Bryan McAnulty [00:00:00]:

Ever feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done? What if I told you that by handpicking the right tech tools, working less could actually lead to more success? Lashonda Brown is living proof that it's possible. She's an award winning tech educator, YouTube coach, and the mastermind behind bootstrap biz advice, where she teaches entrepreneurs how to work less and live more by leveraging technology and YouTube. LaShonda is not only one of the first 25 Canva verified experts in the world, but she's also mastered the art of building a thriving business with just a 20 hour work week. Today, Lashonda is here to share how you can use tech tools and AI to boost your productivity, create amazing content, and finally gain the freedom to enjoy your life while growing your business.

LaShonda Brown [00:00:41]:

Focusing more on how am I showing up when I do a PR online was a really helpful challenge because I think in the beginning I would beat myself up if I, you know, missed a video. But when I did show up, it was a high quality that was a better video for my audience than it would have been if I had just stuck with that posting schedule. Especially, you know, people who are content creators, we fall into this routine of just doing what everybody else is doing and you can watch when a creator is burnout. You can tell when they're not passionate or when they rush to just to get that video out.

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:15]:

Today, we're gonna learn how to grow your business with video content in 2024, how to leverage AI the right way, and how you can work less by choosing the right tech tools. Welcome to the Creators Adventure where we interview creators from around the world hearing their stories about growing a business. Hey everyone, I'm Brian McAnulty, the founder of Heights Platform. Let's get into it. Alright. Lashonda, welcome to the show.

LaShonda Brown [00:01:45]:

Thanks so much for having me.

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:48]:

Yeah. My first question for you is what would you say is the biggest thing that you did or you are doing that has helped you to achieve the freedom to do what you enjoy?

LaShonda Brown [00:01:57]:

I think just giving myself permission. It's interesting to me how many people are stuck doing the same things they've always done simply because they don't think they have permission to change it. And so I think when I gave myself permission to challenge what was normal and do what I needed to do for me, everything changed.

Bryan McAnulty [00:02:17]:

Yeah. That's really powerful. I think it's something also that it's constant. Like, even though you've done that in the past, you have to remind yourself or at least I found I have to remind myself sometimes that, you know what? I can change this, and, just being constantly aware of that.

LaShonda Brown [00:02:35]:

I think also finding excitement and change. I think a lot of people dread things being different because we've just gone through, especially the last few years, a season of unsolicited change. And so it's just like, you know what, I just want things to stay the same. I want stability. I want things to be, predictable. But I think there is so much fun that can be had in switching things up. And so I enjoy it. I lean into changing things and experimenting because you really never know what's gonna happen unless you try.

Bryan McAnulty [00:03:05]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's great. So as someone who talks a lot about, like

LaShonda Brown [00:03:09]:

bootstrapping a business and just bootstrapped, their own

Bryan McAnulty [00:03:09]:

way to business and just bootstrap, their own way to success with with what you've done, what's some of the most significant challenges that you feel like you faced kinda early on in the stages of your business, and how did you overcome

LaShonda Brown [00:03:25]:

them? I think redefining what consistency means was super important because I think a lot of people when they say, oh, you know, be consistent, keep showing up, that looks like, you know, the same old thing, weekly posts or you know weekly live streams or weekly videos. But for me it became more when I show up, am I showing up the same way every time I show up? It might be every week, it may be twice a month, it could just be when I feel like posting. But I think focusing more on how am I showing up when I do appear online versus how often do I appear, was a really helpful challenge because I think in the beginning I would beat myself up if I you know missed a video, but when I did show up it was a high quality, you know 5 to 10 minute video that was a better video for my audience than it would have been if I had just stuck with that posting schedule. So I think that especially people who are content creators we fall into this routine of just doing what everybody else is doing and you can watch when a creator is burnout, You can tell when they're not passionate or when they rush to just to get that video out.

Bryan McAnulty [00:04:38]:

Yeah. That's great advice. How how can you fix that maybe if if you feel like, okay. Well, okay. Today, I'm I'm really not feeling it, and you you skip that day of creating the content. Right? But then do you have any tips for helping yourself get back to that level or kind of performing at the way that you want to?

