Speaking, Selling, and Systems with Amanda Abella | Ep 181
“Selling is an act of service. The sooner you embody that, the sooner you'll be serving more for a profit.” - Laurie-Ann Murabito
It’s time to unravel the secrets of successful speaking, selling, and implementing systems in your business.
Let’s discover the truth behind big brands as special guest Amanda Abella reveals the disconnect between their public image and behind-the-scenes reality. Forget about the unrealistic advice of leaning back and receiving in your business; Amanda will show you how a feminine business involves developing systems and support to create space for growth and success. Get ready for a dose of truth as Amanda exposes the hidden work ethic of those who promote "leaning back" but are secretly hustling behind the scenes!
Are you ready to take your business to the next level?
Amanda Abella will share her journey of duplication and replication, focusing on building systems and processes to create a scalable and profitable business. Learn the importance of not relying on one person's knowledge, but rather building systems that support your future growth. Get inspired as Amanda shares how she now has the freedom to focus on activities like podcasts and social media, thanks to the systems she has implemented.
Check out what you’ll learn:
How to gain priceless insights into measuring and repeating social media efforts, so you have maximum impact and growth.
Discover how to unleash the power of short-form video content and discover how Amanda reached tens of thousands of people within a week.
Learn how to choose the platforms that align with your business goals to avoid wasting time and resources.
Unlock the secrets of effective speaking as Amanda shares her journey from financial educator to successful speaker.
Get insider tips on hiring video contractors, the challenges they may bring, and an exciting alternative involving AI tools.
Start implementing proven marketing principles and revolutionize your business today!
Links for our Guest:
Website: https://www.amandaabella.com/
Facebook personal: https://www.facebook.com/amandaabella331
Facebook business: https://www.facebook.com/coachamandaabella
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/amandaabella
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandaabella
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandaabella
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Learn more about IN Demand Signature Speech TODAY!
Grab the FREE resource Go from Unknown to Visible.
Grab the FREE resource Take the Stage
Follow me on Instagram: @laurieann.murabito
For more about me and what I do, check out my website.
If you’re looking for support to grow your business faster, be positioned as an authority in your industry, and impact the masses, schedule a call to explore if you’d be a good fit for one of my coaching programs.
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Transcript:
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:00:02]:
Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of Be in Demand. And I have brought on Amanda Abeya, who is all about sales, and I have been on her podcast, and we had this lovely conversation not only about sales, but about Speaking. And she, being a Latino woman, stepped into Speaking because I remember you saying that that was one of your speaking, being a Latino woman. Talk more about that. Just like share that with my audience so that they don't wonder why I picked that.
Amanda Abella [00:00:40]:
So that's actually really interesting point. So currently what my company does is we do a lot of sales and marketing training. Our goal is to help business owners basically get their lives back and build more sustainable business via sales and marketing systems and processes and skills. But prior to that, I spent eight years as a financial educator and financial expert, which is where I what's that saying? Like, you you got your teeth, right? Or something like that in a certain area. You sharpened your teeth or something like that in a particular area. I suck at American Idioms because I have immigrant parents, so I always butcher them, but sunk my teeth into whatever. So that's where I started kind of learning about Speaking. And that's how I got into Speaking initially to begin with. So originally the Speaking for me was, you're getting hired at this expert. Let's go talk to this insurance company to get them to invest money in the 401K because we can't get them to do it. Or I would get hired to be like, a spokesperson for particular products. So I remember one time there was a credit bureau who came out with a new product for monitoring credit, and I got hired as the spokesperson, and I did 25 TV and radio interviews in a four hour period in a small studio in New York.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:02:05]:
Talk about speaking.
Amanda Abella [00:02:07]:
Talk about speaking. Millions of people were watching that. And that was an interesting experience, right? Because I learned that day that TV people, like, they go by a script. Radio people, you can give them a script and they'll do whatever they want. So you just got to learn how to dodge stuff and answer questions without answering questions so compliance doesn't lose their minds, right? I learned that. So that's how I sunk my teeth into it, and that's how I started learning about it. I've always been the type of person, typically, that I just jump into something and just figure it out. Maybe it's because I'm an aries. Who knows? So that's originally how I got into Speaking. And then in the second business, it was different, right, because there's getting paid to speak and then there's using Speaking as publicity for your business. So in the first business, I was getting paid to speak. Like, here's your keynote. You're going to get a few thousand dollars, or here's this campaign, you're going to do this. And then in the second business. It's more of a publicity platform. So what I've done over the course of the last several years is really just nailed down my offer, my messaging, my systems, my team, my automations. And now that that stuff is pretty tight, all I need to do is get publicity.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:03:26]:
Right. And using speaking, whenever you're the speaker in the room in the conference hall, you are positioned as the person who is of authority, who is the immediately.
Amanda Abella [00:03:39]:
You'Re immediately positioned as a person who actually knows what you're talking about.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:03:43]:
Yes.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:03:45]:
Let's go back to when you first started speaking, even though it was like the paid speaking, because I heard you say like, I just jumped into it. Are you a lot like me where like, I'm going to jump in, I'm going to do this, I'm not even going to think about the fears that most people have. What are people going to think? Do they think that I'm ready? Do I think that I'm ready? Like all of that self chatter that happens to people that holds them back and keeps them small.
Amanda Abella [00:04:14]:
Typically, yes, sometimes that gets me into trouble, but more often than not it doesn't.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:04:21]:
Say more.
Amanda Abella [00:04:24]:
So yes, typically I've always been the type of person who just jumps in, sinks their teeth that's what I was looking for. Sinks their teeth into something and just figures it out. I've always had that type of personality. It's courage is what it is. I don't have a lot of awareness of a lot of the fears other people have.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:04:43]:
I don't know why.
