Facebook Ads Advice I Took From Spin Class | 145
This podcast episode was a little different for me. Instead of my usual marketing tips and tricks, I wanted to share some similarities between marketing and my weekly spin class. Yep, you read that right. 😜
#1 Let Go of Comparisons
If you haven’t been to a spin class yet, let me set the scene. You enter a dark room with crazy, loud music. There are some LED lights, and it’s giving total club vibes (at 7am!). Because it’s dark, you can barely see the people next to you. I love this aspect because I’m not worried about what Suzy Q next to me looks like - I’m just focused on myself.
When it comes to Facebook Ads, I give my clients the same advice: don’t worry about what other people are doing. It doesn’t matter how many ads your competitor is running or what they looks like. Just focus on you. Besides, you might be seeing people’s ads, but you don’t see what the back end looks like. It’s easy to think they have it all figured out - but honestly that’s the imposter syndrome speaking.
#2 Make Important Things a Priority
We all know working out is good for us (even if it hard to get up and actually do it). It keeps you healthy and strong, and releases stress. Which is why I make my spin classes a priority in my week. The 7am class is my fave because I can start my day on the right foot and make time for my health - as opposed to waiting until the evening when I’m drained and can find tons of excuses not to go.
Marketing and Facebook Ads are the same way. You know you should be building your audience and increasing your brand awareness. You know you need to grow your email list. But are you doing that? I can’t say I always do those things. But if I want to do them, I have to make it a priority. I can’t hope I’ll have the time to create content one day - I need to put it on my schedule and make the time. It doesn’t need to be Facebook ads, but if it isn’t then exactly what is your plan?
#3 Look at the Bigger Picture
If you didn’t know, I love running and try to get a couple quick runs in each wee. That means my spin class isn’t my only form of exercise. AND exercising is just one piece of my overal healthy lifestyle. I also try to eat a whole food plant based diet and have weekly appointments with my therapist to keep my mental health on track. This means spinning isn’t the only piece of my health picture. But it is an important part of it.
This is also great advice for your Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads aren’t the only way to market your business, but it can be a piece of your marketing strategy. However, you also need to stay consistent with your email marketing, long-form content strategy, social media, and so on because they feed into each other and support each other.
#4 Try New Things
When I first tried spinning, I was nervous. There was a lot of choreo, and I felt so lost the first few times just trying to find the beat. I could have given up and decided spinning wasn’t for me, but instead I just reminded myself that I would get better with time. I let go of the pressure for perfection.
The same goes for Facebook Ads. When you first learn how to run ads, it might feel really hard. And that’s okay. I would actually even say that’s pretty normal. But each time you run a new ad, you’ll learn from it and get better. Your ads will improve. If you give up at the beginning, you’ll never see what is really possible for your ads.
This was an untraditional episode for me, but I hope you enjoyed these pieces of Facebook Ad advice from my spin class. If you want help putting together your Facebook Ads, you can explore our Facebook Ads services.
Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @heyitsjenzaia and tune in next Saturday for more business tips and strategies!
xo, Jenzaia
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Episode Transcript:
Hello dear listeners, I am so excited for this episode! It's not going to be one of my typical episodes because we're going to spend a lot of it talking about spin class. Back in January, a friend of mine from university started posting about how she was going to spin classes and absolutely loved them!
So I was thinking, you know what, it's cold, it's snowy, it's not great running weather. I'm a runner. I've run a couple half marathons; I think three now. But I don't want to run in the winter in Ontario. So when my friend started posting about spin classes that she was going to, I was like, oh yes, let me see if there's any here in my area. And there was.
The first day, I remember going, and it's a 7am spin class that I typically go to. That means I'm leaving my house at about 6:35 so that I can get there, get my shoes on, get on my bike, all of that stuff. I remember the first day that I was driving there, I left excessively early. I think I left it like quarter after six. I got there and I sat in my car for like 10 minutes because it was still way too early. But I remember just not really being sure what was going to happen and what it was going to be like. And they take you into this dark room with loud music playing and the instructor helps you set up your bike the first time and everything. It's such a nerve wracking experience walking into something like that.