LaShonda Brown [00:05:02]:

I think a couple things that you should do is, you know, definitely create more than you consume. A lot of times what keeps people from, you know, pressing publish is the fact that they're constantly judging themselves against other creators and their industry just in existence, you know, like we can't all be Mr. Beast or else there wouldn't be a Mr. Beast. So it's just like if you're in that comparison loop, it's hard to feel confident enough to put yourself out there. So you need to be creating more than you're consuming other people's stuff, But you also need to be strategically unplugging, so that you get inspiration from things outside of what you do. You can get inspiration from going to museum, going on a hike, hanging out with friends. I think I see it happen too often that people's view of the world is so defined by what they search for on their computer and not the reality that we live in, you know.

LaShonda Brown [00:05:59]:

You need to be where your feet are not where your keyboard is and so I just think that it's super important to, you know, I even posted about it on LinkedIn today, it's like you need to unplug for every 2 hours that you plug in because if you don't do that what you're gonna find is that you aren't inspired, you are excited, you don't miss what you do because you're always doing it, and so that balance is the easiest way to stay creative. Obviously, you can batch your content, so when you're not feeling it you probably have something in the queue that you can just post. But I think on a deeper level as people who are constantly trying to use their imagination and creativity, you need to recharge if you're a human being. And I think a lot of people act like they don't need that or are intimidated by their own capacity and I think you just lean into it and say look like after I work you know 20 hours, 30 hours a week, I've got nothing left. And when you know that for yourself and you're willing to embrace that, when you do show up, you do have the energy to create, and it's not as stressful.

Bryan McAnulty [00:07:06]:

Mhmm. Yeah. I like that. And I I think that maybe we we often tend to see, like, okay. Well, I I have to do this. Like, I can't I can't take the time to stop doing it. But, like, the idea of going to recharge feels like, well, I'm not gonna be working then. Like, that's gonna be a waste.

Bryan McAnulty [00:07:25]:

How is that gonna be helpful to me? But, yeah, the inspiration that you get from that will allow you to create something better than just, like, the kinda same old thing that you're just have to put something out. So I like that. And one of the ways I've thought about something similar was that, alright, if I'm gonna work 40 hours this week or or less than that or slightly more than that, whatever the number is, I think it's important to realize that, like, you shouldn't get too hung up on exactly how many hours you work because when it's all said and done, like, you are one person. And so you may be working as part of a team. You may be delegating to other people. But at the same time, it's like, would there really be a difference of the end goal that you're trying to achieve if you worked 1 more hour, 2 more hours, or 10 or 20 more hours? Or if you've set this constraint on yourself already to say, I'm gonna work 40 hours a week or 20 hours a week, whatever your number is, why can't you just do it in a couple hours less? And I think that's been helpful to me when, like, I'll have a day and just everything goes wrong, nothing's productive at all, and just realizing, no. Like, it's it's okay. You know? If if I could do it in in roughly this time in the week, then, like, it I'll figure it out, and it wouldn't have made that much difference in the scheme of things.

LaShonda Brown [00:08:54]:

Well and I would also challenge you about the idea that nothing productive happened. You know? I used to fall into that trap a lot. And there will be times where, you know, I I have a lot of things that are still on my to do list from last week, and, you know, I intentionally let them roll over. And instead of saying, oh my gosh, like, you know, today's not productive because I'm not able to accomplish the thing that I put on my arbitrary to do list. It's like, well, what can I be productive at? And if being productive on that day looks like I'm doing my laundry, I'm picking up my groceries, I'm going for a walk and getting steps in, it's like we can always be productive at doing something, we decide what doesn't count and so it's like if your brain is like I don't have it in me to create today, I don't have it in me to do accounting or marketing or whatever, Well do you have it in you to vacuum your floor? Do you have it in you to meal prep? Do you have it in you to go to the gym? Like I'm sure there's something that you can check off the list. And so just giving yourself that grace to say okay well you know maybe my body is fighting you know being sick or my allergies or I have a migraine or whatever, and I'm not able to show up like I want to but like what can I do and allow yourself to check those things off the list, that's another way to sustain yourself because I think again we get in this habit of like this is what success looks like, this is what productive looks like, this is what a work week looks like and when you put all those constraints on yourself especially when you're the one running things, you find yourself working for a job you hate and you're the one that created it? And so I'm just constantly challenging my friends to be like, No, you have accomplished something amazing. You are a productive person. You are you know, providing products and services that people need.