Amanda Abella [00:04:44]:
For whatever reason, it doesn't cross my mind. I think I just don't give myself the time and space to think about it, if I'm being honest.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:04:51]:
Very nice. I was going to say there have been times in my life where I have been like that too. I just like, let me just go do this, hurry up and do this, jump into and do this. And just like you said, I'll just figure it out. Basically as I'm jumping.
Amanda Abella [00:05:11]:
Yeah, it's a little bit different now because I'm in a stage in business where there's more like duplication and replication and it's more of like a systems process heavy thing right now. So when you get into systems and thank God I have help for that or I'd lose my mind, but when it comes to systems and process, I can't do that as much as I want to because there's other people involved and it can't just everything be living in Amanda's head. But now part of the reason why I built all those systems is because now I'm in a stage where I can go back and just jump into things like podcasts and social media has been crazy for us lately and just jump into those things again like I used to, just now with systems backing me up. But that's because of the stage of business I'm in. And I think that's really important for people to understand. Like, if you haven't even cracked six figures yet, don't even worry about what I just said. Just fucking do it. I didn't ask if I could curse, but just do it. Right? Just do it. Just do it and figure it out. And then once you start getting a quarter of a million, now we're having a different conversation because now it's about sustainability and duplicating. But if you're not even there yet, don't even worry about the perfectionism. And I have to be able to duplicate this. You just got to get it done.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:06:35]:
Yes.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:06:36]:
And you just got to get yourself out there. And I also think that along the way, especially for the people who are just starting by just getting out on social media, doing some lives, doing some reels, doing some stories, you start to develop your voice, like, what's your uniqueness? Because you don't want to be vanilla. You don't want to sound like everybody. And you and I were talking about how your reels are getting shared because it's a different point of view that people are hearing.
Amanda Abella [00:07:08]:
Yeah. So my partner and I, we were experimenting with some realtors here in Miami visiting me right now, and we were experimenting with some video content because now that all the behind the scenes stuff is done, it's like I said, priority number one is marketing and sales just get as visible as possible. And one of the things that I posted is relevant to this conversation. The people who make the most amount of money just market the most.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:07:35]:
That's it.
Amanda Abella [00:07:35]:
So they don't get in their heads. So the post that got a lot of attention, I think particularly on Facebook, is the one that I said I've had access to a lot of successful people and a lot of wealthy people, and they're not that intelligent at the end of the day.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:07:52]:
And what kind of reactions did you get to that?
Amanda Abella [00:07:55]:
Well, I turned it into a teachable moment where I was like, everybody thinks they have to be really smart or have alphabet soup at the end of their name, or everything needs to be perfect. And all these people making millions aren't that smart.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:08:08]:
Right.
Amanda Abella [00:08:08]:
So what that means is two things. Number one, because they're not that smart, they're not really getting caught up in their heads because they don't have the awareness to do it. That's number one. And number two, they just market like animals. So essentially what people are buying is the consistency and the confidence, even if the products are mediocre.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:08:29]:
Yeah, exactly.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:08:33]:
I remember once, Gary Vee and I believe Grant Cardone also said something very similar to this. And it always and when I first heard, it just made me, like, stop in my tracks. They were talking about all the publicity and all the posts, social media posts that they put out. They just believe that nobody saw what they just put out, so let me put out another one. And again, that belief of nobody saw that, so let me do something else. And there's like a ton of content that they're putting out there, and there's a reason why you see them all the time.
Amanda Abella [00:09:11]:
There's a reason why you see them all the time. Actually, my partner and I are going to a grant cardone event this weekend. We're, like, leaving tomorrow, actually.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:09:17]:
Good for you.
Amanda Abella [00:09:18]:
Yeah. Well, it's more like their scaling side of things. Not so much the publicity, but I'm sure publicity will come up because they're masters at it. But that's one of the things that we noticed. Right. All we did was study these bigger people, and I think this is an important thing, too. I think part of the issue people have is they have, like, 15 coaches at the same time, and then they're getting all these mixed messages and they're confused. I've had one particular mentor for eight.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:09:46]:
Years, and I just go deep and.
Amanda Abella [00:09:48]:
I study, and I'm like, what have they built? What have they done? What do they do in front of the scenes, knowing that it's going to take time, right. And maybe I'll have two tops at the same time, but I'm going very deep. So essentially, what my partner and I have done over the last several years, unbeknownst to us, before we even met, was that we really studied. Not just like, oh, let's just do this random thing because they told me to do it, but really getting in there in the environment and in the orbit and being like, what exactly are these people doing? And the number one common theme is promotion. Promotion. Promotion. Promotion.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:10:27]:
Dang, that was my question was what were you noticing? So when it's promotion, promotion, promotion. What are you noticing about those promotions?
Amanda Abella [00:10:38]:
So what I noticed about the promotions is that they were insanely consistent. Right. So I think one time I literally counted how much content alex and Leila Hormosi were pumping out every week, and it was like, 80 pieces of content each.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:10:53]:
Wow.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:10:54]:
Okay.
Amanda Abella [00:10:54]:
Yeah. Now this goes back to that conversation I was having earlier. I couldn't do that without having systems and team to back me up, because if you get a massive inflow, then your systems break down. Ask me how I know that. Right. But again, this is like that ebb and flow imbalance of figuring out what you're supposed to be working on then. Right. And these guys have armies behind them working, but the reason they have armies behind them working and the systems, the way that they do is so they could literally spend all their time on publicity.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:11:27]:
Right.
