Andrea Vahl is a Social Media Coach, Strategist, and Speaker. She helps Entrepreneurs leverage the power of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn to grow their community and increase their revenue. She facilitates Social Media workshops, Facebook Bootcamps, and Facebook webinars, as well as one-on-one coaching and speaking.
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Resources Mentioned:
- Your Big Idea: Successful Entrepreneurs have One Big Idea. Follow JLD’s FREE training & you’ll discover Your Big Idea in less than an hour!
- Audible – Get a FREE Audiobook & 30 day trial if you’re not currently a member!
Success Quote
- “Let no feelings of discouragement prey upon you and in the end you are sure to succeed.” – Abraham Lincoln.
- “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Rooselvelt.
Business Failure
- Andrea shares her failures with us throughout her entire journey as an Entrepreneur, which started at a very young age.
Entrepreneurial AHA Moment
- Andrea’s AHA moment defined her business. It did not please all, but if you are aiming to please everyone, it is likely you will please no one. So, her plan was sound.
Current Business
- Andrea is at a crossroads as to how she should proceed with her business. Listen to her latest idea…
Small Business Resource
- Commun.It: Commun.it dramatically improves the way you manage your community, monitor engagement, track campaign and discover leads on Twitter! (Sorry! This link was active when this episode was first published in 2012. This site is no longer available.)
- Heyo: Heyo helps you customize fan pages, launch mobile apps, and generate websites, all in one place.
Best Business Book
- The Success Principles by Jack Canfield.
- Influence by Robert B. Cialdini.
Interview Links
- Andrea’s site
- Heyo.com
- Commun.it (Sorry! This link was active when this episode was first published in 2012. This site is no longer available.)
Killer Resources!
1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!
2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!
3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!
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Full Transcript
John Dumas: Hire Fire Nation and thank you for joining me for another episode of EntrepreneurOnFire.com, your daily dose of inspiration. If you enjoy this free podcast, please show your support by leaving a rating and review here at iTunes. I will make sure to give you a shout out on an upcoming showing to thank you!
John Lee Dumas: Okay. Let’s get started. I am simply exhilarated to introduce my guest today, Andrea Vahl. Andrea, are you prepared to ignite?
Andrea Vahl: Absolutely!
John Lee Dumas: Alright! Andrea is a social media coach, strategist and speaker. She helps entrepreneurs leverage the power of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn to grow their community and increase their revenue. She facilitates social media workshops, Facebook boot camps, Facebook webinars, as well as one-on-one coaching and speaking.
I’ve given Fire Nation a little overview, Andrea, but why don’t you tell us a little bit about who you are personally, and then about what you do specifically?
Andrea Vahl: Yes. Thank you so much, John, for having me on. This is going to be so much fun. I’m excited. Yes. I started out blogging and I have a little background on my blog. I like to let people know that there is someone they’ll meet when they come to my blog. So I started out blogging a number of years ago and I wanted to make my blog a little bit different. And so I decided to bring in some of my passion for wearing wigs into my blog [Laughs]. I have an improv comedy background, and so I decided to start my blog as a character and blog as a character rather than myself and make it a fun, interactive YouTube video blog that Grandma Mary was going to be the one who was going to deliver the messages and tutorials on that blog. And so I like to let people know that if they come to my website, you’ll also meet Grandma Mary there. She’s kind of a fun character who kind of tells it straight and gets a little cranky about all the changes that happen and the frustrating things that are out there when you’re interacting on social media. Her motto is a little upbeat, so she says, “If Grandma Mary can do it, you can do it too.”
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs] Is that a little Long Island there? Is that an accent?
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs] I don’t know where she’s from. Yes, she’s one of my characters. She just gets a little cranky. Yes. She’s got a little accent [Laughs]. It’s so very fun.