LaShonda Brown [00:10:46]:

I want you to see yourself the way that I see you, and so I just I'm always like that person. I'm like, No. I don't think that's true, because we hear that so often from corporate and from society and all these norms, and we don't live in a normal world anymore. So we don't have to define ourselves by norms.

Bryan McAnulty [00:11:05]:

Well, and that's one of the amazing things of being an entrepreneur. You don't have to say like, hey boss, can I please you know what? I'm not feeling it today. I wanna do some different things. It's not gonna be on the schedule. You can just do it, and then, you're you are your own boss. So

LaShonda Brown [00:11:20]:

Yeah. We forget that sometimes, but you don't have to ask, you know, mister or missus anybody. Just do it, and it's funny.

Bryan McAnulty [00:11:29]:

So video is a big part of your business from your YouTube channel to the live workshops that you host, and you have another company, Life Focus Pictures, where you produce promotional content for clients. Why would you say that video content is so important for creators today?

LaShonda Brown [00:11:48]:

Well, it's obviously important enough for every single social media platform to integrate at this point. Even platforms that had a completely different purpose. Instagram was supposed to be for photos. Twitter was supposed to be for text. They all include video. So it's it's obvious that people want it or they wouldn't have developed it. But I think on a deeper level, video content allows you to simulate a face to face interaction. And as much as we enjoy reading stuff or looking at pictures, there's something powerful about being able to see another human's face, which is why personally I'm not like a huge advocate of faceless content, I know lots of people do it, but people want faces, they want to to see the person that they're hiring on the Internet so they feel like they're hiring a human and not just a logo or a web site.

LaShonda Brown [00:12:39]:

And so I just think it's so important for everyone, no matter what industry you're in, to figure out how can I leverage video? It's not if, it's just how. You know, is it live video? Is it prerecorded? Is it short form? Figure out what works well for you, but understand that we now live in a society where this is more of an expectation than ever before. People want to feel a connection with you, and it's very difficult to have that come across with just a photo or just text. So I'm a huge advocate for it. I love YouTube, I think it's a wonderful platform because it's a search engine that allows you to be social, so all the drama from other social platforms don't seem to exist in that ecosystem, so I think that's great. But, you know, use what you want. But in terms of the value of video, the value is there. You just need to leverage it to help build your brand.

Bryan McAnulty [00:13:33]:

Yeah. I like the comment about the the faceless video because I see a lot of course creators kind of, not not necessarily, like, hiding behind that, but, like, worried or uncomfortable with the idea of showing their face. And they think, oh, I heard about there's faceless video. I can I can do something with that? I don't have to show my face. I'm not, like, a a performer or a video person. Like, no one wants to see me. They do wanna see you, actually, and they they do wanna talk to you. So there is, a lot of value and power in that even if you aren't, like, a video personality in your own mind.

LaShonda Brown [00:14:11]:

Well and I think it's a skill set we can learn, and you don't have to be on camera forever. You know? When I started on YouTube, I didn't show my face because I was, you know, nervous about it. But as soon as I started showing my face at least at the beginning and end of my videos, I I noticed a huge uptick in views. And so it was obvious that people wanted to see who the voice was. And so I think, you know, even if you feel camera shy, you don't have to be on the whole video. But just establish who you are, say hello, say goodbye. I mean, I think that's pretty simple.

Bryan McAnulty [00:14:41]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. I I like that as a way to to kinda get started with it. Any other strategies or kinda tips you would recommend to entrepreneur to produce, either getting started in video content or if they're already doing it, like, how to make their video content better?