Amanda Abella [00:11:28]:
That's it. That's their main job, is just get attention. And.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:11:35]:
How do you suggest that people create this kind of publicity? Because there's a lot of people that are out there like, all right, Amanda. All right, Lorianne, what should I be creating?
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:11:49]:
Yeah.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:11:50]:
So that I can get to that point where I need the systems to have the army.
Amanda Abella [00:11:56]:
Yeah, this is a great conversation because Threads just came out last week, and people want to go to Death Match on social media over whether you should be using Threads or not. And my post, which got a lot of attention, I guess what I'm about to say is controversial, is use it if you want. Don't use it if you don't want. It's not that deep. Everybody calm down.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:12:19]:
It's so true. It's like Twitter, folks.
Amanda Abella [00:12:22]:
Yeah, calm down. It's not that serious. But that's part of why people get overwhelmed, right? Because something new comes out, or you see everybody's opinions on social media. Like, you have to be on the social media channel now and add it to the 15 other things that you're doing, and then you see other people using it, being like, don't get distracted, don't do it. So for me, the way that I like to gauge it is like, what's actually the most fun? That's where I would start. What's the most fun for me if you're just getting started? Because if it's not fun for you, you're not going to want to do it. I'll give you an example. Podcasting super fun for me. Video, not as much fun for me. It's become fun for me, but it wasn't for a long time. Okay, so that's where I started, right? Or writing. I was always really good at writing, so I would just start there right now, different stage. I've got those nailed down. And I think the other thing that's important is figuring out what your priority is. Right now. My priority is getting as much attention as humanly possible. So what's the way I'm going to get attention as much as humanly possible? Short form videos, which I've been pumping out. My partner and I have been pumping out one daily. And now we're going to get the team starting to do their own because that's where you get economies of scale. But basically what happens is now that's my priority. I'm at a stage where that's priority number one is how do I pump out a lot of it and how do I scale it? Because I got nothing else to do. Let's be honest, it's the only thing I have to do right now. And also that's how I'm going to get the attention that's going to convert into cash. But essentially, in the beginning, it really is what's the most fun for me and what is my priority right now? I think if people can answer those two questions, then that's where they should start. So in terms of what's my priority? If your priority is get clients, and your clients are not hanging out on Twitter, don't worry about Twitter.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:14:21]:
Plain and simple.
Amanda Abella [00:14:22]:
Plain and simple, right? If you want to do threads, cool. If you don't want to do threads, cool.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:14:28]:
Right?
Amanda Abella [00:14:29]:
It's fine. And I think that's part of why people get a little stressed out about it more than they should be. Because there's just so many opinions on social media and the only opinion that really I don't care about opinions. I care about hard data and facts.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:14:44]:
Okay, so let's just talk about that hard data and facts. First of all, I like the do what feels fun because if you enjoy something, you're going to do it more, you're going to show up with a different energy. How should people be measuring the data, what's working and what's not working? And maybe what should I change?
Amanda Abella [00:15:07]:
Yeah, so essentially at the end of the day, all businesses are is to help people and make money. You make money by helping people. The two are not mutually exclusive, but without cash you don't have a business. So it needs to be what's actually converting. So for us, for example, I experimented with different things and we were literally just checking our stats and we're like what is actually working? Right? So for example, every time I do some sort of JV partnership, I will track how many a joint venture. So a referral partner, somebody sent us business or somebody sent us leads. How many leads did we get? How many of those converted? I need to know that for each and every single person so I know which one is worth repeating.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:15:46]:
Yes.
Amanda Abella [00:15:47]:
So that's number one. It's the same thing on social media, right? You have to measure your social media efforts and see what's actually worth repeating. So in the last week we've been experimenting a lot with short form video. Now I knew short form video got a lot of attention. I just didn't have the systems to help me with that front end process because I knew how much attention I could get. So between the two of us, we've reached tens of thousands of people over the last week. I have like 1500 people I have to reach out to who are all requesting me or following me because of what they've seen and what's been shared out. And all of those are sales leads. So now I can look at it and be like, well damn, this short form video stuff really works. And then I have to look at, okay, where is it getting the most attention? Right now the winners are LinkedIn and Facebook. TikTok, not so much. Okay, so those are the things that you need to look at. And I think this is important no matter what stage of business you're in especially. But now it's extra important for me again, because it's about scale at this point and it's about repeatable processes and sustainability. Like I'm ready for a business to be boring, basically. So we just repeat the same thing every day and it turns into a formula because that's how it becomes sustainable and you can get your life back. But in terms of what's working and what's not working. You need to be doing that from the beginning, because you don't want to waste your time, energy, or your effort or your intelligence, which are the most expensive things you have, by the way, on stuff that doesn't work, right?
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:17:22]:
So I just want to pause here for a moment and just let people know. Stop following the advice of everybody else. Stick to a plan. Come up with something that's easy, and depending on what stage in business you're at, would depend on what you're going to be doing and get the data, get the stats, and grow from there.
