An Accidental Journey to Teacherpreneurship with Brittany Verlenich | 21

This week’s inspiring teacherpreneur journey is with Brittany Verlenich creator of the Audience and Authority Facebook group. I feel like I’ve known of her for so long and I’m glad we finally got to sit down and chat about her business, so let’s dive in!

Brittany is a cat lover, travel fanatic and group growth strategist - on top of being a teacher. She loves helping educators build thriving communities around their brands with Facebook groups, so they can serve more clients and customers.

We chat all about her accidental journey to becoming an entrepreneur and how she started her business as a way to form connections with other teachers who love to travel. Brittany also gives a TON of amazing tips and strategies for starting and building your Facebook group in a way that attracts the right people, positions you as the authority and allows you to create irresistible offers.

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Thanks for listening to this week’s Inspiring Story! If you would like to share your story on the podcast head to www.marketscalegrow.com/journey to apply today. We would love for you to join us and can’t wait to hear able your journey as a teacher business owner.

Episode Transcript:

Intro: Hey there I'm Jenzaia and this is Market, Scale, Grow. A podcast created for ambitious teacherpreneurs looking to have a bigger impact on the world, achieve freedom, flexibility, and ultimately make more money with weekly strategy sessions and inspiring stories from fellow teachers just like you, my goal here is to help you create a customized marketing strategy so you can grow your teacher business beyond your wildest dreams. Okay, so before we jump into the episode, I am super excited to share a brand new freebie with you. It's my targeting ideas for Facebook ads. If you've dabbled in Facebook ads or you've done them and you've tried them, and you're just looking for some fresh inspiration for your audiences, this freebie is for you. I share my top Facebook ad targeting groups for you so that you can have inspiration and find those people that are perfect for what you have to offer. From warm audiences to cool lookalike audiences, to cold interest-based audiences. I cover all three in this freebie. Head to marketscalegrow.com/audiences to grab your copy today.

Jenzaia: Hello, and welcome to Market, Scale, Grow. Thank you so much for joining me. I am really excited to introduce this week's guest. She and I have floated around the same group of teacherpreneurs for a while, but we've never really had a chance to chat. So I was really excited going into this interview and she did not disappoint. My guest today is Brittany Verlenich, who is a cat lover, a travel fanatic, and a group growth strategist, on top of being a teacher. She loves helping educators build thriving communities around their brands with Facebook groups so they can serve more clients and customers. Let me tell you, Brittany gave some amazing advice, tips, and strategies around growing your business using Facebook groups. It totally changed my perspective. So I hope it'll do the same for you. I could probably chat for ages, but instead, let's just jump into the interview.

Jenzaia: Hi, Brittany. Welcome to Market, Scale, Grow. I'm so excited to have you.

Brittany: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Jenzaia: Do you want to start by telling everyone where you're from and if you're still teaching?

Brittany: Sure thing. Yeah. So I'm originally from Southern California, but right now I actually live and teach on a reservation in Northern Arizona and this is I guess, wow, going into fifth year teaching.

Jenzaia: Awesome. What do you teach?

Brittany: So I taught fourth and fifth grade for the last four years, but now I'm going to be teaching K-5 STEM. So kind of a new adventure. Yeah. I know. The eyebrows. You couldn't see her eyebrows raise, but yeah, that's exactly how I feel, but I'm excited. I love trying new things.

Jenzaia: That's a huge switch and it would be so exciting to take on this new adventure. Yeah.

Brittany: And it wasn't one that I was planning. I was actually looking at maybe leaving the classroom this year, but the housing market, I know you're in Canada, in the US is crazy right now. I don't know if it's crazy there. So literally in the course of, when I was like, okay, I'm going to put in my resignation and we're going to move to X place, between then and May. So over a course of a month and a half, houses went up like 150% in value. We were like, whoa, okay. I guess it's not meant to be right now. So I'm a big believer in that. If something's not meant to be then it just won't happen that way. So I'm like, okay, I guess it's not meant to be yet. So I got offered this other position at my school and I'm honestly super excited about it. So it just kind of worked out.