So now I'm much more accustomed. I know which instructors I need to get earplugs for (because they play their music too loud for my old ears), and which ones I can handle their music.
So let's start there. Because what I want to do is talk about why spin class just makes my life better. And then relating it to Facebook ads.
So are we ready for this?! Let's dive in!
Let's start with that loud music and dark room piece of it. Also a side note, what I've noticed if you do spin classes, I've noticed when I put the earplugs in, it dulls the music, but it doesn't dull the instructor's voice. So it's a weird situation where without the earplugs, the music's so loud, I have a hard time hearing them.
But then with the music dulled by the earplugs, I can hear the instructor better. So if that's something that you ever struggled with in a class, then maybe try earplugs and maybe you'll have the same situation. And if you know why that's the case, my husband and I have no idea so please reach out and I would love to have a conversation about it!
Anyway, one of the things that is so nice about that environment is that you are able to better focus on yourself. And it can be so easy for us to compare ourselves to others who are in the room. But when the lights are off the focus really is on you and not the rest of the world. And I love that because so often we get stuck in the comparison game and imposter syndrome, especially that first ride. You're like, I'll never be able to do this. And like with the choreo and just like pedaling and getting up and getting down and unclipping. It took me so long, probably like six or eight weeks of going one or two times a week before I figured out consistently how to be able to unclip my shoes from the bike. But that dark, loud atmosphere with the focus on myself is a really great way to start my day because it lets me work through any thoughts that I have. I'm also so focused on the exercise and the spinning and the choreo that my thoughts also can't run super wild.
Where this relates to Facebook ads, for me at least, is that you can't actually see how someone else's Facebook ads are running. So yeah, sure, you can see that Susie Q is running all of these ads, but you have no idea how their ads are doing and so that makes it a lot easier to tune them out because on the back end of an ad it can look great and you can see somebody's ad so many times or you can see somebody constantly running different campaigns. Then we can get that imposter syndrome or that compare and despair feeling because we're getting out of our own head.
Spin class with that dark room, loud music, and focus on yourself is really what you need to do with the marketing piece because everybody's business is different and everyone's audience is different and how their marketing campaign is going versus yours doesn't really matter. Staying focused and staying in your lane and on top of your game is so important.
So anytime I find myself comparing to somebody else's ads, I just have to remind myself that I have no idea how that ad is doing. I have no idea how that situation is going. And what I need to focus on is me and my clients.
So, that's number one!
Number two is the 7am class specifically gets me out of bed and starts my day off on the right foot, which is really, really important. But also, I know it's the right thing to do. I know exercising is the right thing for me to do because it's good for my body to stay healthy and strong. It's also really good for my positivity and keeping my endorphins running and it just feels really good to start your day off that way. And then I don't have to be thinking about it later on in the day. I don't have to hope I have enough energy after my kids have gone to bed. I just know it's already done.
I've already worked out. I had that me time and I've already done the right thing for my body and for my energy levels. So how this one compares to marketing is that I think we know what we were supposed to do. Everybody knows that they're supposed to exercise and we all know that we're supposed to eat healthy and we all know that we're supposed to get probably more sleep than we're getting.
But it's so easy to not exercise because we're busy. It can be so easy to not eat healthy because the kids were up all night or I didn't make it to the grocery store or whatever the reasoning might be. Marketing is the same thing. We know what we need to be doing it. We know we should be building our audience, increasing our brand awareness and visibility. We know that we need to be growing our email list. We know we should be writing blogs. We know we should be posting consistently on social media. But are we necessarily doing that? And honestly, for my business, I can't say yes to all those questions.
I consistently email my list. I consistently put out this podcast. I do not consistently grow my own email list. I do not consistently post on social media. I know the things that I should be doing, but we're not always doing that. And so where the like 7am class comes in… putting that first, my exercise, mental health, and stress levels are better. I'm not as stressed. I feel better. I feel happier. Things are just easier. Putting that first because I know I should do it and I know that if I do it early in the day, I'm much more likely to get it done than if I leave it until nighttime.
It's the same with our marketing, which is why I record my podcast now in chunks. I bulk record my podcast because I know that if I get it done all at once, then it's done and I don't have to think about it again. And I know that it's going to help me to be more consistent.
