um, not to make this answer really, really blunt, but remember social media, the word social is because, and media is because it's supposed to be enjoyable. So when people have enjoy your content, that's when they, it performs better. My, my like getting like engaged wedding content is actually significantly performed significantly better than me saying you like me speaking the way I am speaking. And the is people come to social media to enjoy and to relax and to— and so sometimes you fall into that category. Doesn't mean you necessarily need to do that, but if something is working, you have to figure out a way to make that business related. So whether— so I'm not necessarily saying, but also that is just some— that is the aim of the game. It's the same as Belinda's, um, fact, um, you know, the promotional post. I'm going to tell you right now, that's going to get no likes compared to the ones of her styling like recommendation, select like styling celebrity. I don't necessarily see— because your husband is mowing a thing of grass and that's actually almost relevant to your business, I don't think you need to fix something that's not broken. I just think you need to change the mindset of that to being actually a pillar that helps the growth of the business. Because yeah, because that's why we have pillars, is so that we can capitalise on all areas of the business as a whole. And you've got an entertainment pillar, fucking, that's great. Like, that's perfect. We have content that like is, um, Be Seen related about like our fit checks. We don't, um, provide outfit cheques as like a service, but it's something that retains our customers, excites them about following our page. So entertainment and excitement around your page has nothing, like no, nothing to fix there. It's that you've found an area that keeps people entertained and keeps people on your page, which will then later on convert to someone finding you for the wackiest ways. My engagement video on, um, on my TikTok got like 5 million views and people just like genuinely went to go and see who this person was that got engaged. Then they saw that they, I owned an agency and then they then inquired and now they're our clients. No, as I said at the beginning, no pathway is straight, but social media is there for entertainment purposes. And if you can do that whilst also building a business page, then that question— that question to me is like answered, you know what I mean? Because I think every single one of us would love knowing a particular style of content that goes viral for us, um, that is slightly related to the business. I would say if it becomes like a cooking No, not like something so irrelevant. You, it would be harder to turn that back into something relevant to what your services are, but because it's not necessarily something that skewed away, like it's not your kids or it's not like something that's like super seasonal. It's something that can go on for a little bit longer. I think you've kind of answered your own question there. Does that help?

Boa host44:35
Yeah, that's really helpful actually, because it doesn't feel natural to focus on things that aren't the actual business. But yeah, your point makes total sense.

Lexie Murray44:42
Yeah, I just think we hyperfocus on like that style of thing. It's kind of similar to my— it goes hand in hand with my thing with Paris of like, what's your personal brand actually like going to be doing for the business? And like, is that actually helpful? Whereas you're—

Audience member44:55
you're—

Lexie Murray44:56
you going ahead with like educational content might not even be doing the business many favours right now. I had a client called Prime Skin who just sponsored Fashion Week. They're 2 years into being a really profitable skincare brand, and we spent a year a year, one whole year. Mind you, don't always need to invest in BeSeen for a whole year before you go live. We always do about a 2-3 month mark. She did 12 months, and we just built a blog about skincare, about— and every month, because people were just following us for skincare tips, we would do— we would give away like a $100, $200 Mecca voucher every month just to keep people retained on following us. And all we would do is like winter skincare and it would be like 4 products we're loving. And that built up $10K worth of women that just cared about skincare and tips. And then we said, by the way, we're actually selling a product like crazy. And now they're on their 4th product drop. Things are great. They're sponsoring shows. Things are going really crazy, like crazily well for them. So that's just an example of kind of like building something up that's relevant and then turning it into like a monetization, very similar to what I would, I would recommend Paris if we had time, but that's kind of like a short version of what we did and what we continue to do for our brands.

Boa host46:16
Lexi, I just want to get on to one last question. Sorry, Brienne, and to cut that off for you. So the last one I'd like to get into is Jess Gat, so she's got Your Perfect Planner. Jess, did you want to ask your question? Yeah, sure. Thank you. Um, so yeah, I own Your Perfect Planner. I make custom planners. Where people can choose exactly what pages they want in their planner, and then I print it and make it, um, and ship it. So everything's done by hand. So a lot of my content is educational about what can you customize, how do you do this, how do you do this, and behind the scenes, like making the planners, showing the process. Yeah. Um, I also do do some like productivity organisation tips. Um, I don't usually get a lot of engagement on first. So, so do you have any tips?