Jenzaia: How did your journey into becoming a teacherpreneurs start? And if you want to talk a little bit more about what you do.

Brittany: Yeah, sure. So I guess, I don't know if you would call me an accidental entrepreneur, because it's funny when you think about it, you can kind of see, even from when I was a kid, I'm a big believer that when you watch children and how they play, you get a lot of insight into what they're actually going to be good at and what they're going to enjoy doing. When I was a kid, I would record my own little videos with an actual camcorder. I'm dating myself now. That was before YouTube was a thing. That blows my students' minds when I tell them that I was alive before Google and YouTube, they just can't even understand that. So I would do that. I would record little podcasts, which wasn't a thing, but I would record them on a tape recorder. I would pretend when I was playing, I was checking my friends into the Brook Paradise Plaza Estate, which was my playhouse in the back. I would take them on tours around my yard. This is how I played. I didn't realize this whole time that I was like, oh, I actually kind of entrepreneurial. I would sell stickers. I'd have hot cocoa stands. I did all this stuff that I didn't realize was entrepreneurial. So fast forward to a couple of years ago, probably about almost three and a half years now. I was in a really rough spot because I had just completed my first year teaching. I was living and working on a reservation. I still am, but the first year was really hard because, you know, new place, new culture, new job. First-year teaching is hard anywhere, but I think that being here made it even harder, because there are just added cultural challenges that you wouldn't have maybe in other places. So I was feeling very isolated, and I also realized even the things that helped me feel less isolated sound very insensitive here. I was like, oh, I can't wait to go to Italy. I understand now how tone-deaf that sounds, to families who were like, well, you know, we live on the reservation and we don't have electricity all the time. It's like, oh gosh, I can't, okay, check. Nice privilege check there. Can't talk about that all the time here. But I knew that there had to be other teachers out there who like to travel. So that was originally when I got started with is I just made a Facebook group. I made a Facebook group. I didn't really expect to make money from it. It wasn't really my plan. I just wanted to create a community. And so I did, I found thousands of other teachers who love to travel as much as I did. And it kind of felt like this safe little corner of the internet, where we could openly talk about the trips that we're going to take and be excited about that, and also kind of connect over the fact that not everybody really valued travel as much as we did and that's fine. I created this community around this shared passion and that became like its own little business. It's honestly not even the main thing I do, but I do that for fun and take teachers on trips and help them become travel agents and all that. But the funny thing is, the actual Facebook group was what I discovered I really loved and I still love that group. I was like, there's something special about building a community with thousands of people who share your interests, who share your passion, and being able to actually connect with them individually. We've done meetups. We still do meetups. We're going on a yacht trip to Croatia next year, which I'd never been able to afford on my own, but as a group will be super exciting. So I was like, hmm, I wonder if I could just get a job managing Facebook groups, just to supplement my income. I kind of looked into it. Didn't look into it too seriously until about a year ago, maybe a little less than a year ago now. I had other travel folks, travel bloggers, travel agents asking me, "Hey, what do you do with your group? How did you grow it so quickly?" and I was like, "well, um, I don't really know." I didn't really have a framework or a way to quantify it. I was like, "I just got to know people." I am someone you'd call hyper organic. I actually message every person that comes into the group. There is a way to cold message people, by the way, you don't just want to spam them and say, here's my offer, but to actually connect with them and just say, "Hey, I noticed that your photo is from London. That's so cool. I went to London last summer. I loved it." So I just connect with people that way. Once I realized that this is something that actually people struggle with when they have businesses and they struggled to connect with the people who would be their customers and clients, I was like, oh, okay. I'll just start helping people do this and I'll teach people what has worked for me. So I've actually turned that into offerings. I would say, this is actually probably one of the newest offerings that I do have because it is different, right? Social media strategy, social media management. But you don't realize sometimes that you're good at something until someone asks for it or asks how you did it. Then you have to pause and say, oh, okay. Yeah, I guess this is a thing. This is something I should nurture. So that's how that happened.