Amanda Abella [00:17:45]:
Stick to a plan and principles that have always worked. So I have a great story from the last week. So my partner had hired this person overseas to do video editing for him because it's a time thing right now. The problem was that this person's work was not that great, and the person would give back a lot of lip, right? And it's so interesting you bring this up, because he literally just did a video on this. So the person was fighting back a lot. And my partner was talking to this person, and he was like because he's like, okay, this is, like, way too much going on with the editing. And my partner's been in online marketing for ten years, has studied these people, knows what works and what doesn't. All he's trying to do is give somebody he hired instructions, and the person's not following the instructions. And when my partner asked, hey, the person would always be like, okay, but this is what makes a video go viral. And literally, he said, Andrew Tate does this, and this happens over here. And that's what the guy would say. And then when my partner asked, okay, do you have hard data and facts to back up your claims right now? And the guy was like, no, I don't. So then my partner was like, oh, so this is all like the blind leading the blind out here. Like, nobody actually knows what they're doing, and everybody's just copying each other, but no one's actually following any marketing principles that have worked since forever. Crickets that reel got a lot of attention right, when he turned that into a real because that's what's going on out here, is there's a lot of noise and there's a lot of the blind leading the blind, but not a lot of people are following actual marketing principles that have always worked since forever. So that's important. Don't chase trends. Follow principles. So that's why we're actually teaming up together, and we're going to start teaching this stuff, because we realized it was such a massive problem, and that's one of the reasons why it's leading to overwhelm and also a decrease in profits, right?
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:19:40]:
So who should people be following besides you?
Amanda Abella [00:19:44]:
Besides me.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:19:47]:
To learn some of the key stuff that you're ranting about?
Amanda Abella [00:19:52]:
So Justin Keltner is a good one. He's literally helped me rework my entire email marketing system and the front end marketing. And again, he's made his clients multimillions of dollars, helping them with their marketing. He's a good one. He's like me where he's gone in, and he's just studied people. Now he applies what he has studied based on hard data, facts, and principles that have always worked since the beginning of time or as long as marketing has been around, at least. So I think he's a really good one. I think the court Cardones are actually really great. Maybe not so much in terms of like, hey, here's a principle to follow, but in terms of studying what they do and how they get attention, because I studied them too. I'm like, oh, these guys have a challenge coming up. And both he and his wife just had, like, 18 interviews each published in the last week. So just in terms of volume, follow those guys and study what they're doing. Same with the hormoses.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:20:52]:
Yes.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:20:53]:
Okay, so great. So those are three people that people can just go and follow and just model what they're doing, not be overwhelmed by it. Just notice what they're doing and see if you can apply that to your own business. Because, again, these are all what I call mini platforms, because speaking is not just a stage with a microphone. There's so many different forms. We're doing one right here. It's podcasting. It's a podcast. Short form videos. That's another form of speaking. Any way that you get your message out there.
Amanda Abella [00:21:28]:
Any way that you get your message out there. And here's another thing you can do, right? So I'll probably ask you for the video when we're done here so I can clip up some pieces, right? And then in clipping up pieces, I share it with my audience to bring traffic to you. But then I also position myself as an expert. Most people don't do that. Like, they go on podcasts or media or something, and then they don't even ask if they can do that, or they don't frame it in a way where they're going to be helping the host promote their stuff as well. And that's a very simple thing, right? I can take this one podcast interview and turn it into a ton of publicity for both me and Lorian.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:22:05]:
I love that. I hate that you're going to give me publicity. I say that.
Amanda Abella [00:22:12]:
No, I'm sarcastically, right? Like, oh, yeah, Lorian is totally going to hate that. I'm going to be like, hey, can you send me the video file as soon as you have it so we can cut this up and promote you and we promote everybody. She's totally going to hate that. But people don't even think of doing things like that. And it's a tiny little thing. We're like, look how much maybe short form videos I can pull out of this. Or maybe like, a ten minute YouTube video, and then I just drive traffic to the podcast and we both look good.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:22:41]:
Right?
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:22:43]:
So I was going to ask you, talking about different systems for taking a long form video and cutting it up into small pieces, are you using just a video editor or are you using some sort of like AI software?
Amanda Abella [00:22:55]:
Oh my God, such a good question. Literally, my partner was up until four in the morning testing a bunch of different things the other night. So I can tell you what's working and what's not. So for me personally, my goal and my dream so I'll start there is to have a video person in house internal who can just do all this stuff because it can be very time consuming. But we're not there yet. Right? And also there's now AI. I've tried hiring contractors, but you get situations like the one that I just talked about where it's just insanely expensive for the work that you get. And no one knows your audience better than you, so you end up in this conundrum, right, of, okay, well, if no one knows the audience better than me, and I'm the one who knows how to get attention, how is somebody else supposed to replicate that? You start running into that problem now and eventually you have to solve the problem. Fortunately, we have this thing to help us in the middle right now, which is AI. So there's two really great things going on right now. So this video right here, I could put it into something called, I think it's called Video AI. I could be wrong, but it's something along those lines where it'll just automatically pull clips based on what's interesting. So that's one thing or another thing that you can use is we found this really cool app called Captions on the phone. And it'll do the captions, like the same way that you see them on the cool reels and things. It'll do, captions It'll throw in the emojis automatically. It'll even do music automatically if you ask it to. And it'll take out all the UMS and things automatically just straight from your phone.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:24:36]:
That's great.
Amanda Abella [00:24:38]:
That's great. You don't have to hire anybody. I think it was like $50 for the whole year or something like that. You don't have to hire anybody. I could literally just film stuff while I'm in a train tomorrow, get it edited and get it uploaded and it's done.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:24:51]:
There's a couple that I've seen that will basically make you like a bunch of reels. But the only thing is you almost have to edit the video first, then put it through their software because it doesn't pick out. It doesn't clip out like the UMS and you can't go in and edit the little clips that it picks up. So I'm sure it's like, it's a work in progress like everything else. And I can't remember the name of that because otherwise but I'll make sure I put it down in the show notes.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:25:23]:
Yeah.