John Lee Dumas: I love that, Andrea, and what I see as being so beneficial about that is definitely a number of things, but one thing that just pops into my mind is that sometimes your clients just need the gosh darn hard truth, and sometimes the truth hurts. If you got to deliver that as Andrea, you might hurt some feelings and you might kind of step on some people’s toes. And though you don’t mean to, or maybe you do, but they just kind of take it the wrong way and hard feelings definitely could happen down the road. But if you come across as that fun kind of Grandma Mary personality, it’s all light, it’s all fun, but you get your message across, and maybe you just don’t hurt their feelings quite as much because they realize that hey, this is coming from Grandma Mary and not Andrea.
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs] Well, and Grandma definitely gets to say things that I might not, and she gets to be a little bit cranky about how things work too because I think everyone gets frustrated and maybe making it light-hearted and more fun can also help people learn too because who doesn’t need to laugh when you’re kind of irritated about the way things are going with your blog or online or with something that you’re trying to install or whatever it is.
John Lee Dumas: Oh, and I was on your site and you definitely go all out for it too. I mean I saw the costume. I mean it’s really to the nines. So I definitely commend you for that. I have to ask you, in your past improv experience, have you had any ventriloquist experience?
Andrea Vahl: No. I definitely don’t think I could do that, but I do love getting kind of crazy, wearing the wigs and being just really all out wild. So I have a lot of fun and I like to have fun in my business too because I think that helps me let loose and kind of look at the humorous side of running your own business because it’s hard work. So it’s fun to bring that piece of me into my business and make it very personal for me.
John Lee Dumas: I love that. We’ll use that to transition now to our next topic, which you can either give us – no, I’m going to tell you what. You told us that you have two quotes for us. So can you give us one quote as Andrea and one quote as Grandma Mary?
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs] That, I could. Here’s Grandma Mary’s quote because she likes to kind of let people know not to get discouraged. So here’s Grandma’s quote. “Let no feelings of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end, you are sure to succeed.” Abraham Lincoln said that, [to finish up] the quote.
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs] I love it!
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs] So I love that quote because I think that is such a big problem with running our businesses and being entrepreneurs, is that it’s easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to look at what other people are doing and say, “Oh my gosh, look at them. They’re doing so much and I’m not doing as much and I’m not succeeding the way they are.” Really, you have to just keep your blinders on and keep going for it. It’s definitely a marathon. It’s not a sprint race. I think in the end, the person who is there longest can sometimes win [Laughs].
John Lee Dumas: Absolutely, Andrea. Now, as Andrea, give us your second quote.
Andrea Vahl: Okay. My next quote is from Theodore Roosevelt and I love this quote. “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits, neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
John Lee Dumas: Wow! That quote is very deep. It just keeps going and it just hits such a core with most entrepreneurs and really just is such an inspirational quote. How do you take that and apply it to your everyday mentality?
Andrea Vahl: Where I really take that to be is just to really make sure that you are going for it and make sure that you are daring greatly. That’s another book I’m reading right now. You have to go out on a limb. You have to push yourself and stretch yourself and lots of remarkable things can happen. I think that once you put yourself out there in a much bigger way and make yourself more vulnerable, which is scary, but it also gives better rewards, I think. It’s scary. It’s a scary thing, but I think you definitely just have to go with [more].
John Lee Dumas: Awesome, Andrea. Thank you for that insight. We’re going to transition now to our next topic, but before we do, I just want to make it very clear that as the host, Andrea, you can come out and speak as much as you want to Fire Nation, but if Grandma Mary ever wants to peek her head out and say anything, she’s more than welcome to as well.
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs] Grandma [Unintelligible]. She feels like she doesn’t get as much airtime. No, I don’t get as much airtime. Thank you, John! I appreciate that because good lord, it’s just like I’m doing all the behind-the-scenes work a lot of times and Andrea gets the glory.
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs]
Andrea Vahl: I’m working my butt off out here!