LaShonda Brown [00:14:58]:

Yeah. I think you just gotta do it, and you gotta be comfortable sucking in public. I think there's kind of this perception that, like, I I don't I want people to see me fail. I don't want people to see me bad before I'm good. And it's like, well, you just don't want to be in business then, because that's just what you got to do. You got to put in the reps just like anything, you know. Any muscle has to be strained to be strengthened, and it takes time. There's no shortcut.

LaShonda Brown [00:15:22]:

People can give you little tips. Of course, you know, when we would do all these interviews for our commercial video content, you know, I had things like, if you hold a stress ball in your hand out of frame, you can squeeze on the stress ball, it distracts you enough to not be as stressed on camera. There there are tricks of the trade, like I'm not gonna lie to you, but at the end of the day, if you're doing video more often, you're going to get better at doing video and you're going to be better on camera. And so I would just encourage you, if you feel like you're not where you wanna be, then maybe create video content in a forum where you have a smaller audience. Maybe, you know, you go live in a zoom call with a couple of your friends, you know, you go live in a private Facebook or something, but at a certain point, you just gotta be bad before you're good. Everybody, anywhere has to do it, and so getting over that part and embracing it. If you misspeak, if you, you know, have a hair out of place, if you get lost in your words, own it. Because eventually you'll realize those things that you're so afraid of make you human and make you more relatable.

LaShonda Brown [00:16:30]:

And so when you can kinda lean in to, like, oh, yeah. I'm human. Oh, yeah. I suck right now, but I'm gonna get better, then you will get better a lot faster.

Bryan McAnulty [00:16:38]:

Yeah. That's great. And I think that to add to that, when you first try to make those videos, you can't spend forever trying to make it perfect because it's still not gonna be. It's still gonna be bad. And the way to make it better is just to keep doing more and more. And on one hand, if you're afraid that, like, it's so embarrassing of how bad it is, first of all, probably no one's gonna see it because it's just not gonna be very good. But second of all, maybe people do see it, and maybe it is good. And maybe it's better than you think, and people will actually continue watching it, and they are getting some kind of value from it.

Bryan McAnulty [00:17:16]:

Like, I know I have content that I produced a while ago, and I feel, like, so embarrassed by it. But, like, people still watch it sometimes, and it's helpful to them. So okay well that's that's good but you have to keep practicing it it is like a muscle like you say.

LaShonda Brown [00:17:33]:

Yeah and I think it's it's just super important to remember like worst case scenario just mark it private later, you know, There's some videos that just aren't relevant anymore. Now they're old, so there's that too, but like they're just not relevant. So I just marked them as private. Like, it's okay. You post something, it bombs, you can archive it. You can mark it private, but don't let that keep you from trying.

Bryan McAnulty [00:17:53]:

Yeah. So your YouTube channel, Bootstrap Biz Advice has more than 30 k subscribers. What are some strategies you use to kind of, like, grow that from the ground up?

LaShonda Brown [00:18:08]:

Yeah. I think when you get started and, you know, there's multiple schools of thought on this, I think you have to lean into the fact that it's a search engine. You know, you've got to understand YouTube SEO and really try to create content that solves a very specific problem, so people who don't know you stumble across you just because they typed in the keyword search terms. Eventually you're going to get to a point where you can get beyond just SEO heavy content and you can focus more on personality driven content serving your subscribers and your community, but when you're starting from scratch and nobody knows who you are, you know, you've logged in your life when you're a complete stranger, no one's going to care, you know. So you've got to do something to give them a reason to be there, and so you can leverage SEO. You can also leverage trending topics, you know something happens in the news and you want to give your hot take on it, well people are going to be looking for that subject and they may stumble across you because of that. But otherwise, I think that you know the strategy over time has changed and even the tech tools that are available have changed. There's a new one that I've been utilizing called hype HQ, and it's a community of women who are helping to amplify other women's content.