Lexie Murray47:03
Yeah, okay. So essentially with engagement, like, engagement is one of those things that like is how long is a piece of string, but I would just— I'm gonna come in with like 3 or maybe like 2 to 3 like actual practical tips. So your account is as engaged as you are. So if you're going and posting a photo to a pool of people that have not— that you haven't rewarded for following you, they're not going to give anything back to you. What I mean by that is if your account, if you're posting an account, like an account to 300 followers and you've spent an hour on that post, they owe you nothing. Those 300 people owe you nothing unless you have actually gone, followed them, engaged in them, actually like followed and engaged their thing on their stuff. It kind of reminds me of like those talk, like those friendship groups that you're like, oh, like so-and-so's like commented on my post, I'm gonna comment on theirs. It is literally like none of us, I don't think on this call, are big enough to not have time to reward your community for coming, coming back to you. Because if you're engaging in 50 people in the morning, 50 people at night, and then like 50 people in the middle of the day, I would safely say that you should get 100. You probably get 100 likes on and maybe like 30 comments on your content because you did the same to other people. And, and those can be other businesses, they can be customers, they can be influencers, they can be organisational experts and people that follow those organisational experts. So I think the thing is we have to treat social media like it's essentially a social platform rather than just like posting to like crickets and being like, oh, that didn't get engagement. How, what did I actually do to make sure that that got engagement? Because just having a strong piece of content from your perspective does not translate to the noisiness of social. People want that personalised effects. I'll also say with content as well. Pumping out quality content to me is now so much more important than having quantity of content. So instead of having 5 posts hitting pillars, I try and do like honestly 2 posts, 3 posts of really strong, good quality content that makes sense for the brand. So like obviously productivity tips and things like that, making sure that like it has like a slide of like 8, like that is actually shareable. And then from, and then when I'm doing like a trial reel, when you are doing a trial real, treat Instagram as if you're reintroducing yourself every time rather than assuming people know who you are. I think that's one of the things as well that's kind of underrated with the way that TikTok and Instagram speak now is that we, we have shifted instead of saying like, hey, so here is my productivity tip, it's hi, um, I'm Jess. I run a, I run a productivity business that specialises in planners that can be customized. XYZ, then going into the content side of it instead of constantly like assuming that people are there and they know who you are. I do that a lot. So like I've been trying to shift my way of going through things. So I said like I did a post last night that was 6 apps that I use building Sydney's best social media agency. Social media is not a place to kind of be like humble and be like, blah, blah, blah. Like, oh, you know, we are okay. It's gotta be like, I am revolutionising the planner industry by customising planners for the person because I truly believe that you cannot buy from a one-size-fits-all planner company. Hence why we've been, we have now helped 100+ women with their planner. Like changing the messaging can help a lot because like social media is like in your face or it's not at all. And so I think we have to be prepared to do the things that we— that other people are not. Remember how, you know, there's like people keep going on TikTok being like, you know, don't be afraid like to be judged, blah blah blah. It truly is a little bit like that. Like, be as you wish to seem. I definitely did not get to where I am by being like, yeah, we're BC, we're fine, like we're okay at it, like we're pretty good. No, we're Sydney's best social media agency. We've got 16 women we're this, we're that. So you have to have like a bit more of an ego about yourself to— in order to kind of be seen, pun intended. Does that even help? I feel like I came into a practical—

Boa host51:38
it makes sense, but I would actually say I already do that. And yeah, you said about, um, you know, designing it for their life and one size fits all. That's literally my whole branding.

Audience member51:45
Yeah.

Boa host51:46
Um, is that— and everyone's life is different, so your planner needs to be different.

Lexie Murray51:50
Yeah.

Boa host51:50
Um, so I feel like I'm already doing that. Maybe I just need to keep doing that.