John Lee Dumas: Alright. This dual personality thing is working. I want to make that clear. So we’re going to use that. We’re going to transition to our next topic, which is failure, because Andrea, as an entrepreneur, you’ve experienced failure. You faced obstacles and had to overcome different challenges on so many levels. It’s what makes us entrepreneurs because if we’re not failing, we’re not pushing our limits. We’re not following the creed of Theodore Roosevelt that you so eloquently said. So share with us a time that you failed as an entrepreneur that you feel would be very valuable for Fire Nation.
Andrea Vahl: Yes. That’s definitely an interesting topic because I feel like failure is such a loaded word. I really subscribe to the mentality of it’s just not succeeding yet or not finding the way that was successful yet, and it’s all built into what we are now.
John Lee Dumas: Yes.
Andrea Vahl: It’s like I definitely don’t feel like I ever have truly failed. I just had lessons, and they’re really hard, sucky lessons sometimes. But I’ve had lots and lots of businesses throughout my career and I had started when I was five years old. I went door to door selling paintings for a penny each. I mean that’s where my entrepreneur mindset started where I wanted to figure out how to get a little extra pocket change. And so I went door to door and sold my paintings for five cents each. I sold them all, so that was a success. I’ve had other things that I’ve tried that haven’t been as successful. Like when I was in college, I tried making some different vests and making some T-shirts and trying to sell those. I didn’t succeed with that business as well because I didn’t have the highest quality of the products. I was kind of trying to cut corners a little bit and maybe make the shirts and the products a little bit less expensive, and so they didn’t sell as well as I had thought they would, and I ended up with a lot of inventory that I didn’t know what to do with. I mean I think it’s things like that that you just take these little lessons from, and say, “Okay, that didn’t work because,” and then try and carry that with you and apply that to the future. So I definitely think that there is just a reframing that needs to happen and I think that failure just sounds so final and it really isn’t.
John Lee Dumas: That’s so true, Andrea, and I love your outlook on that. You’ve done such a good job sharing with us your journey, starting with your young years and moving to your college years, and you’ve learned from first your success and then from your failure. Take us to a time back in the last 10 years when you’ve come up against a challenge or an obstacle that you really had to dig deep to overcome.
Andrea Vahl: Yes. I mean this isn’t a business example, but I think that for me, it was a real turning point in what I knew I could achieve and I think it happens for a lot of people who – I ran a marathon – and I think that is a point for a lot of people that they point to as a place where they had a realization of what they could accomplish and they’re proud of that accomplishment. I never thought I could run. I had never run more than 6 miles in my life or 10K, and I never thought I could run a marathon. I thought that was crazy. I’m slow, I’m not a fast runner, I didn’t think I could really do that long of a race. But I just kept going and I set out a plan and I followed the plan. Some weeks were terrible. They didn’t work at all according to the plan where I was supposed to run 11 miles and I could barely run 8, even though last week I had done that with no problems. So you have these ups and downs and it’s this long training process that you just have to keep focused with. What I was amazed with is that how mental the journey was. It was not physical. It was almost entirely mental and keeping yourself and your head in the game. It was incredible to me to see what you can achieve and what you can do when you are so focused toward that goal. It was really hard. I did not set any records or anything by any means, but it made me realize, “Wow! I can do anything that I put my mind to.”
John Lee Dumas: That is a great example and it’s a great metaphor for entrepreneurs in general because the ride that we’re on is such a roller coaster. We are on cloud 9 on Monday. We are down in the dumps on Tuesday. And then on Thursday, we’re just kind of cruising along so, so. So it’s like the ups and the downs, it’s such a mental game and you need to have your head screwed on straight just like you do for a marathon. I love that metaphor. Let’s use that, Andrea, to move into our next topic because we’ve talked about the challenges and the obstacles. Let’s go to the other end of the spectrum now, and that’s the aha moment. There is some point in your journey when you just had the sun shine down, the clouds part, the birds are singing and you’re like, “Wow! This is something that I can really resonate with. Something that I’m passionate about that I think can really work.” We’ve all had these aha moments. The lucky ones, we have them multiple times every single day on a small level, on a larger level. Can you share with us one special aha moment that you’ve had?