Jenzaia: Totally seems like an accident, especially doing something that you're interested in, which side note I'm a huge traveler, so we should definitely talk about that later. But just getting into something that's a passion and then seeing where it can go and following, we talked about this a little bit before we started recording, but sitting in the business even before it was a business and just organically seeing where it's going to take you and where you can potentially make money and serve people from where you already are and what you're really enjoying. So that's so cool that that's really how it started for you.

Brittany: Yeah. Thank You. I think it is really fun because that wasn't the original intent even with that. I was like, oh, I can lead some trips and I don't know, sell some travel maybe, but that actually, it was a completely different niche, I guess you could say. So I'm happy to help people in that way.

Jenzaia: So do you manage Facebook communities for others? Is that something you got into?

Brittany: Yeah, So I've done a couple. I also manage a page for my sister. She has a nonprofit and she just hates social media. So I've done that. But it's honestly, that's not the most, the biggest bulk of what I do. I do offer that to people, but usually, it's teaching them how to do it just because, and this is something I usually tell people, if you hire a strategist, if you're hiring someone to think all that out for you, that's usually a bigger investment. So a lot of times teacherpreneurs who are just getting started with a Teachers Pay Teachers store or a course, that's a pretty big investment for them. You know, if we're talking multiple months of managing, creating content, building the community, that could be up into four figures. So, usually, I've been doing courses and programs to teach them how to do it. So that's kind of what I'm focusing on now, but I have had people ask and so I've done some launch help with Facebook groups for that. So it just depends on people's budget and kind of what they're wanting. If they want to learn the skills or if they want someone to take care of it for them.

Jenzaia: This is something that comes up with Facebook ads, too. I think it's really important to in most cases, start by learning how to do it yourself and to figure out the back end and what you want and what it looks like for you, because yes, there are with Facebook ads, data points that we're looking for. But, if you just hand it off to me and you don't understand what you're looking at, then who knows, right? You don't know if this is meeting your needs. It sounds like with the Facebook groups, the same thing. But there's a huge strategy behind it. Getting to know that strategy for yourself first is a great step for those newer entrepreneurs. Then once you are ready to hand it off, you're not just blindly handing off, like here, figure it out. You can say, this is my strategy. This is what I do. This is how I nurture people. Yeah.

Brittany: I think there are a lot of misconceptions. I'm sure you probably run into this with ads as well. Like, oh, okay. Well, my group's not successful unless I have tens of thousands of people in there and it's not going to really help me make any money unless I have this many people like my posts. So there's a lot of misconceptions around connection versus engagement. What is engagement actually look like? What is right to do? Should I schedule, I mean, there are so many questions that come up and I just think, I agree with you. I think if you're going to pay someone to do it and I mean, you can, I mean, some people are just like, I don't have the time and that's totally your choice. But I'm a big proponent of understanding the strategy first. Even if you don't 100% understand it, it's just going to help you even hire better because then you'll know exactly what you need. Some people I talk to, they're just like, I just really need someone to help me create content. If that's the case, usually I'll just have, I kind of have an agency set up where I have some of my VA's kind of be their VA because they know how to do it. So I'll say, if you just need that content creation, then I can have one of my VA's help with that. So it just depends on what they need and where they're at, which I know you're all about that too, the business stage. So I'll save that part for that time.

Jenzaia: Well, no let's get into where you are your business. Would you say that you're just starting or are you starting to grow and scale? Like where are you at?