LaShonda Brown [00:19:25]:

It didn't exist when I started, but now that it's there, I've used it to help boost engagement and views on my content. So tech tools are gonna come and go, and sometimes you can leverage them, you know like a vidIQ or tube buddy, that can help you with your seo, but I think ultimately you have to be willing to, you know, kind of pay your dues with okay the purpose of this video is not, you know, to look amazing, it's just I need people to watch, you know, and so how to videos are going to perform very well on YouTube, but don't rest on that. Don't stay there, because eventually you'll need to transition to more personality based content, so it's not so transactional with your audience. So it got me started. It helped me become a Canva verified expert and get on Canva's radar, but we do a lot more different things on the channel now than we did when I got started.

Bryan McAnulty [00:20:19]:

Yeah. So you're an expert in using all these different tech tools to kinda solve problems and simplify business in a way. Any hot takes on AI and how that is gonna kinda shape the future of content creation?

LaShonda Brown [00:20:35]:

I love this conversation because people make so many assumptions. They assume that because I'm a tech educator that I love AI, and I really don't. I really don't. Oh, and I think the reason why is because I think the vast majority of the people that leverage AI are utilizing it to remove the humanity from their content, and people want you to be more human, not less human these days. So it's almost like you're you're hurting yourself by allowing bots to pretend to be you in the LinkedIn comments because we can tell

Bryan McAnulty [00:21:14]:

Oh, yeah.

LaShonda Brown [00:21:14]:

From the usage of the word innovative that that wasn't you. And then you see the stream of other comments that have a similar thought provoking response, and you kind of go, man, like I miss the days when people responded to posts. But I do think that automation and leveraging AI is a powerful thing for the mundane tasks that you have in your business that you can delegate to them to free yourself up, to lean into the things that only you can do. That's how I view AI. I don't use AI to write my emails, I don't use AI to write my posts, but when it comes to scheduling appointments, when it comes to sending out invoices or things like that, like those are the types of things that I want to see people leveraging what's gonna set you apart. And to sacrifice the uniqueness of your voice for the sake of an AI tool is missing the mark in my mind. So I'm not anti AI. I'm just anti how 90% of people use it.

LaShonda Brown [00:22:32]:

I'm sick of seeing the same captions on reels. I'm sick of seeing, you know, bots respond to comments.

Bryan McAnulty [00:22:40]:

Unleashing the transformative way to change your content.

LaShonda Brown [00:22:43]:

Yeah. I'm like I just that's not that's not what I'm about, but I will tell you, you know, you've got tools like ManyChat making Instagram useful again. And it's like, wow, like because I've got this chatbot, I can post content and drive traffic off of Instagram with more ease and help my customers because they can respond to comments faster than I can. That's a great application of a tech tool, but it's like I'm not using tech to write my captions. I'm not using it to choose, you know, what clips to stitch together to make a reel. So like I said, I'm not anti, but yeah, especially when it comes to copywriting. It just I'm like, we can tell. We can tell.

LaShonda Brown [00:23:28]:

Who are you fooling?

Bryan McAnulty [00:23:30]:

As the founder of an AI software platform, I think you actually completely hit the nail on the head about the idea of people missing the mark in writing the content because we get, like, I guess, about every day, somebody emailing us and saying, okay. You guys have Heights AI, and you are a first creation software. So is it gonna make can I make the course, have it make it for me? And we tell them, like, no. You don't wanna do that because, like, the value of the course is just like you said, your unique message and unique experiences. That's why people are buying it. And so if it's a chat gpt course, then it's the same as everybody else's chat gpt course, and you could just go and ask chat gpt that. Right? So, yeah, it's really important to use it as a tool to augment what you can do, not replace your actual creative message and experience. Replace your actual creative message and experience.

LaShonda Brown [00:24:24]:

Yeah. That's a really good way to put it. Augment it, not replace it. So good.

Bryan McAnulty [00:24:31]:

So how about using AI to grow on, like, a platform like YouTube? Any anything that you found where you are using it where it's been helpful, for you?