Amanda Abella [00:25:23]:
So there's a few. Right. But those are the two that we have found that we've really liked, that we've really been experimenting with. That has gone because, again right. Like, priority number one at this point is just get attention. That should always be priority number one in a business. It's just we're in different seasons in business. So sometimes you're not like, I'm in a season of get as much attention as humanly possible.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:25:46]:
And I love that about you, by the way. You're not shy about it.
Amanda Abella [00:25:50]:
No. Right.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:25:52]:
And you're unapologetic. This is just what I do.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:25:56]:
Yeah.
Amanda Abella [00:25:57]:
It's also what I'm really good at and what I really enjoy. But it's also, like, without promotions, you have no cash.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:26:03]:
Right? Yeah.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:26:04]:
I was just talking with a private client yesterday, and I was just like, just start with Instagram, do stories, do lives. Just get out there and talk about your thought leadership, what you're working on, your podcast. Are you going to do a podcast episode, talk about it afterwards?
Amanda Abella [00:26:25]:
Yeah.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:26:26]:
To get people interested in, like, wow, when that episode comes out, I got to watch that because it sounds super interesting. Like, I'll do an Instagram story talking about how you and I just did this interview.
Amanda Abella [00:26:39]:
Exactly.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:26:44]:
If you want to get into speaking, like, on stages, if you want to be a hired speaker, you've got to get known. It can't be like, oh, wow, this person did one Instagram live. You have to get out there and talk about what you talk about.
Amanda Abella [00:27:16]:
Yeah. It's almost so simple that people want to fight it.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:27:21]:
You're right. People do want to fight. But I'm just getting like, I only have one video.
Amanda Abella [00:27:29]:
Yeah.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:27:29]:
All those other people have hundreds and thousands of videos, and so they never get started because they already feel defeated. But you started with your first video.
Amanda Abella [00:27:42]:
Everybody started with their first my first video.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:27:45]:
Yeah.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:27:46]:
We all start somewhere.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:27:48]:
Yeah.
Amanda Abella [00:27:48]:
And also think about, like, this isn't what it was ten years ago. Sometimes I beat myself up and I'm like, dang, if I would have just really understood this stuff ten years ago, I'd be much further along. But my partner and I were talking, and we're like, ten years ago, you couldn't post, like, three short form videos to get in front of 2000 people.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:28:06]:
That's right.
Amanda Abella [00:28:07]:
That didn't exist ten years ago. It wasn't a thing. There was way more work involved ten years ago in order to get that kind of attention and traction.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:28:18]:
And right now, like, ten years from now, it's going to be so different.
Amanda Abella [00:28:22]:
Yeah.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:28:23]:
Just get started.
Amanda Abella [00:28:25]:
Just get started. Yeah. I mean, sometimes I look at stuff like that. When people say that, I'm like, yeah, but you don't understand how much work it. Was back then in comparison to how little work it is now.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:28:36]:
That's so true. When I first started speaking like, you mailed DVDs to people to watch. Yes. I wasn't in the speaking world when it was. When you were sending VHS tapes, it was just like, DVDs because people didn't naturally go to YouTube to watch your Sizzle reel.
Amanda Abella [00:28:57]:
Yeah.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:28:57]:
It's just all there was to it.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:29:00]:
Yeah.
Amanda Abella [00:29:00]:
I mean, I have mentors who say that we have it really easy when it comes to sales because they used to have to call from the Yellow Pages and physically knock on doors.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:29:08]:
That's right.
Amanda Abella [00:29:09]:
And we have social media now. Like, it's easier than ever.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:29:13]:
Yes. So speaking of sales on social media, give everybody some tips on how to sell or that some calls to action.
Amanda Abella [00:29:23]:
Yeah. So number one is consistency. Right. That's the main thing we've been talking about this whole time. If you're not getting attention, I promise you, you're not being consistent enough. And number two, I think there's a lot of really missed opportunities for people. So they'll post something on social media and they sound just like everybody else. This is something I've been going off about lately. There's no opinion. You just followed a template. This is ironic because I teach people templates, but I'm always like, follow the principles, but make it your own. Don't try and sound like me. It has to sound like you. The templates are here to give you a structure, a principle, a flow, so you understand what we're doing. But don't try and sound like me. It's never going to work for you to try and sound like me. Sound like you? What are your actual opinions? What are your actual thoughts? What's actually going on in your freaking life?
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:30:15]:
And take the time to think about those things.
Amanda Abella [00:30:18]:
And take the time to think about those things, which a lot of people don't because they're too busy trying to sound like everybody else, because they think it's some sort of a magic bullet strategy that somehow is going to make them money. The magic bullet is you.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:30:30]:
Yes.
Amanda Abella [00:30:33]:
Everything else is just principles that work.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:30:37]:
That was a dramatic pause for an intentional like, I didn't even want to interrupt that because I really wanted it to sink in. Sound like yourself?
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:30:48]:
Yeah.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:30:48]:
What are you, like everybody else?
Amanda Abella [00:30:51]:
That's why we're getting so much attention, because I don't have an opinion on threads. My opinion on threads is use it if you want. Don't use it if you don't want to.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:30:58]:
Apparently that's radical, right?
Amanda Abella [00:31:02]:
Because everybody else is like, you must be on it or no. And I'm just like, I don't care. Apparently that's radical.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:31:10]:
And one thing that I heard was get over there and open the account to get your name. It's like it's your instagram name. So I already own that. I don't think somebody can take that anyway.