Lexie Murray51:55
Yeah, I think if one thing isn't working for you, you need to, you need to be prepared to pivot. But I also think you need to not look at what other plan— because there are people that, let's be real, there are people on social media. I have a true belief that if some people are doing really well on social media, there's not actually a difference between you and them. It's just the fact that they're being a lot more experimental. So, and then they, and they've waited longer to find what their thing that works. Like, if founder content for you isn't, isn't working and people don't want to like people are like, no, not, I'm not saying that they are, but like sick of seeing your face. They need to go and see the planner used by mortgage brokers, designers, like in use. Like that's just the reality of it because like, because Be Seen, like for me is that I used to be the face of the brand and the business and it got a little bit redundant and things like weren't growing that much. And then now I'm not on the TikTok. It's actually like a thing where like Lexi, the founder, does not go on the TikTok because it's not converting. It's like the engagement's lower when I'm coming on giving tips on TikTok. So now we've had to shift our strategy. The businesses— there is no difference between like my one— one of my best friends owns a planner company, um, The Productivity Method, and it's incredible. Like, yes, she's the founder, but she has made a conscious effort to hardly be on that social. There's not that much of a difference between— in fact, Your Planner has better, better, uh, what do you call it, like differentiation and actual key points. Yeah, there's like different angles that she wouldn't even have. There's no difference. It's just that she was probably a lot more like experimental to things and wasn't constantly like looking at maybe just founder content, maybe just educational content. Because remember that if it just— if there was a strategy that fit for everyone, we wouldn't all be here. I surely wouldn't be. Like, I would, because every one of my clients would figure out what works and they would go off and do it on their own. So I think it's so easy to say like, yeah, we're doing all of those things, but there's— I truly believe there's always more that we can be doing. And that's like putting the time into engaging on the account every day, trialling different content pillars that work, whether— and unfortunately, sometimes it is investing in like 3 people that need to kind of be like ambassadors for the brand and like give them— give like essentially— I'm not saying pay for it. Like I always— my business advice, I always like— I don't think you've ever— I don't think I've said invest in anything once, but this situation is different. My actual advice would be to invest in content that isn't just, just you and see where that goes.

Boa host54:31
Yeah.

Audience member54:32
Thank you.

Lexie Murray54:32
Which I haven't actually said probably once, and I don't actually like saying like, spend money here, spend money there, because I do think we can spend, we can spend more time. That's a lot of value and time, but there are things that experts are there for. And sometimes it's giving credibility and speaking on the product more than just you you can.

Boa host54:53
Yeah.

Lexie Murray54:54
Um, did you want me to do one more question, Kirsten, or are we out of time?

Boa host54:58
This one's a bit of a side note, but Paris has a question just regarding Forbes 30 Under 30.

Lexie Murray55:04
Oh yeah, no, not at all.

Boa host55:05
I think a lot of ambitious founders in our— oh yeah, want to be on that, so please.

Audience member55:09
Yeah, I just wanted to know your experience on that because I feel like obviously a lot of us don't have access to people who are under Forbes 30 Under 30, so we wouldn't know.

Lexie Murray55:16
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Audience member55:17
But I'm just wondering if having a big personal brand impacts impacted, like, your potential and your opportunity to become a Forbes 30 Under 30, or if they more so look at your business and the things that you've achieved within the business, or if it's more of a social media—

Lexie Murray55:29
this question couldn't— this question could not— yeah, no, this question couldn't have come at a better time because I literally, um, just had dinner with the Forbes 30 Under 30 decider. So she was talking to me about this. Um, so there's two different things, right?

Audience member55:42
So that—

Lexie Murray55:43
well, I don't know if anyone's even interested in this. It's like not, um, 30, but essentially there's lots of other awards you can get to. So I'm gonna give you like the most real, like your personal brand does not matter.

Boa host55:58
Okay.

Lexie Murray55:58
If your product does, they will ask you for numbers, they will ask you for everything under the sun. They don't give a shit who you are, but you need to have a storey that makes sense to like the wider, like you have to be making a difference in in terms of the younger generation, which was mine. Mine was like, you have to find an angle that works for what they're looking for, and your business needs to be more than just like a transactional business.