LaShonda Brown [00:24:43]:

Yeah. TubeBuddy. I'm I'm addicted to TubeBuddy. I I think that it really has helped me to understand how to get my content in front of the right people, and so whether it's, you know, helping to score my title or score my description, I I think tags aren't as important as they used to be, but it's really helped me to see, you know, I think this type of video would perform well, and then I'll put it in the keyword explorer, and I'm like, oh, I was wrong, you know? And so instead of spending a lot of time creating a piece of content going in the completely wrong direction, now I have almost this you know co producer for my content to say okay, I have so many things I could share, but how should I position it in such a way where the right people find the right content? And so I think that's a great way to use tech to help grow on YouTube is to to leverage something like a TubeBuddy that's actively you know not just scanning your content, but what people are searching for on YouTube in general and helping you to gauge is this on track or is this not?

Bryan McAnulty [00:25:52]:

Yeah. Yeah. I think even just AI and other tools aside, I do like YouTube as a platform because how transparent it makes it for the creator of, like, what you can do to improve. And, like, even though Google's the same company, like, you write a post or a page on your website, it's like, how do I get this to show up in Google? And it's like, okay. It's showing up. Why isn't it showing up higher? And, like, you don't know how you can make it better. But with YouTube, you get to see, like, where people are coming from, that they find your video. You get to see the retention and everything, and you can realize, like, oh, you know what? Like, this I'm not doing as good in this video as this one or or this one's really standing out.

Bryan McAnulty [00:26:33]:

And you can kinda figure out what you can do to try to improve in that next video. Whereas with a lot of other social media tools, I feel like it's a lot more, like, hidden of what is actually gonna make the difference to make something better.

LaShonda Brown [00:26:48]:

Well, it's so freaking volatile. You know? I I'm not well, no. I should say that. I am anti Instagram in a lot of ways. You know? And I think part of it, it has so little to do with the tool, but it's it's what's happening behind the scenes. I feel like the constant changes put people in a situation where they can't sustain good strategy. So people are literally just throwing things against the wall because you can create a strategy based on advice from a month ago and it not be relevant a month later. And I'm like, YouTube has pretty been pretty yeah.

LaShonda Brown [00:27:24]:

It can be completely YouTube is steady. You know? It's not changed that much over the past decade. But when I think about Instagram over the past, I I guess they're at least 10 years old at this point, I'm like, what we used to do on Instagram is like a completely different app, you know, where it was like photographers sharing their photos and people sharing, you know, their lives and, you know, photos from vacations and things like that. It's like even the concept of, like, taking a selfie, you know, like that's an Instagram thing to be so self focused that you're taking a picture of yourself instead of taking a picture of an experience or with other people, and so, yeah, I just think from a methodology standpoint it's totally different. People on on YouTube are either entertaining you or educating you. On Instagram, it's like, we don't know. We don't know why they're posting. But they're posting.

Bryan McAnulty [00:28:17]:

This is a great example for if you're watching or listening this right now and you have been kinda apprehensive about video content, I hope that this is a reason for you to maybe look into something like YouTube because I'm sure, like, if you've been posting on Instagram, like, you can relate to to what you're hearing here. And, like, even the example of, like, when reels first came out. Right? We would, like we'd be posting these photos, and it's like, okay. We're getting all these likes. And then one day, it seemed like overnight, no one's liking any of the photos anymore. And then it's like, oh, well and no one's liking the videos anymore either. That's because it's all just reels content now. And, like, Instagram's algorithm changed to, like, prioritize that because they knew that that would be big, but they didn't tell creators that really.

Bryan McAnulty [00:29:07]:

So it's, it was very, kind of hidden towards what do I actually do here and what's working and why did it suddenly change and and who knows? But, yeah, YouTube

LaShonda Brown [00:29:19]:

is definitely from my video background, I think it's hysterical the fact that things have kind of regressed so much on Instagram that now we're considering b roll footage with text on screen as a video. I'm like, man, what a weird time to be alive. You know what I mean? It's like it's a screen saver with text. It's on a video. You know? So it's just like it's very interesting to me. Instagram is a unnecessary evil, I guess. But Yeah. And and I like the I like DMs.

Bryan McAnulty [00:29:52]:

Yeah. Is the b roll of text, is that actually actually more entertaining to watch or look at than, like, a really well done or well taken photo? I don't think so, but but that's how it's working, it seems. So, on another topic, you often talk about working smarter, not harder. So what's one habit or strategy that you feel has drastically reduced your workload while helping you to drive results?