Amanda Abella [00:31:24]:
It's everybody clawing for attention and the most ironic thing is the best way to get attention is to not claw for it. It's just by being yourself and just sharing your actual opinions. Or lately, I've been getting a lot of requests for training sales teams, which is a higher level problem and a much higher ticket thing, because a lot of the stuff I've been talking about on Facebook is the higher level problems, not the basic shit everybody else talks about, which is like, here's how to find your ideal client avatar. I'm over that. I want to go teach people how to build sales teams. That's a higher level problem, and it's also more expensive to fix, and the people who have that problem have the.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:32:03]:
Money to fix it.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:32:04]:
So there we go.
Amanda Abella [00:32:06]:
So there's that, right? So instead of trying to compete with everybody, stop trying to compete and just be yourself.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:32:15]:
Yes.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:32:15]:
One of the things that I used to talk about when I was coaching executive coaches was to come up with a leadership style. And the same thing with speaking or whatever kind of coach you are or however you want to want to show up on social media is like, what is your style? Use that as the lens that you share information. If you want to be funny, if you want to be sarcastic, everything that you're putting out, is it funny, is it sarcastic, is it serious, is it thought provoking, is it polarizing? You get to decide what kind of style and who you want to be, but just, again, just be yourself. And when you put stuff out there, you're going to see back to talking about data. You're going to see what's resonating with people, but you got to put shit out there in order for people to be able to comment.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:33:12]:
Yeah.
Amanda Abella [00:33:12]:
And also, it's okay if they disagree with you. One time I did a post where I said, you want to know what it's like to actually build a business? Let's have some real talk, because most people just don't have the proper expectations of the effort required to actually build a business, because most people on the Internet have sold them bullshit, right? So there's also that. So I did a post calling that out, and somebody commented, and they're like, oh, I don't think we're a good fit based on this post. And I commented and I said, that's fine. You can leave it's for who it's for. It's not for who it's not for.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:33:50]:
And you're not trying to be for.
Amanda Abella [00:33:52]:
Everybody, and I'm not trying to be for everybody. So I think that's the thing is, don't be afraid if people disagree with you, they're allowed to disagree with you. You probably don't want to work with them anyway. It's fine. It's okay. Not everybody needs to like you, and you don't want to spend your life twisting yourself into a pretzel trying to get everybody to like you anyway. It's not a very profitable sustainable or even happy way to live? Not at all. And then the other part of it, which is where people really struggle, is they don't know how to convert the attention into conversations. So for example, I was on my team meeting this morning and I'm like, okay, so I got like 1500 people overnight on threads. I'm going to DM each of them, thanking them.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:34:37]:
Those are all leads, right?
Amanda Abella [00:34:39]:
Thanking them and asking them what kind of content they want. And I know how to turn that into a sales conversation where all these people friend requesting me on Facebook, I need to find out where they came from so I know what's working and what resonated with them. I can start turning that into a sales conversation. Same with all these people on LinkedIn. Most people don't know how to do that because most people don't have sales training, right?
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:35:03]:
So how do you turn a hi, how are you or friend request into what is that next thing that you say to people?
Amanda Abella [00:35:11]:
So in this case, right, if all the people following me on threads, I would be like, hey, what kind of content do you want to see on my threads? Well, when they tell me, oh man, I really want more sales tips. Oh awesome. Why do you want more sales tips? What kinds of sales tips? And then I can already identify that they have a problem I can help them with.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:35:31]:
And how do you keep all of that organized?
Amanda Abella [00:35:35]:
Question is a lot of people yeah, that's a really great question that we're trying to solve that problem. That's why I needed systems, right? Because I know how to get attention and then the systems break on the back end. So right now we have a lot of systems. For example, if people are hitting our email list, we've built a system where we know who's the hottest lead based on what actions they're taking. So my team can give them a little ring ring kind of a thing with social media that has to be a little bit more manual in terms of data entry. So like a simple pipeline. So you just keep track of who you spoke to and what stage of the sales process that they're in. That's probably like the most tedious part about it. But yeah, the organization can get a little crazy. And that's why I got a little manic about systems because I know what kind of attention I can get. And then you're right, leads fall through the cracks, they get lost, there's leaky buckets. That's a whole other conversation about how to fix that in business.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:36:38]:
Yeah, because sometimes that's where I feel like I get a little lost with the, like I'll get back to that and then it's like a week or two to get back to that.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:36:47]:
Yeah.
Amanda Abella [00:36:48]:
And it can be challenging, right. So it's really a prioritization process and my partner and I are going to start teaching on this because once you get to certain levels and you have a certain amount of leads coming at you, you don't have a lead flow problem, you have a lead prioritization problem. So that's a problem I had for like two or three years that I was trying to solve. Lead flow has never been an issue for me. It's been the prioritization of said leads that's been an issue for me.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:37:13]:
And you're developing a system for that.
Amanda Abella [00:37:15]:
Oh, we got one for you.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:37:16]:
Got one now.
Amanda Abella [00:37:17]:
Yeah, we got it. We nailed it. And we're going to start teaching it in August.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:37:21]:
Very good. So everybody, lots of new programs coming from Amanda, and she is a great teacher.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:37:29]:
A great teacher. Yeah.
Amanda Abella [00:37:31]:
Thanks, lori Ann. Thank you.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:37:33]:
I've seen you do some stuff and I'm just like, Dang, because you're so damn passionate. I'm sure that everybody's felt that in this particular episode. I mean, you just go off on things and it's like, here's how it should be, and you explain things really well.
Amanda Abella [00:37:48]:
Thank you. And the passion comes from me being tired of people being lied to.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:37:54]:
Thank you.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:37:55]:
Thank you for standing up for that because it's so true. There's so much shit that's out there and false information, and it's like, here's the dream. And it only took me five days or 5 hours to actually do this. And it's a bunch of bullshit.