Parallel number three. It's just one part of a bigger picture of health, and I kind of touched on this before. Staying healthy is not just my spin class. I also like to run, I love going on long walks with my kids, in a forest if possible. Spin class is not the only exercise in my routine. I run, I rock climb, I love going for walks in the forest, we have some of those workout videos so sometimes I'll turn one of those on with my kids and it's so cute when they exercise with me.
But Facebook ads or your lead generation piece is just one part of the bigger picture for your marketing. And I listed off a whole bunch of them a minute ago, but social media, growing your audience and your reach, staying connected, growing your email list. Another part of it is your long form content, like a blog, podcast, or video content. And so Facebook ads are just one piece of the puzzle. Just knowing that it's not the only thing and it works in an ecosystem. Like it's a piece of that bigger puzzle, that bigger ecosystem that needs to work with all of the other moving parts in your business.
The last one, number four. It's pushing me to do and try something new. So the 12 o'clock class, one of the reasons why I almost immediately fell in love with her class is because she really likes choreo combos. And when I say choreo, it's the choreography. So if you've never been in a spin class before, you're on a stationary bike and they'll make you do things like a pushup on the handlebars or bend down. So there's like pumps and drops and stuff.
Sometimes it's like go left and go right, and then they'll do four corners where you push your body towards the four corners of the bike as you're pedaling. So that's the choreo piece. And so this instructor that does the Wednesday 12 o'clock class, she really likes choreo combos where she's building on different choreo pieces. So it'll be like two drops, two pumps. And then two drops, two pumps, a clap. Two drops, two pumps, a clap, and like a lean. So that's been really cool because it's building on what previously was in place.
Each time I've been, we've repeated some of the same songs, which isn't normal. There was a Monday morning 7 a.m. class that I went to consistently for probably six to eight weeks without missing a single one, and I don't think he played the same song even once.
But part of the whole concept of this 12 o'clock class is that some of these songs repeat and build on the combos each week. And I really like it because it pushes you from past rides and pushes you as a rider. And because you're building, you can always stop at like level two or you can always go back to level two or whatever it is. And so that's something else I've really enjoyed about spin class is that there's always ways to build on previous progress and to learn new choreo or new pieces.
When I first started, the instructor said something along the lines of like, don't worry about the choreo for your first ride. And I was so thankful that they said that because I was getting really, really lost. Now I've been riding for eight or nine months and the choreo actually helps me to keep in sync with the songs and to pedal to the beat. Which is really cool. But that first class, the choreo was just like messing me up and I had no comprehension at all of what I was supposed to be doing and how I was supposed to stay in sync.
But the second time that I came back, my goal was every time that they went up, then I would stand up. Because sometimes you're sitting on the bike and sometimes you're standing. And so every time that the class stood up, I would stand up. And then the next time I went back, my goal was to try every single choreo and I just kept building on it.
How that relates to Facebook ads specifically is people are always so afraid of the ad platform and breaking something when they go in. But the one piece of advice I give people is try something new each time. So when you run an ad campaign, you're probably going to set it up and follow pretty closely to the step by step directions of the person who's teaching you, especially if it's like a blog or YouTube. But each time that you set up another ad, you can try something different or look at it in a different way and just learn something new each time.
So you're pushing yourself to grow. And I remember the first couple of ads that I set up. If I were to go look back at them now, I probably wouldn't even recognize the way that I had set them up, because I've grown so much from then, and I've learned so many different things. Also, the platform has changed so drastically that I probably couldn't even set them up the same way if I tried.
But just constantly learning and growing, because before you know it, you might be like me in spin class where I went from the choreo was just making it impossible for me to follow along to now the choreo is typically what keeps me on beat and keeps me in sync and really keeps me up with the class.
So that's my fun episode comparing Facebook ads marketing with my spin class adventure. I hope you enjoyed it. I will be back next week with the final installment of the Black Friday series. It's part three. You can go back and listen to part one and part two. They're already on the podcast. And then of course, Black Friday is going to be here before we know it!
I'll be back next week in your ear. Thank you so much for listening and happy Saturday!