Brittany: I would say between starter and growth for this part because it is one of the newer offerings I've had. But the weird thing is it's gone a little quicker than other things I've done before because I knew the initial parts if that makes sense. Like, I know how to launch a Teachers Pay Teachers store. I know how to sell digital products. So that part has been pretty easy. I think, like I said, the only part that's a little trickier for me, full transparency is the service offering because what people need is so different and there's a little bit of education piece in there too, right? Because people will say, I want to grow my group to 10,000 and I'll say, okay, why? And they're like, well, I want to sell more. And I'm like, okay, well, those are different goals and there's nothing wrong with having tens of thousands of people in a group unless you have more engagement than it actually can hurt you. So it kind of depends on what people want. I think that's probably where I could improve is being really clear on my offerings. Like, okay, if you want more engagement, here's your offer. If you just want to grow your group, here's your offer. So I would say, I can be clearer on my offers too. Ironically, when I'm helping someone nail down their offers, I'm really good at getting to the meat. I'm like, oh, this is what you need to do. But for some reason with mine, I don't know if it's like that with everyone. For some reason with mine, it's like, if it's right in front of my face, I guess it's too close. So that's why I have a coach to tell me, "oh, like, it seems like you're leaning towards this. Is that right?" Then I get a lot of clarity that way.

Jenzaia: The rose-colored glasses.

Brittany: Yeah. Right. So I would say probably not quite at the beginning, but between starter and growth is where I'm at.

Jenzaia: What would you say are your major milestones, that if you look back you're like, this was a big moment. Whether a big positive moment or a big challenging moment, what has brought you here?

Brittany: I think just having enough people ask me about it, just making the decision to start, to be honest. I think a lot of people don't start because they agonize over the question, the decision. I'm actually the opposite. I'm like fire, ready, aim. I just go and do things. But with this, I actually do think I put a little more thought into it because I'm like, if I'm just leading someone on a trip, so much of that is based on my personality, right? Like, do you like me? Do you want to go to this place? Okay, let's go. So the travel stuff is kind of different in the way I run things there. But with this, it's like, no, this person is investing in their business and this is money stakes. So I think, I don't want to say I take it more seriously than travel, but I do have to, I guess, be more serious about it. So we were just talking before the podcast and we were talking about strategic minds and it's funny because, with groups, I can think strategy because it's all about relationships and that's literally what it is. That sounds like such a cheap thing to say like, well, that's easy, but that's really what it is. So many people miss that piece in their social media marketing strategy. They don't actually build relationships and connections with people. Even my brand name is a misnomer it's Audience and Authority, but it's not just an audience, right. If you just have an audience then you're a performer. If you want to have a connection with people, then you want to have a community around your brand. So I think that's what makes me stick out, with something I've been good at. I don't know if I went off on a tangent, but that's kind of the big thing. If you do have a group where you want to have a group, focus on the community and not just the fact that they're your audience. I think some weird kind of power things can happen, ego things, if you start thinking of them as your audience. So remember, they're a community, you're part of it, and they're part of it. So get them involved and that will also increase your engagement. So it's kind of like, if you focus on the people first, the rest really will follow.

Jenzaia: Was there a moment in your journey that you kind of had that realization or was it just something that you've always known and you don't know where it came from?

Brittany: I guess a little bit of both because I think my personality, I naturally do connect with people. I have a network marketing stream. I know a lot of people don't like that, but for me I'm like, oh, I love networking. That's natural for me. I just like connecting with people. But I do think in a way it's also something to realize, because a lot of training I've done for entrepreneurs, it's been like, grow your audience, grow your following. That's always been a little bit slimy to me. So I struggled with it at first because I was against it. My Instagram is like, whatever, I have like 400 followers. For me, I know the people who are following me, it's all good, but I didn't understand. I guess it wasn't connecting with me. I did think, what am I doing wrong? So when I started a Facebook group, I don't know, it just seemed more, I guess, natural because of the way that the platform is set up. It's really based on conversations and getting to know people and involving them. That I guess is what I'm naturally good at. So it's a really good question. The realization, I guess, came later, but the skills were intuitive if that makes sense. But they can be taught. I don't want someone to think, oh, I'm not an extrovert. I'm not XYZ. I can't do it. That's totally not true because you can connect with them however you want. You don't have to go live if you don't want to, you don't have to go into people's messenger if you don't want to. You can make it work for you.