Amanda Abella [00:38:11]:
Yeah. No, complete bullshit. Right? And I've been behind the scenes of a lot of the big brands, and it's really disheartening when you see there's like, one thing they're doing publicly and another thing that's going on behind the scenes. And I've been privy to a lot of that over the last year. And I was just like, this is a bunch of horseshit. Like, you're not even doing what you're telling people to do. And the one that really irritated me was when and I like talking about femininity and energetics and all that kind of stuff. But that's one that gets really messed up for women business owners because they're being told to. Just lean back and receive. And it's like, yeah, but did you pick up the phone today or send an email or a lot of people are making it seem like you just lean back in a bathtub and diamonds rain on you or something and that you don't have to do anything. And that's not exactly what a feminine business means. A feminine business is stop trading time for money, have systems and allow support so that you have space, but it doesn't mean you don't do anything. And then a lot of the people who are promoting that because I know, because I've been called in behind the scenes to try and go fix their sales teams. Six in the morning, they're DMing me and they sound like they've had 18 shots of Espresso, so they're not leaning back and all relaxed in flow and ease and shit. They're just telling you that to get.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:39:31]:
Your attention because it seems like the easy thing to do. Here's the easy way to build a business.
Amanda Abella [00:39:38]:
Here's the easy button. You don't have to do anything, right?
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:39:42]:
So if you could go back to when you first started your business, like, what's one lesson you wish you'd learned sooner?
Amanda Abella [00:39:50]:
Stop trading time for money.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:39:52]:
I think more on that. To me, that means having team.
Amanda Abella [00:39:57]:
Well, that's one way of doing it. For me, it's a little bit different now because I'm in a different stage. But my first business, I was a freelancer. The only way for me to make more money was to take on more clients. And eventually you just run out of time.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:40:13]:
Yes.
Amanda Abella [00:40:14]:
So for me, I prefer the training program route some people, because I just don't want as big of a team, and I want more tech and efficiency handling things. Me personally, that's my personality and how it works for other people. It does look like agencies and bigger team. It really just depends on you and how you run or run your business and your business model. There's no one right way to do a business model. A lot of it just depends on your personality. Me personally, I don't like doing things for people, but I'm really great at teaching in groups.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:40:46]:
Nice.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:40:47]:
I'm reading. Dan Martel's. Buy back your time. Love the book, love the simplicity. And it's so true. And one of those things that I keep telling myself, and I was just thinking about it yesterday, is I have to do another time audit. It's time to do another one so that I can figure out, what do I need to take off my plate again? What do I need more support with?
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:41:10]:
Yeah.
Amanda Abella [00:41:11]:
So for me, a lot of it and this is a conversation I had last week with my partner. I was like, yeah, and this is the event we're going to. I was like, you know what? I really suck at the CEO type things.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:41:22]:
Right?
Amanda Abella [00:41:23]:
It's not my forte, like, the processes and the systems and how to turn this into something. I can see it like big picture because I'm more of the visionary, but he's way more of the integrator. So for me, it's more like, okay. And we literally did this on a Friday night because that's what we think is fun, right? Where it's like, okay, here's what I'm really good at. Here's what you're really good at. Here's what needs to get done in the business. Your strengths are over here. My strengths are over here. And then everybody stays in the thing that they're good at and that they have fun with, and everything moves forward. I think one of the biggest lies that we're told, especially as women, is that we have to do everything ourselves.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:42:01]:
Correct.
Amanda Abella [00:42:02]:
It's bullshit. It keeps you broke and lonely.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:42:06]:
Yes.
Amanda Abella [00:42:07]:
And no great thing was ever built by one person. It's not possible. Human beings don't even operate that way. But it's one of the biggest lies we've been told. So the way that that shows up in business, to your point about Team, is that people don't ask for help and they don't delegate. So now, right. There's stuff that I know I'm not good at. Somebody else can handle it, and I can go focus on the thing I'm really good at, which is getting attention and publicity and sales.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:42:37]:
And everybody else does all their it's about, like, staying in your lane. Not just and everybody talks about staying in your lane in the sense of, like, your niche, but even within your own company, if everybody who works under your company stays in their lane like the company does, it just moves forward.
Amanda Abella [00:42:58]:
It just moves forward. Right. So that was a conversation I was literally having just last week, being like, hey, you're way better at this stuff. How about you take that over? Because that's how your brain works. And my brain doesn't work that way. My brain works this way over here, and this is what I'm good at. If I try and move into your lane, I get bogged down, I lose my creativity, I can't do my job well and vice versa.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:43:21]:
And that takes knowing yourself and not being afraid to hand over stuff. I mean, if you're a perfectionist, if you're a control freak, this is going to be hard for you.
Amanda Abella [00:43:33]:
It's been hard. It's been hard. It's been a rough couple of years. Right. But now I'm at a stage where I don't find it. And I think part of the reason why it's hard is because we have so much ego wrapped up around our performance and our ability to produce, or it's how we get validation. So when I was teaching team how to sell, that was really hard because I was known as a really good salesperson.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:43:59]:
Interesting.
Amanda Abella [00:43:59]:
That was hard. Oh, man, that brought up all my stuff. Yeah. Now I'm at a stage where I've worked through a lot of that stuff, and I realized that a lot of it was just programming. Like, oh, I was just trying to like, I was an achievement addict trying to get attention from my parents.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:44:14]:
Right.