Boa host56:24
It needs—

Lexie Murray56:25
Forbes is moving towards what you do for a community and like the industry as a whole. So for me, I am hiring the next generation of people, and that— and I'm a woman founder that looks at like— and that trains women all the way from like when I hire them from 21, and I have— I like to have them— that's like their career path and I'm creating career paths for younger people in the industry. Your version of that needs to be tied in with a personal brand. It doesn't make sense to just like, your personal brand can't just be like nothing. Like it can't just be like, it needs to have an angle. So the way you do it is there's Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia and there's Forbes 30 Under 30 Australia. Australia is privately owned. Asia is much more— I don't even know how to— it's much more public. There's multiple owners. It's actually more of like a— it's part of like the Forbes community in, in— and it's a little bit more specific about what they look for. Um, Forbes Australia is actually harder to get on the 30 Under 30 list because it's actually 30 people, whereas Asia is the entire of Asia. So it's a bigger space. Like, let's talk about the bajillion people that are in there. Like, China, what even is the population of that? And then so You've got the top, like, people think that it's the top, it's making $30 million under 30. I wish I wouldn't have made the list. I'll be so honest. But the, essentially what it is, is it's your top 30 people in an industry and then there's 10 industries. So, okay. Your industry would be commerce, e-commerce and What's it called? And retail, probably one of the harder ones to get into. But what they would— and I'm not saying it's not possible, it's just that like you would look at those businesses and the scalable, like what that scalability is. They're going to look at the numbers, they're going to look at social impact. So like a lot of environmental impact and things like that now, because that's like what the messaging for Forbes is. Honestly, put yourself in rooms. When I first wanted to get Forbes, I paid for general admission tickets to the Forbes summits, go to those, make sure that you are like talking to people like this, make sure that you have a relatable person that is your kind of inspiration for it. One of my best friends was Forbes 30 Under 30, and so I was really lucky that I literally just sent her voice notes and I was like, how do I do this? Blah, blah, blah. She pretty much told me, and this advice, honestly, it's not how it went down for me, but it went down, it goes down for other people. Apply, it will be on the radar. You'll be on the radar, and you won't make— you may not make it the first year, second year, third year, but eventually you get closer with these little, little, little steps. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, just be prepared for that.

Boa host59:17
They will probably—

Lexie Murray59:18
they will obviously ask for a lot of things. You also then, once you get shortlisted— shortlisting is one thing— they interview, they will ask you for references. Your references will probably be from your accountants for like balance sheet. Um, they want to make sure that like what you're saying is real. It will probably be like a signature from, um, yeah, they want profit and loss. You don't also need to be making money if your social impact is your angle. Um, I can't think of anything else that's like really valuable right now, but just put yourself in rooms. It's, it's such— I know it sounds so wanky, but it actually—

Audience member59:53
that's so valid. I already do that as it is. So like, it's, it's for them on the right path.

Lexie Murray59:57
Yeah, 100%. Also, can I also just say, it's actually like, I'm not shitting on your dream, but it actually doesn't really make that much difference.

Audience member1:00:05
It's like any other award.

Boa host1:00:06
Yeah.

Audience member1:00:07
It's like, I thought it really doesn't matter.

Lexie Murray1:00:08
Do you know what's so wild? I got it at 25 and I said to myself and my dad, and I was like, oh, once I'm full-time on the 30, I don't need to work again. Honestly, it's just, it's been a downhill spiral. I'm like, it's so chaotic since then in the best ways, in the best ways possible. But there's also like really cool other, you know, things to do. I think, um, one thing that I would like, that they like love to recognize, because they will ask you for things that you've done, make sure you've, you've offered to speak at your school, make sure you've been nominated for like your— so did you like, I don't know, not everyone goes to uni, but for me I had to be nominated. I wanted to be nominated for Alumni of the Year so that I could like put that on my— there's this thing that I've only recently learned about is a professional resume. It's got nothing to do with applying for a job, it's just the things that you do for like community, for like Boa, right? Like why, like what I'm also here for is I can write, I am a mentor on this, like on this, like a huge app and I've spoken to women like founders and blah, blah, blah. So like put, do things like this.

Audience member1:01:15
Yeah, perfect. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate your response.

Lexie Murray1:01:18
That's okay. If anyone needs anything from me, I am in my office today, um, just kind of like figuring out our Q3 businesses that we're onboarding. So have a chat with me after this and we can go through kind of what a plan might be for you, things like that, and we can go from there. And I need to stop talking now.

Boa host1:01:39
Thank you everyone for jumping on this morning. Lexi, I feel like we could have gone out.

Lexie Murray1:01:43
I know.

Boa host1:01:44
And I thought it was going to be at 10 to 10. If you've gone that new session one, you can watch it in the video content library and I'd highly recommend you jump on and view that. But thank you everyone again and we will see you all soon.