Jenzaia: So I have a question that I already know what your answer is, but I want to talk about it. There's lots of chatter out there that Facebook groups are dead. Unless you already have a group that has tens of thousands of people, that it's not worth your time or energy to do it. How do you feel about that statement?

Brittany: It's just not true. It also depends. I think that's a hard thing too, is again, measuring success and that's something I do talk with people too in the courses and things I do. It really depends on what your goals are. The group that I have is very meta and in there, I don't have, I don't think that many people. I think I maybe have a hundred people in there, but that's fine to me. I want to know the people who are in that group and I want to be able to serve them. So if I only ever have a hundred clients, honestly, you don't even need a hundred clients. I mean, no one has time for a hundred clients. If you realistically, if you're a service provider, you could have like 4, 3, 4 clients a month and you would be set as a full-time income. You don't need a hundred clients. So really it's all about having the right people, but even more than that, do those people connect with you? Because if you could go search, and I'm not the only Facebook groups person, you could go find there's someone else on there who you might connect with better. So I guess having the ego out of it really helps, but groups are definitely not dead. In fact, Facebook groups are going to be taking off even more. In these past two years, we went from maybe like 500,000 or 700,000 people, using them, to now like 2 million? I don't have my stats in front of me, but it's really crazy. Especially in this last year, because we were all locked down, people were just craving community so bad, the groups are where it's at. The way that Facebook has set up the algorithm, groups are going to be prioritized even more now. You might even notice in your stream when you're scrolling, you're going to see a lot of groups posts because they're really encouraging that they want people to stay on the platform. I mean, let's be real. Facebook wants people to stay on the platform because of advertising, right? So they're going to prioritize those really engaged group posts, and I see that as an opportunity. It's something you should consider because you get to actually connect with people. It's not like, I mean, Instagram, you can DM them, but it's really more of a broadcast, right? You're putting out a post people agree or disagree, whether or not they're not, they want to engage with it. But with a group is a little more opportunity for them to comment, and also it's private. That's a huge one. It's only going to be seen by the other people in that trusted, safe community. I think that's another thing that's really big right now, is people want safety and they want to be with like-minded people. So yeah, I think groups are going to be even bigger, and so don't let that be an excuse to not start it if that's the only thing that's holding you back.

Jenzaia: It's really interesting because, and I kind of knew it, but you answering the question really brought it to the forefront of my mind. The only reason I really go on Facebook now is to see what's in my groups and these big companies, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all of them, they lean into what's working because they have huge, huge, huge teams of people who, that's their job. What is working? How do we lean into it? How do we keep people on our platform? So groups really are the only reason, I used to post on there or share with my friends and look at their profiles. I don't even remember the last time that that was my goal for going on Facebook. Maybe I did it while I was there. But my goal now is what's happening in this group or what's happening in this group? I go, and I specifically look, and usually when I'm scrolling, I do, I get sucked into other group posts because that's what's showing up on my newsfeed. So, it was a really interesting point because that's how they make money is by keeping people on their platforms.

Brittany: Definitely. I think that with groups too, it's human nature, right? We go to where we know we're going to get the information or connection. So there are certain groups I go to for travel deals. I'm also part of travel agent groups. So sometimes I just go and look and see, it's partially just curiosity too like, Ooh, what's going on in here today? I think that it just makes sense to work with human nature, right? Like if you know people are curious, they crave connection. I'm a big fan of a Taylor Swift principle, I don't know if you've heard that before, but being willing to do the things that other people aren't doing. And I'm not gonna say that this, cause one hard thing for me that I was just talking to her about is, again, full transparency, I think it's good for people to learn from my thought process too... I am eventually going to get to a point, it's already happening because I have more client requests and I'm like, okay, I need to figure out how this is going to work, where I'm actually going to have a hard time scaling what I'm doing now because I am hyper organic and I am so one-to-one and I do build relationships, genuine relationships with folks, which is awesome. But it's going to be harder for me to scale because it's not like I'm doing a webinar and people are coming onto it and it's automated and I can just connect with people who opt in or whatever. Right? So that's something to consider too. I will have to consider at some point, how am I going to do that? But for now, for the stage that I'm in and if this is where you're at too, if you're definitely at the very beginning, you have an awesome opportunity. If you have a group with five people and those five people love you and they love what you're about and your offer, then you have five super fans and they can literally help you build the group. Some people really love that. They love being involved. They love having their opinion asked. They love actually being a part of a community. I've seen that with my travel group, that other teachers welcome them in. I don't even have to be in there absolutely ready to meet anymore because other teachers are like, "this is my group. We're traveling teachers." Do you know what I mean? So, it's just so exciting to me and I hope you all have a group. I don't want to tell you what to do, but I hope you all get one if you don't have one already.

