Doing Business Your Way: Strategy, Systems & Self‑Trust with Shelly Shulman

I’m joined by Shelly Shulman, someone I would genuinely describe as a unicorn in the online business space.

Shelly brings together strategy, systems, and mindset in a way that actually works in real life. Not just when everything is going well, but when life happens, energy dips, or things don’t go to plan.

Her work is about building the backbone of your business. The structure that holds everything together so you’re not relying on constant hustle, adrenaline, or being “on” all the time.

In this conversation, we go deeper than surface-level advice.

We talk about why strategy without systems creates chaos, and systems without strategy go nowhere. And why most business owners feel overwhelmed by tech, not because they’re incapable, but because no one has shown them how to make it make sense.

Shelly shares how her Start Up · Stack Up · Scale Up® framework supports business owners at every stage, from those building towards consistent income to those refining and scaling sustainably.

We also explore:

• The mindset shift from “I can’t do tech” to confident ownership
 • How to choose platforms that actually align with you
 • Why your email list is essential if you want a stable business
 • What really happens when things go wrong online, including Shelly’s LinkedIn hack
 • The responsibility of delivering what you promise and creating real client results

There’s also an honest conversation around success, wealth, and what actually feels fulfilling, beyond the numbers, the launches, and the external validation.

This episode is for you if you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by systems, pressured by online business “rules”, or unsure how to build something that lasts.

Because the goal isn’t just growth.

It’s building a business that holds.

Connect with Shelly:
www.shellyshulman.com

Instagram: @theshellyshulman
YouTube: Shelly Shulman

Sandra ten Hoope is a Sales & Story Strategist and corporate attorney, known for bringing clarity to complex situations in both boardrooms and business.

Drawing from her own experiences, she now empowers professional women to rewrite their personal narratives. In Do Not Try HIM at Home, Sandra reveals the duality of her life, closing multi-million-pound deals while living in fear at home.

This podcast is for entrepreneurs who want to stop circling, trust their voice, and build a business that sells through clarity, not pressure.

Alongside the podcast, Sandra offers the Stop Waffling & Start Selling Membership, helping entrepreneurs move through:

Clarity → Connection → Conversion

Members receive bonus episodes, tools, and guidance to turn insight into action.Sandra also offers Revenue Clarity Sessions, focused one-hour conversations to identify what’s impacting your revenue and what to do next.

If you enjoy the conversations shared here, you’ll find extended discussions and additional insights inside the membership  HERE