Andrea Vahl: Yes. I think it was when I decided to have Grandma Mary do her blog, do the blog. I knew that I wasn’t finding exactly what I wanted out there when I was going around looking at social media tutorials. They were all really boring. I was thinking, oh man, how could I add my voice to this, but be really unique? So when it came to me that I was going to have Grandma Mary do the blog, it really felt like the clouds parted, and I’m like, “This is it. This is going to be it” because I knew that I had the drive to be an entrepreneur and I had done several things in my entrepreneurial journey, and not all of them were successful. Some of them were, some of them weren’t, some more than others, but I knew that I had something that could be really great that I wanted to share, and I really didn’t even care necessarily. My drive was never to make like a million dollars or anything like that. It was more to share both the knowledge in the social media world and give really great information and provide really good value for people and get really in-depth with some of the techniques that you can use on social media to promote your business.
I love working with entrepreneurs. I love like helping them grow their business. It’s so exciting for me. But also, my kind of dual purpose was to help show people that you can be different. It’s okay to bring in your gifts into your business and show people more of your personality and be really different, and you can still have a good business doing it. So if Grandma actually had spoken it, it may [Unintelligible] and her message was Grandma Mary says don’t be afraid to be different! That was my talk. You can go look it up on Grandma’s Corner. I’ve got a video. It’s fantastic. It’s a hot message! And you can let your freak fly butt fly, baby, and still give good value and have a good business. That’s my message right there.
John Lee Dumas: Oh my God, I love Grandma Mary! Is that weird?
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs]
John Lee Dumas: So Andrea, that’s such a distinct aha moment that you have, and what I love is that it’s one of those out-of-the-box moments. Kind of outside of the square where you were just going along. You were consuming content that was out there and it was some good content, but it was just lacking a little bit a personality or a little just entertainment value that you were looking for, and you knew that there were other people out there like you that maybe didn’t even realize that they were lacking it, but once they saw it, they knew they were. So wow, that’s a great aha moment. Give us a couple of specific reactions that you got when you initially launched Grandma Mary.
Andrea Vahl: Well, right from the beginning, Grandma Mary got a lot of great reactions. There were some negative ones too, and there still are. That’s okay and I knew from the beginning that it would be a little bit dangerous, although it could attract some negative reactions from people who don’t get it. I understand. Grandma Mary is not for everybody, and that’s okay. I’m happy to [segment] myself and say, “If you don’t relate to Grandma Mary, if you don’t like her, if she rubs you the wrong way, that’s really fine. There’s other people that you can connect with,” but I have a lot of people who love Grandma Mary and just want to connect with her and watch her videos and things like that. So now that I’m out a little bit more as Andrea – I used to only be Grandma Mary online. I used to never mention Andrea. I have a little coming out kind of video where I announced that Andrea was behind the wig.
John Lee Dumas: I could picture you dancing to that song, “I’m coming out…”
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs]
John Lee Dumas: “I want the world to know…”
Andrea Vahl: I have never done a music video. That’s what we need to do! That’s next.
John Lee Dumas: Oh, I’m so glad to have inspired and ignited that fire.
Andrea Vahl: It’s awesome! I’m excited. I’m already planning the video.
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs]
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs] Yes. So the reaction was very, very positive, and a lot of people spread the word for me. I mean that was a really cool thing, is that people were like, “Oh, you’ve got to go check out Grandma Mary,” and still continue to spread the word. I even find people talking about me in other places, and I’m like, “Oh, that’s so cool” because it’s really nice to know that I’m helping and filling a niche that is needed. But I knew also that it was going to be a little bit polarizing for some people. I’ve had some not so nice comments on my videos, on my blog. People not knowing what’s going on. That’s okay. I knew and I was prepared for that and it’s fine to segment yourself.