Jenzaia: So I don't have one, full transparency on my end.

Brittany: Ooh, really?

Jenzaia: Okay. That's a lie. I have a group, and I have a couple of people that are waiting to be approved, but I'm not sure I'm ready for the commitment of a group. So I keep telling myself, oh, when there are this many people, like when there are five people, when there are 10 people, when whatever. I actually don't know how many people are waiting for approval right now because I knew that I wasn't ready and I was just giving myself an excuse. So I stopped looking. Anyway, I don't think I'm ready for this commitment, but again, you said something that really clicked. If there are only five people or 10 people, it's so easy to make those relationships and to have those conversations and to really get invested in those people and to create super fans that are gonna help long term. So maybe, not promising anything, but maybe, I will not be afraid after this conversation.

Brittany: That's another thing to consider, too and that's a real thing. I don't believe in sugarcoating or giving false expectations. It was a lot of work for me at the beginning with the teacher group, because organic takes time. I'm not saying that you, that everybody has to do it the way I did it. I do teach my process. I'm like, this is what I did. You can take or leave whatever works for you. But it does take time at the beginning. I didn't even know at that, I mean, also mine was a little different, I didn't know what my offers were. I was like, I just need a community. Ironically. I think that's actually why it worked because I wasn't actually out to make money. I was like, I need this community. I know other people need this community, and so I'm going to just create it. Then people came and they're like, oh, you guys should join this group. It was an easy sell to have people invite other people because the content was good and they were able to connect with not just me. It's not even really about me anymore. It's this own little entity. So that's something else too. You do want to think about how much time you have and how much time you're willing to commit to it. And also if you have any other people who can kind of go in with you on it, could they be moderators? Could you have other admins in there? If you have, and this is, I've never personally done this, but I know someone who's done this and done it really successfully. I know two other teacher travel blogger folks who they, actually three, there's three of them. So they actually did a group together because they all knew individually, they couldn't commit the time. But they take turns. So like one knows, okay, Monday is for the Money Saving Monday because she does budget travel stuff. So she does one on Monday. And then another one does Teacher Tips. So they share about a teacher thing on Tuesday. So that's been really cool, and it also drives up the engagement for the group. So if you're at a point listening and you're like, I would love to do that, but I just really don't think I have the time, that is a consideration for sure. But you also don't have to do it alone. If there are some other people that are kind of in your niche that aren't quite doing the same thing as you. I know mostly teachers. So maybe your a Teachers Pay Teachers seller and you do math centers. Then you know another teacher seller who they don't do math centers, they do whole group stuff, right? So maybe you guys could get together., and then also you kind of grow both of your audiences, right? Because now you're working together. So just some ideas to consider.

Jenzaia: I'm also part of a couple of different groups that have brand ambassadors, I think they call them. So each week one of the group members is kind of responsible for that week's posts. Because the images are so similar, I think that they're provided by the group owner, but it's the brand ambassador's responsibility to post it and write the caption, and really engage with people for the whole week. So I think that that's a really good way of doing all of these things, taking some of the pressure off of yourself, getting engagement, and then creating these super loyal fans because they feel like, oh, I helped build this. I've been so a part of it.

Brittany: Totally. That's a really good idea. I'm going to write that one down.