LaShonda Brown [00:30:21]:

Yeah. I mean, I I think oh, man, there's so many things I could share, but I I think trying to get more leverage out of what I was already doing was huge for me. So every Monday, I go live on YouTube at 10 o'clock. And the reason why I do that number 1, it helps me remember that like YouTube is my job, so it gives me a place to like show up at the beginning of the week, and I'm like oh yeah, this used to be my hobby, but it's like a real job now. So it helps to like tether me down and be like okay, start the week, but then also it gives me an opportunity to market my offers in a very chill, relaxed way to new people, and then engage with my community. So instead of me doing a whole separate office hours call inside my membership community, I'm like, y'all know I'm gonna be on YouTube Monday at 10. If you have a question, ask me on the live stream. Just ask me.

LaShonda Brown [00:31:13]:

And so now I'm able to market and serve my members at the same time. So where it would have taken me 2 to 3 hours, now it's 1 hour. You know, then I've got one of my editors can take content from that live stream, trim it out, repurpose it and turn that into a feed video. It can be a trailer for a live stream round table. It can be a standalone video on my feed. And so I use that Monday at 10 as an opportunity to keep my page active, that if I am slammed, if nothing else, I will post once a week by going live and then I optimize it after it's over and I'm good to go. And so I think taking that pressure off myself to even have an edited video every week, and just learn to increase the quality of my live streams, I'm able to get that, you know, consistency without ever having to edit anything myself. And so I think that was just like such a game changer, and people enjoy it.

LaShonda Brown [00:32:14]:

You know, we had a great time this morning, and so I just realized I'm like, yeah, I have more room to do more thoughtful deep focus work because I get it out of the way first thing in the morning on Monday morning, and now I have, you know, more hours to dedicate to to dedicate to other

Bryan McAnulty [00:32:32]:

things later in

LaShonda Brown [00:32:32]:

the week. Yeah. Yeah. That's really great.

Bryan McAnulty [00:32:33]:

And I can think of,

LaShonda Brown [00:32:33]:

like, other

Bryan McAnulty [00:32:33]:

ways that that's even helpful than from what you've mentioned. So you've got your existing audience. You're helping them. You've got potentially new people finding you and other helping them. You've got potentially new people finding you and other people who maybe are not your customers yet. They can tune in and learn from you, and they get to see your audience who who purchase from you. And they're like, oh, wow. I should I become, like, a part of whatever is going on here? And then you also have for yourself, like, the feedback loop.

Bryan McAnulty [00:33:02]:

So you might start talking about something, your audience comments about something, and you realize later on, I gotta make a whole video about this, and then that turns into more content for you. Whereas if you didn't do this at all, then Monday is like you're sitting there. What do I do? How do I come up with content? And it and it's so much more challenging. So, yeah, you're you're giving yourself at least that, and then that can kind of both feed into what you do later, plus provide you now you've got this time for more creative freedom after.

LaShonda Brown [00:33:36]:

And I think it's us honestly, it's so fun because, again, I get to get those reps in. You know? Yeah. It's like okay, it's helping me to become better at speaking, because I go live every week, and I talk for an hour. It's nuts. But every week I do an hour long live stream, then I'm like, oh, okay, cool, I'm done. And so Monday's like my CEO day, and so I do check-in with all my team members and make sure we're on track, and then I just do those errands and those things working, you know, in my business that I don't get to do that often. And then, you know, starting Tuesday, then that's when I do my meetings and film film and all that, but nobody likes the meetings on Monday anyway. So the only people I make meet with me are my team members, and they get paid, so, like, they're good.

LaShonda Brown [00:34:19]:

And so then we move on. It's great.

Bryan McAnulty [00:34:22]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's good. So community seems to play a pretty big role in your work, and I know now you've got this app too. So can you tell a little bit more about, like, how building a strong community has kinda influenced both your business and your personal growth?