John Lee Dumas: Well, let me run something by you, Andrea. I haven’t talked about this in a little while on EntrepreneurOnFire, but I have mentioned it quite a few times in the earlier interviews. I’m a big believer in the 20-60-20 rule. Now what that is is there are 20% of people who are just always going to love what you do and be huge fans and they’re just going to support you and pretty much everything you throw out. Everything you throw out is going to stick. Then there’s going to be 20% of people, you couldn’t do anything right, no matter what. Those are the lurkers, those are people that are just never going to resonate with you, and that’s totally fine. And then there’s the 60% of people who are out there that are just kind of interested. Maybe they’re going to be swayed and they might be pushed into that 20% at some point, but those are the people that I like to focus on for EntrepreneurOnFire as far as reach out and ask them what I can do to improve, and the 20% of people who are just my loyal, loving fans who I can’t do anything wrong for, I treat them like VIPs because they are my VIPs, and I just completely ignore that other 20%. What do you feel about that theory?
Andrea Vahl: I love that. That’s great. I’ve never heard of that theory before. I’ve never heard it segmented that way, but I think that is so perfect and I definitely feel like that sounds like the right percentages that are typical for any audience. I think that makes a lot of sense. I love the idea of focusing on that 60% to see what you can improve with, and then also just making sure your loyal fans are your VIPs. So I love that!
John Lee Dumas: Well, listen, Andrea. I’m a podcaster. You’re the writer. So I’ll make a deal with you. You’re an incredible writer for Social Media Examiner. I’m a huge fan of them. We’ve had Michael Stelzner on the show. He’s amazing. Your articles on that are amazing. I give you complete right, if you choose, to write an awesome article about the 20-60-20 rule with just one small shout out to EntrepreneurOnFire. That’s all you need to do.
Andrea Vahl: Oh, that’s very awesome!
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs]
Andrea Vahl: You’re giving me a lot to do! I got to make a music video, I got to… [Laughs]
John Lee Dumas: Oh, by the way, I’ll be in that music video too. I’m just throwing it out there.
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs]
John Lee Dumas: So Andrea, oh man, I’m loving this interview, but I got to push it along a little bit because I want to ask you this question because you just seem to have such a great outlook on life. Have you had an I’ve made it moment?
Andrea Vahl: I’ve had real I’ve made it moments. In fact, one came today where I was put on the list of 25 women rocking social media by Lee Odden’s TopRank blog. Like any type of thing like that, I’m always so proud of and honored to be included on, but I don’t feel like I have necessarily made it where I can kick back, relax and do whatever I want to do now. I don’t think that’s ever felt like an it moment for me. What I feel like is okay, now, that’s awesome and I’m excited and I celebrate that moment, but then what else can I do? How can I get even better? Because I know there’s always ways that we can improve and I think that it makes sense to reach out to those 60% of those people who maybe have ideas on how you can improve in that. So I definitely am always thinking about what else can I do? How can I serve my audience even more? That kind of thing. So I definitely think it’s fun to have those celebrations, but there’s always more challenges to go for.
John Lee Dumas: As expected, Andrea, I just feel like you’re spot on because it’s so important to enjoy the journey. That’s what an entrepreneur is all about. We bring the journey of the entrepreneur to our listeners here at Fire Nation. I always stress the fact that it’s all about the journey, it’s all about enjoying it because that’s all we have. It’s so important to set goals and to reach those goals, and then to get to that point and then set your next goals even higher, but along the way, you need to appreciate your accomplishments and what you’ve done because those are the moments that make up a great life. So I’m glad to hear you do that. We’re going to use that now to go into the next topic, which is one thing that you are really excited about in your business right now.