Jenzaia: Yeah, brand ambassadors. Not me, not my idea. I'm trying to think, I can't actually pinpoint the group in my mind right now.

Brittany: That's actually one thing I do want to do. It's so funny. I was just telling her, I'm like, you have a really strategic mind. But I guess I do too because I love going into groups and seeing, what are they doing? When I see a group that's really successful and the contents really good, I'm like, what are they doing that others aren't? So, yeah, I'm gonna check that out.

Jenzaia: Awesome. Okay. We've talked a little bit about this, but how are you marketing your business? So specifically, I guess your newest course, let's go with that one. Your big new offering. How are you marketing that piece of your business?

Brittany: Yeah, so I wish I could say I'm more consistent with email marketing. It's something I'm working on. That's my big goal for the year. But email marketing is something I have been using more. I'm also, again, with my Facebook group, I feel like a broken record, but it really is its own little ecosystem because you can really build all facets of the 'like trust know' factor in there, which is really nice. So yeah, in my Facebook group, email marketing, in Messenger- I know not everybody likes to use that, but I do- with regular Facebook posts, personal profile and on my page, and on Instagram sometimes. I don't do a lot of marketing on Instagram because I don't really feel like that's what the platform really prioritizes, but yeah, I do a little bit of that too.

Jenzaia: Do you have any long-form content, like a blog or a podcast?

Brittany: For that offer, I'm honestly still kind of debating what I'm going to do there for that, because with a podcast... I don't know, maybe you guys can come and let me know on Instagram, what you prefer. I thought about doing a podcast specifically for that, but the hard thing is I think it's going to actually be better with video because it's easier to show people. So I might do a YouTube channel to be like, this is how you do this. Also, I think I'm just better on video anyway. So I'll probably do a YouTube channel, maybe even start later this summer. But it's hard to commit right now. So come join my group if you want, let me know what you prefer. That's actually a really good idea to ask. There's an idea to use for Facebook groups, ask your community. So yeah, nothing yet, but coming soon.

Jenzaia: I had this conversation with a few people recently and I think when there is a visual aspect, that the video just trumps on most platforms, always. There's a huge preference on Instagram and Facebook and Pinterest for video. But there are some topics that I've wanted to cover, my strategy sessions, that I just can't figure out how to do it on a podcast because I kind of need to show. I want to be able to show people like, this is what I'm talking about when I say 'click here'. So I've been actually tossing around the idea, I'm not committing to it, but tossing around the idea of doing a 'live' of it. So like a video live and then just pulling the audio and putting it on the podcast so that those topics that I do want to show people something, that I can. Then if they listen to podcasts and then they needed to see what I'm talking about, they could go to the video. But yeah, for something like Facebook groups and that, I could totally see the value of having video.

Brittany: Totally. I do have a little live stream show in the group because I also think it's important if you're going to have a group to have some kind of special content or offer just for them, like the free offer that they get that no one else does. So I do have a little live show from them, and they get to decide the content. So when they say, "I'm really struggling with XYZ," I'm like, alright, cool. I'll do a video about that in two weeks. So I write down what they're struggling with and also helps with offers. But yeah, YouTube channel, I think I'm just going to do it. Thank you for this free strategy session. I'll just do a YouTube channel and I'll let you know when it's up.

Jenzaia: Yes, yes. I love it. That's so exciting. And as I've already admitted, this is something that I would like to start/do. It's something that I feel like I've needed to do for a while. So I will be a subscriber on your YouTube channel, and get all of the tips and tricks of how I can grow my, that side of my business.

Brittany: Yeah. I'll definitely be following you, too. As I said, I have a mental block and I know I don't need them yet, but I know I will. So I'm like, I just want to know I'll be ready. Just go for it.

Jenzaia: One of the big gurus that I follow, she recently said that her opinion is that as soon as you have the budget for ads, you should be running them.

Brittany: Hmm. Interesting.

