04 Stephanie Liu » Just Keep Learning

Stephanie Liu Just Keep Learning Summary

A world leader in digital marketing and live streaming, Stephanie is the host of Lights, Camera, Live and the co-founder of Leap Into Live Streaming Bootcamp. It can be difficult, but everyone can learn to turn their passions into a business.

Once you get past the struggle phase to the strive phase it is so worth it! In this episode, Hey Stephanie Liu explains how it can be done. She has spoken at Social Media Marketing World, VidCon, Podcast Movement, and co-authored the Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing. Now she is bringing knowledge and wisdom to the Just Keep Learning Podcast.

Episode Notes

Did you know video can be one of the best ways to connect with your audience? Our guest in this episode, Hey Stephanie, has an incredible tagline for helping brands stand out. She asks, “are you tired of being the best-kept secret online?”

In this episode of The Just Keep Learning Podcast, Stephanie shares how it can be a realistic dream to start your own profitable and creative business. But, we also get into the challenges of starting an online business and how live video can really help connect with your audience. In this episode we get into the value of starting a business in order to design life the way you want.

Stephanie explains how it can be challenging, yet so rewarding to figure out what kind of business you want to create and how to get started. She shares the importance of putting family first and how to safely leverage your skills as a freelancer to build a profitable business.

One of the great points Stephanie made in this episode was how the skill of communication between people is important for all aspects of life. Communication is key in both business and relationships. She speaks to the power of storytelling as the number one tip she would pass on to the next generation.

Since learning is such an important topic for this show, we asked Stephanie how she feels education can do a better job of serving multi-passionate, creative entrepreneurs from a younger age.

We got into discussing topics of lifelong learning, various learning styles and the importance of real-world experience. She let us in on her own experience showing her nephew what it can be like to work remotely and become a live streamer.

Stephanie is the co-author of an incredible book, The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing. It gives readers a 360-degree perspective of social media marketing in business. And gives strategy for organic, paid, business to business and business to consumer marketing.

Not only is Stephanie a worldwide leader in live video, she also teaches online courses to serve her audience. While the instruction details vary, her favorite topics are neuro linguistic programming, growing on social media and how to start your own live show. So let’s look at each of those in a bit more detail.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a powerful tool that puts you in control of your life. It helps you fully understand how your thinking impacts your behavior and results in life.
Our mind is our greatest wealth-building asset. When we fully grasp how our thoughts have an effect on how we think and feel, we have a better understanding of how our mindset determines our outcomes.
It will help you overcome limiting beliefs and communicate more effectively
It will help you master the art of confidence to deliver spell-binding presentations and captivate any audience

Growing A Community On Social Media

Stephanie agrees that it is valuable to have your brand exist across all of the popular platforms. However, she is a proponent that when you are starting to build an audience, you need focus and consistency. She believes the best place for this is wherever your audience is. For her, and likely the majority, a great place to start is Facebook.

Stephanie recommends creating a genuinely helpful Facebook group that can grow over time. She explains how sharing the link to your Facebook group all over social media, email, videos and posts is a great way to quickly grow a collaborative community.

It’s not just about selling. While that can be valuable, understanding Facebook as a great way to support each other is the most important part. It can be a confusing place to start and Stephanie explains the difference between a Facebook Page, and a Facebook Group.

Finally, she described how interesting it is to grow your personal brand. Over time, using a nickname like “Hey Stephanie” she started receiving a lot of inbound requests for support and speaking engagements. She tells a funny story about the first time she ever experienced the idea of “blowing up” beyond your immediate friends and family.