Andrea Vahl: Well, I’m really excited about the focus I’m going to be putting on speaking events. I’m really focusing on that for the next year, is to get out and do some more speaking. I’ve connected with some other speakers and we’ve got a website called “Five Star Speakers.” We’re going to be really focusing on getting out there and doing some events, doing some talks and speaking to lots of different groups. So that’s what I’m excited about right now, is putting in some focus on that.
John Lee Dumas: Awesome! I think I caught that you’re speaking at the Social Media Marketing World event in San Diego?
Andrea Vahl: Yes. That’s going to be awesome. I am so looking forward to that event. It’s going to be really, really great. Lots of amazing speakers on the list, on the speakers’ list, but also just really fantastic people coming and I’m going to get to meet a lot of people that I’ve connected with online and it’s always fun to meet people in person, so I’m looking forward to that.
John Lee Dumas: Well, including me. So maybe we can do a Grandma Mary skit cameo then.
Andrea Vahl: We can [Laughs]. Grandma might need to interview you, John.
John Lee Dumas: Awesome! We’ll do it on the cruise ship so it will be an amazing background of the San Diego skyline.
Andrea Vahl: Yes.
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs] So Andrea, what vision do you have for the future of Grandma Mary and/or AndreaVahl.com?
Andrea Vahl: Yes. That’s a really good question. I think that’s a hard question for me to answer right now. I think the vision for me right now is speaking and in getting small products put together so that I can connect with more people. I love one-on-one. All the one-on-one coaching I do is fantastic and amazing. It’s hard for me to fit as much as I want in my schedule. So probably do some more group events, some more product-based things to help people, and I just love working with entrepreneurs. So I want to continue that journey. I want to continue that focus in my business of helping other businesses grow because I just find it fascinating and fun.
John Lee Dumas: Absolutely! Part of every entrepreneur’s journey, especially the successful ones, are finding ways to stop trading time for money and to start being more scalable. That way, you can reach more people by producing these information products or just by having more group sessions than necessarily one-on-one sessions. So I’m really glad to hear you’re moving in that direction. It’s really exciting and it’s going to have us move into our last direction, which is the Lightning Round, my favorite part of the show. This is where I get to ask you a handful of questions and you come back at us, Fire Nation, with amazing and mind-blowing answers. Does that sound like a plan?
Andrea Vahl: Alright!
John Lee Dumas: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?
Andrea Vahl: I think one thing that keeps holding me back and in different ways is the fear. It’s a scary thing putting yourself out there and it comes in and ebbs and flows. Sometimes I’m afraid, sometimes I’m brave. So I think that’s just a recurring thing that you need to work through.
John Lee Dumas: Absolutely. It goes back to the rollercoaster and it also goes to something we haven’t touched upon yet. It’s the importance of a support group – to be in a mastermind, to have a support system of like-minded individuals and entrepreneurs. That’s one thing that I have put together here at EntrepreneurOnFire, is an elite mastermind group so we can support each other when we are having those low times or when we’re just needing those words of encouragement to keep us going. So I definitely agree with you there, Andrea. That is the struggle that every entrepreneur has. Fear is ever present and we just need to find ways to combat that.
Andrea Vahl: Yes.
John Lee Dumas: What’s the best business advice you ever received?
Andrea Vahl: I think this also goes back to that [fear] that is ever present, is I think the realization that everyone has this head trash, and I didn’t know that when I was starting. I thought, “Oh my gosh! All these people, they are looking so good,” and the realization that even those people at the top have that kind of head trash that comes in. Even people like Jodie Foster, who won Oscars, was afraid that someone was going to come in and take her Oscars. So even talented people have that head trash, but I think it was in Sonia Simone’s class, we were in kind of a mastermind tech group called “Remarkable Marketing Group Blueprint” and it was early on in my business development of my current business, and just that realization that everyone has those little voices that talk to them and they’re there for a reason. They’re there to protect us like when we’re doing something a little bit scary, and that there’s ways that you can get through that. They’re not going to go away, but you can make that realization that they’re there, it’s okay, and you can move on.