Jenzaia: Yeah. Which I thought was really interesting because my personal philosophy is that there are foundations. She definitely, definitely talks about foundations. Don't, don't, don't get that wrong, but that there is, and we talked about this, there is the value of doing it organically first and figuring out your strategy and figuring out what works for you and where you want it to go and what you want it to look like before scaling it bigger. But knowing what you offer is huge. Knowing who you serve is huge. But there is definitely value in amplifying that. Once it's working, once your course has been proven by multiple people buying it, bringing in the traffic from ads is huge. I'm excited to see where you go with yours.

Brittany: Thank you. I'm excited, too. I think I just figured it out when you were saying that one of the reasons I'm so freaked out and the reason I talk these things out loud is if someone else is listening and this is where they're at, we're saying, it's so different marketing to people who already know and like you, then to complete strangers. It's a little scarier. When you built a community around a group, if you mess up, they're like, oh, it's okay, Brittany. But you know, you do it on a YouTube channel and someone's seeing you for the first time, they're like, oh, this girl doesn't know what she's talking about. So there is a little bit of fear there, I think. So, yeah. So I'm just going to do it and there'll be an example to other people too.

Jenzaia: Yay! Okay. Rapid fire questions. What is your favourite social media platform?

Brittany: Facebook.

Jenzaia: Duh. Then your favourite tool or software that you use in your business?

Brittany: Oh man. That's a hard one. Probably a tie between Canva and Trello. I use those two every day.

Jenzaia: I love Canva. It completely changed my life when I found it.

Brittany: Right?

Jenzaia: Last question. What advice would you give to someone who's just starting out?

Brittany: So my first instinct is to be like, just do it! But I realize that not everybody is like that. Some people, that really freaks them out, so if you need to do a little research first, do it. But just have warning that it's easy to see what other people are doing and then feel completely overwhelmed or intimidated because you're seeing somebody at their step 42 or 65. So feel free to look and see what other people are doing just to see if what you're thinking about doing is already out there, but don't spend too long doing it. Spend more time just starting it and kind of just from one red light to the other, you know, figure something out. Okay. Next one. Because that's what entrepreneurs do anyway. Right? It's so different from education in the sense that you don't have to go get a certificate in Facebookers to do a Facebook group. You just do it and then you figure out what works and then something doesn't work. Oops. Try it again. People are so much more forgiving than we think they're going to be. People who are in your community or following you. Honestly. It makes you more human if you mess up anyway. So yeah, just go for it.

Jenzaia: I've never heard that analogy about the red lights before and I love it. Just one red light to the next. Sometimes it'll be like when you get green light, green light, green light. Other times you will feel like you're hitting red light after red light, after red light, after red light and you're just constantly stopped in traffic.

Brittany: Yeah. But the funny thing is, I guess the way my mind works is like, red light to red light when you're in it, you're like, oh, this is so annoying. But the funny thing is, sometimes that's the quickest way, right? You could try to go a long way around and you might be smoother, but it actually takes you longer to get there. So sometimes the red light to red light is the quickest way.

Jenzaia: Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes you just end up, you think you're going around and you just end up back in that same spot. You hit construction or you don't know the neighborhood, so the road just comes around. So you do a longer way just to hit the same problem because you really need to work through it.

Brittany: Yeah.

Jenzaia: Awesome. Well, since I need to check you out and I'm sure listeners are going to, where can we find you?

Brittany: Yeah. You can find me on Instagram @brittanyverlenich, my name is obnoxiously long. So I'm going to spell it out. B R I T T A N Y V E R L E N I C H. My gosh. So much. Then my group, if you actually look, Grow Your Group for Teacherpreneurs, you'll find it on Facebook. Or you could do facebook.com/groups/audienceandauthority.

Jenzaia: I'll make sure all of that is linked below. I always point, it may or may not be below. I don't know how this works. We'll make sure it's linked so that people can just click and find you. Thank you so much for being on. I had a great time.

Brittany: This was so fun. I love podcasts because I just love to talk and meet new people. So this is like, I love it. So fun.

Jenzaia: Thank you again.

Brittany: Yes. Thank you.

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