LaShonda Brown [00:34:41]:

Yeah. I mean, I think it's important that we don't feel alone when we start to show up online. It's so easy to be like, oh my gosh. I'm talking to a camera. I know he's talking back. Like, this is the worst. You know, it sounds cool at first until you're stuck staring at a screen and you're like man, this I miss the people. And so, you know, I try to create spaces where like minded people can come and share and collaborate.

LaShonda Brown [00:35:09]:

And so, you know, I created the spaces that I wanted to occupy versus complaining about what didn't exist. And so that's kind of what fueled the app, but then also, you know, I started to realize, I'm like, you know what, I can better serve my community by leveraging my other community, you know, to educate them. So I bring in other educators and so now instead of my monthly workshops being, oh here's LaShonna making another slide deck, I just co facilitate, I sit back, you know, I run the show behind the scenes, and I let my friends teach on their subject matter expertise. And so all of a sudden, instead of having this pressure on myself to be a jack of all trades, I'm like, no, I am not an expert in everything. Let me bring in, you know, a friend who's good at marketing experimentation, a friend that's good at pricing strategy and AI and YouTube SEO and all sorts of things. Now my members can get a more well rounded education because you've got specialists, you know, doing very targeted workshops versus me being a generalist and just checking the boxes, and so you know I really enjoy those calls and I leverage tech to keep them engaging and fun and we have like commercial breaks and live polls and music and I mean I just do everything I possibly can to make those calls a a place where people enjoy coming back to, like that monthly waypoint to say, okay let me get inspired again to keep creating and if I can do that people will, you know, stay members, my churn will stay low, you know retention will be great, but at the same time they'll get the outcomes because they actually want to watch the call replays if they don't make it live or they want to carve out the time to attend and be in the room. So it's to me it's like it fuels me and it gets me excited about what I'm creating because I know for a fact that it's impacting lives because they talk back to me and they only talk back to me because I create spaces where they feel like their opinions are welcomed. So it's just been a huge change for me versus you know, just being the tutorial lady.

LaShonda Brown [00:37:19]:

Because there was a time where that's what I did, but I'm like, you know, this isn't sustainable. Like, I can't I can't just, you know, record my screen and hit publish and stay happy with what I'm doing. And so the missing link was community, and once I started leaning more into that, I'm like, no. Dream job. I could do this for the rest of my life. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm glad to

Bryan McAnulty [00:37:39]:

hear that because I agree, and I think that community is such a powerful and valuable thing to add to your offering, not only because of the value it brings to your customers, but, like like you said, it's like, this is the place you wanna be. And so it's an enjoyable thing to do, an enjoyable thing to work on. And, I like the your approach to the workshops too. That's how I do do it with my business as well, bring other people in. And, I love going on the workshop calls, and I learn things as well from, everyone we have on. So, yeah, that's great. I got one more question for you, and that is that on the show, I like to have every guest ask a question to the audience. So if you could ask our audience anything whether something you're curious about or just wanna kinda get people thinking about, what would that be?

LaShonda Brown [00:38:30]:

Yeah. I'm a huge fan of the 20 hour work week, but I I see a lot of people not doing it even though I know it's a super effective thing to do. So I would say my question for the audience is if you are not working a 20 hour work week, what is the number one thing that's holding you back? Because I am going to be working on a challenge and so I really want to hear that perspective of like what is it? Like why won't you do it? Why won't you take the leap? So I'm not sure where this is going to go afterwards, but like for real, tell me what is holding you back from giving up on 40 hour work weeks and embracing the 20?

Bryan McAnulty [00:39:08]:

Awesome. Alright. Well, Lashonda, thanks so much for coming on the show. Before we get going, where else can people find you online?

LaShonda Brown [00:39:15]:

Yeah. So I'm definitely on YouTube, Bootstrap Biz Device, and you can watch my videos and give it thumbs up and not skip ads. That'd be awesome. But if you would like to be a part of the community that I was describing, you can go to bootstrapbizdevice.com. So that's where we take what we do on YouTube to the next level, and we'd love to have you.

Bryan McAnulty [00:39:33]:

Alright. Awesome. Thanks so much.

LaShonda Brown [00:39:36]:

Thanks again.

Bryan McAnulty [00:39:37]:

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