John Lee Dumas: Okay. So wait a second. I’m not the only person that has those little voices in their head?
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs] I know. Isn’t it great to know? It’s so great to know.
John Lee Dumas: Wow! That’s my aha moment.
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs]
John Lee Dumas: So Andrea, what’s something that’s working for you or your business right now?
Andrea Vahl: What’s working for me really well is word of mouth. I’m to a point now where I have people who are spreading the word for me. I think that is part of the content marketing that I’ve been doing where you’re creating good content that’s out there that’s being shared, but also, just creating people who are happy and you’re helping people. That will help people spread the word for you, and then you don’t have to spend that money on marketing. You’ve got your fantastic 20% of people who are your loyal fans, your VIP group who shares your stuff and talks about how awesome you are, which is a really fantastic way to build your business because they’re doing your marketing for you.
John Lee Dumas: So speaking of awesome, you were just named one of the top 25 women who are rocking social media, so I’m excited for this next question. Do you have an Internet resource like an Evernote that you’re just in love with right now that you can share with Fire Nation?
Andrea Vahl: Yes. I have so many it’s hard for me to pick just one because I have some that are Facebook-related, some that are Twitter-related. One of the ones that I’m really in love with right now is Commun.it. It’s a Twitter tool and it’s great for managing your followers and connecting people. What I love about it is it gives you reasons why you should follow these people and connect with them, and it may be that they tweeted you, you had several interactions, and maybe you just haven’t gotten around to following them. So it’s really helpful in getting your Twitter following under control.
Some other tools that I love are Facebook-related tools. One is Heyo. That’s the rebranded Lujure.com. I just love that tool because it’s really easy to create a beautiful-looking opt-in page on your Facebook page. You can create all these custom types of pages [Unintelligible] with it, all kinds of cool stuff that you can do with it and it’s very affordable.
John Lee Dumas: That’s just H-E-Y?
Andrea Vahl: H-E-Y-O.com.
John Lee Dumas: H-E-Y-O.com.
Andrea Vahl: Yes.
John Lee Dumas: Wonderful! We will be linking all those up in the show notes, including the next question, which is what is your favorite business book?
Andrea Vahl: That’s really hard. There are so many good ones out there. I love Jack Canfield’s “Success Principles.” I’m kind of going back about rereading it. One of the ones that I read recently that I really liked just because I love the idea of focusing on the psychology behind sales and marketing is “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini. It’s an older book, but it’s just still so [Unintelligible] and so timeless. It talks about why scarcity works, why these things work and how to kind of go about them in the right way. So I just love the idea of getting into the heads of your audience and figuring out what kind of messages are going to work with them and what makes sense for you.
John Lee Dumas: Awesome! Well, those books and those Internet resources will be linked up along with your website at EntrepreneurOnFire/72. So that’s very exciting. We’ll have all of that right there for people to get to and just continue to get that great content right to their doorstep. Andrea, you’ve given us some great actionable advice this entire interview and we are all better for it. Give Fire Nation one parting piece of guidance, then give yourself a plug, and then we’ll say goodbye.
Andrea Vahl: Alright. I think my parting piece of advice is still from Grandma Mary, and it’s don’t be afraid to be different, people! Get out there, do your good work, focus on you and getting the best of out there and you’re going to rock it!
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs] I love it! I’m so glad you ended with her.
Andrea Vahl: [Laughs] So yes. And then just my plug is just to connect with me. I’d love to stay connected to you. You can find me on Facebook and Twitter. You can connect with Grandma Mary at Facebook.com/GrandmaMaryShow and then I’m at AndreaVahl.com.
John Lee Dumas: Awesome! Well, we’ll have that all linked up, Andrea. Thank you so much on behalf of Fire Nation. We salute you and we’ll catch you on the flipside.
Andrea Vahl: Thanks, John!
John Lee Dumas: Say thank you from Grandma Mary.
Andrea Vahl: Thanks, John!