Amanda Abella [00:44:16]:
Or I had a lot of ego wrapped up in this because that's how I got validation and love. So that's why I had a hard time letting it go. Or I'm a control freak because I don't like feeling out of control because of X-Y-Z thing that happened when I was seven. That's really what a lot of that stuff is rooted in.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:44:34]:
Yeah, it really is. And that's, as you said earlier, that's another whole episode.
Amanda Abella [00:44:39]:
Oh, that's a whole other thing. Yeah, but in terms of, like, I'm making it sound easy, like, oh, yeah, just hand it off. But no, it has not been easy.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:44:46]:
No, it's not easy. Okay, one other question. What's one or two books that you would recommend to people?
Amanda Abella [00:44:55]:
Well, I have one for you since you mentioned Team, right? And it's this one called Teamwork by Natalie Dawson. This is like a manual that I wish existed five years ago.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:45:06]:
Oh, very nice.
Amanda Abella [00:45:07]:
In terms of hiring, how to interview, how to manage, how to do one on one, how to make sure everybody's doing their stuff. It's like a literal manual. So for a lot of other management books, it's a lot of theory, but not a whole lot of practical application. This one's practical application. All right, that one's for you specifically.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:45:24]:
Okay, thank you. What else would you give for everybody else?
Amanda Abella [00:45:28]:
Who's for everybody else? I think I have a couple here. So ten X rule by Grant cardone get attention. A lot of people are just focused on the wrong things. So one of the things he talks about in this book is everybody's worried about customer satisfaction. But you're not worried about getting customers. Customer satisfaction isn't a problem until you have customers. Why don't you just spend most of your energy getting customers? Like, it's about people being focused on the wrong things. Or he talks about how much more effort certain things are going to take. And the cool thing about the Ten X Rule is everybody thinks it's hustle culture and adding stuff onto your plate, but it's about multiplying. That's what an X is. It's not an addition sign. It's an x. It's about leveraging economies of scale. So if you want to know why he pumps out so much social media content, this book explains why. There's also really great examples of Howard Schultz after 2008 when Starbucks was really struggling. And Howard Schultz, I think the story goes, he went to literally every single Starbucks in the United States and started asking people questions.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:46:32]:
Every single one? That's ten x. Yeah.
Amanda Abella [00:46:35]:
Not like, give me a report. Like, no, he went there himself to every single one and tried to figure out what was going on.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:46:42]:
Love that.
Amanda Abella [00:46:43]:
Yeah. A lot of people also think that Ten X is overdoing things. And the reality that I've learned is most people don't do enough to begin with. They do three phone calls and think they did something, or they send five DMs and think they did something. Ten X of five is just 50, and you can get that done in an hour.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:46:59]:
I am watching grant Cardone's undercover millionaire, billionaire.
Amanda Abella [00:47:05]:
I haven't seen it yet.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:47:06]:
I've heard on his YouTube channel what he did is he has put everything together and he is talking about the scenes and what they cut out. And I was just, like, listening to them. He was talking about what the X is, and I hadn't really ever dove into what his Ten X is. But he's like, things fall through the cracks, deals don't happen. That's why he goes, that's why you Ten X things because most of them may not work out, but then you'll still have stuff that you're working on. And I was just like, wow. Okay. I highly recommend it for everybody who's listening to this, just to hear his thought process on how he goes about business and how he did this deal with the Discovery Channel.
Amanda Abella [00:48:00]:
Yeah, it's fantastic. Right? And that's why it is about volume and it is about scale now, eventually, and he is one of the first people I heard say, you have to hire people. You can't keep doing the solopreneur bullshit like you're going to run into a wall, because then you can't do what is required and what is necessary to get to those economies of scale.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:48:23]:
And then another book.
Amanda Abella [00:48:24]:
I don't have a copy. Here mine. Make money, your honey. Go find it on Amazon. And that's a lot about energy management, sales, and your relationship with money. I wrote that book almost ten years ago when I was still a financial writer. People still buy it and tell me amazing things about it. It'll shift the way you look at money.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:48:41]:
Wonderful. I'll make sure that all three of those books are linked down below, but before we leave, an Anna, please tell people where they can follow you, learn from you. If you have some sort of a freebie that you want to offer the audience, please just tell us.
Amanda Abella [00:48:57]:
Yeah. So the freebie I want to offer everybody is a sales script. So we talked a lot about how to convert all the attention you're getting into those conversations. You asked me that. I have it all mapped out in the sales script for you all. So I'll make sure Lori gets her special link so that you guys can download it, because it'll walk you through the step by step process of how to convert that attention onto social media, into sales conversations. In the DMs, people have downloaded that thing for free, and they say they've gotten a 54% response rate from Lead. So, yeah, we've tested follow facts, not feelings. Follow the data. Right. So we will have that in the show notes for you guys. And for everything else, just go to Amandabea.com. That's a B, as in boy ella.com. You can find literally everything there. The podcast, Lori's episode was just published. All our training programs, all our freebies, everything is there.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:49:50]:
Wonderful. Thank you so much for coming on and just this was a great conversation. And one of my trips down to Florida, I'm coming down to Miami so that you can show me where to get good Cuban coffee, I think.
Amanda Abella [00:50:03]:
Absolutely. I'll teach you how to make it. How to make it? Yeah. So we both know Justin. Justin's been in town for ten days, and I taught him how to make it, and now he's completely addicted. Like, he makes it every day.
Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:50:15]:
I'm coming down. I'm coming down. I'll make a date. Wonderful. Thank you. So much for coming on the show and for everybody else who's listening. Let's continue. The conversation over in M. Feel free to reach out to me and let me know what you thought of the episode and if you have any further questions, because maybe we need to bring Amanda back.