Keys To Live Streaming

To be memorable, you need to have a strong brand and embody the same personality every time you go live. Think hard about your brand personality and how you want to express yourself.
Focus first on where your audience is most engaged. You have a group of ambassadors that need what you are teaching, so keep it simple and serve where they are.
Go live as regularly as possible, such as once a week. Remember, at first you need to reach as many people as you can.
Don’t be afraid to promote your show to friends, colleagues, family, on social media, to your email lists, text communities, and groups.
After you go live, you also need to measure the success of your awareness content. Get feedback from viewers about what they appreciate and desire.
As you stream, engage in conversations with your audience. Ask them questions and make them feel like they are a part of your show.
To promote sales, which should be done at most 10 percent of your time, be direct: “Buy now.” “Sign up today!” “Book now!”
When it comes to being shy on camera many people face barriers such as Imposter Syndrome, comparing themselves to others, trying to be perfect, being shy, or wanting a certain production level. All of these things are defeated by taking immediate, imperfect action, where the only goal is progress, not outcome related.
Plan your live streaming process by creating a tech checklist for starting the show, testing the audio, visual set up, using a rough outline, introducing yourself and/or a guest to the audience, maintaining momentum throughout the show, thanking your audience every now and again and wrapping with a summary and call to action.
Finally, don’t let the great content die on the live show, be sure to repurpose highlight moments to bring value to your audience on other platforms.
People love authenticity and a real personality where mistakes are something that you embrace, where the raw, free-flowing nature becomes the appeal.

Memorable Quotes

“I would recommend a split strategy. Try to get a job that will fuel your passion project, instead of being a starving artist. Don’t just scrape by. What if what if you could have just a bit of stability where you’re working, maybe that nine to five and then towards the evening you’re making steps to learning that software or making those connections and going to those networking events because you have the funds to do so.”

“When you put yourself out there, I think vulnerability is the admission ticket to creativity. And I think it’s one of those things where you could put yourself out there and share your story, that people are going to love that in the sense that they could relate to you. They could probably find something like, oh, I’ve heard something similar, or I’ve gone through that before.”

“I think most people just need accountability. That’s another thing is just accountability, because it’s so easy to want to jump around, especially when you’re reading like a “how to” manual, right? You just have to flip through, but then you need someone that’s going to hold you accountable, like you should read this first before you start that for where you are at.”

“If I could give you one piece of advice, something that you could always work on that’s going to impact you in all areas of your life, both personal and professional, it’s honing in on your communication skills. It’s not just about the words that you say. It’s about how you’re able to listen to someone else and you’re able to see it from their viewpoint and you’re able to resolve conflicts. I think communication is one of those things where most of the problems in the world exist because there’s always a communication breakdown. And I think if we all worked on being better listeners, being better communicators, then we wouldn’t have as many problems as we would today.”

Guest Bio

Stephanie Liu is a live video strategist for brands and entrepreneurs who want to go from unknown to unforgettable. She lives in San Diego and got her start in digital strategy fifteen years ago serving in the ad agency world. She has since built an impressive entrepreneurial career that includes freelance consulting, course creation and a couple of different social media based companies.

She is an advocate of the power of live video, teaching people to leverage lives to get more exposure for all sorts of brands. Stephanie also shows people how to improve their on camera presence. She coaches them by improving both the technical aspects of production and storytelling to become irresistible on camera. She has helped many personalities, from astronauts to master chefs ignite their ideas and become confident on camera.

As she has become a veteran in entrepreneurship, she is a leader in helping others start their own thing too. She would be a tremendous role model for anyone looking to become an entrepreneur.

As a certified Neuro Linguistic Programming trainer, Stephanie teaches brain hacks to help people overcome their fears of public speaking by rewiring their minds for success. With her proven system, clients discover how to create crave-worthy content, get audiences buzzing with excitement, and how to deliver a spell-binding presentation that hooks viewers in.

She is the co-founder of “Leap Into Live Streaming Bootcamp” and continues to produce an awesome show in “Lights, Camera, Live” which airs every second Thursday. You can find past episodes on the Website.

Stephanie has been named in the Top 50 Digital Marketing Thought Leaders by University of Missouri and her work has been recognized by Forbes, Online Marketing Media And Advertising, PR Daily, and Forrester. She has spoken at Social Media Marketing World, VidCon, Podcast Movement, and many more events to come. Stephanie is also the co-author of Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing, published by Entrepreneur Press.