Transcript

Welcome to Stop waffling. Start selling the weekly podcast in which we dive deep into the world of persuasive storytelling, effective sales techniques and practical strategies to help you grow your business.
Hello and welcome to another episode of Stop waffling, start selling. And today we have the very energetic Shelly Schulman. It's so lovely to see you here. So Shelley has helped me a lot, moving from just the podcast towards the membership, the substantive membership, and we'll no doubt touch upon that. But you might wonder, how did this all come about? How did you meet? What does Shelley do? She does a lot of magical things, but she can tell you yourself. So welcome Shelley.
Hi, hi, thank you for having me.
Yeah. So I'm, I'm a bit like a unicorn in the business world, because I combine strategy and systems. So because I'd be I believe very firmly that both are intertwined, and you need both to have a successful business, but also a business that does not rely on you being there all the time. So I will work with people, look through their strategy, look at where they want to go, look at where they want to grow the business. But then, instead of sending them off and saying, right now, you know what to do, go and find somebody else to do it, I will then work with them to then help them build out the funnels, the systems, the automations and everything that they need, because otherwise, what you have is a strategy over here that's doing one thing, and then you've got systems over here that are doing something else, and they're not talking to each other. So I believe it's really, really important that the two, that the two combine, and then that way, when they're when they're combined, it means that you have so much more ease in your business. It means that you can work when you want to work. I know we talk about a lot about freedom and stuff, and having a business that is, is freedom. But for me, especially, because I have bipolar, my energy isn't linear. So for me, freedom is having a business that will still run if I have an off day. So yeah, that's That's me in a nutshell. Well, it is and it isn't, because if
this combination of strategy and systems is not rare enough in this online world, and I can tell you, it is, I know a lot of people who can do strategy Well, I know a lot of people who can do systems. Well, it's very rare to find someone who can do both. But there's a third element. And I think other than everything that we strategized and systemized for the substrate membership. You are also a mindset positivity guru, because what you help me with most at times I'd say, I can do this. I have that. I can see this working. How can I ever make this work? I can do it. I don't have the ability. I don't have the time, I don't have the expertise, I don't have any of that. And I would, you know, send just an app, and then in no time, you would just droop, yep. Explain to me, first of all, it was always like, breathe, yes, very important. And he would give me such a clear answer and set it out so clearly, because systems are wonderful, strategy is wonderful, but it all starts with the mindset and and there is this doubt, I think, that we all have. You know, we've all heard about the imposter syndrome, and if people think that that is some sort of urban myth, it's not. And even with we all have a lot of expertise from where we came from, like I come from corporate, and I've written a book, so I know I can tell a story. But even you know, with everything that on paper you have, there is this vulnerability as a business owner, and I think also to do with the fact that you work in more of a solo situation, and you can't be your own mirror. So, so wonderful to have someone out there. And you are magical to you are to to help you get back into the right mindset. And then immediately, you know, combine that with a step plan, yeah, both strategically and with respect to the systems, because I can come as far as story and strategy, but when it comes to systems, you know, I guess
you like most people, most people hear the word systems, yeah, and immediately there's, there's like a visual reaction. Should they don't want to do it. And I see it a lot. I do see it a lot in the online space. They see they hear the word tech, and the immediate response is, I can't do tech. And it's like, well, I liken it to like having children. If our children came to us and said, I can't do it, we wouldn't send them away and just go, okay, then don't worry about it. We'd never do that with our children. We'd always go, Well, go give it a try. If you can't do it, come back and I'll help you. But for some reason we do it with ourselves. We immediately go, I can't do it. And that's the final thing. But I don't believe that it's that cut and dry. I think some people don't get me wrong, there are some people out there that are just very tech adverse. It would be like me trying to work on a car that it would just it would just never work. But if I can talk my 85 year old dad through how to use a Mac over the phone and break it down step by step in terminology that people understand, then I think anybody can do take you just need to have the right instructions, and you just have to have somebody explaining it to you the right way. And I think that's sometimes what's missing in these spaces is there's a lot of jargon. There's a lot of big words. And actually, when somebody sits down with you and just goes, Okay, so let me, let me show you. Let me walk you through it. Let's jump. Let's screen share. Let me walk you through it, step by step. You can have the video. You can it just it clears it up so much easier. But then, of course, that does have a knock on effect on the mindset, because immediately we've got that dopamine hit because you've done that one thing. And so we're changing that narrative in your head of, I can't do it to actually, I can,
yeah, and obviously we maybe it's also a bit of a female thing, you know, because we've always been told guys and tech is fine, we can do, you know, stories. So when it comes to the content ideas, we're there. And then you have to put it in certain format. Because everybody tells you you have to post, you have to do reels, you have to do all sorts. You have to go live. There's a lot of you have to, and people are like, but how do I do that? I remember with the substack membership, it's all been lovely, lovingly set up, you know, with your guidance and the guidance of the podcast studio, who's helped me a lot as well. And then I got this video about how to put something myself in substack, and I freeze immediately. And then I think, yeah, but some of there's been a first time that you put a post on Facebook. There's been a first time that you did a reels on Instagram. And it's not that complicated, but just when, when it feels like, okay, now I have to put it in a system. You know, my wonderful creative ideas. There's this freeze
there is that, there is that friction. And I do see it. I see it a lot with people, but then what I always say to people is, if that friction is there, don't start doing it. For me, that's the step of, okay, let's, let's take a breather. Let's go away. Let's, let's get a copper and then come back to it, because the more you try and fight that energy, the worse it's going to it's going to be and it's going to go wrong, and you're not going to find the buttons, and it's just not going to work. So yes, you can do it, but you do have to be in in the right mindset to go, I'm going to give it a go. What's the, what's the worst that can happen, and if it doesn't work, and I always say that to my kids as well, go and give it a go. What's the worst that can happen? You can get it wrong, like you can post something, no, okay, see, nobody likes it, okay. Well, yeah, that's the
worst thing.
And I think also, I spoke to a lady the the other day, because, like I said, we're told so much that we have to be on all the platforms, utilizing all the tools. That's sort of what a lot of people in the you know, business mentoring online space tell you, you got to do this and post this and and people get either scared or, you know, overwhelmed. And she said to me, so this is what I do, and which social media platform would you recommend? And I said, what comes most natural to you, but do you feel aligned with some people love like the community feel of Facebook Some people love the more business corporate style of LinkedIn, even though that's changing into a lot of personal stories there. That's what I really saw over the last year. It's way more personal story thing. Now, some people like the more visual and fast effect of Instagram. I think also some people might like Tiktok. I. Have no clue. I did not dare. My son has been from. It was dawn. He said, I ain't gonna see you on Tiktok. So you know, I don't know how it works. Yeah, let's keep it that way. Yeah, yeah. Don't you dare go there. I might do one day. So I told, I said, What do you feel comfortable with. Because whenever you feel comfortable and you portray it, and whether that's in writing or in a video, in a live or anything else that you can come up with, your audience will respond to that, yeah, you're seeking a certain kind of people that would be aligned with the same kind of feeling you're aligned with. I said you might not understand or like LinkedIn, but guess what? Your Ideal Client most probably isn't. Either there's a reason platforms, there's a reason why we feel, you know, more comfortable in the one or the other, even this morning. So the studio is near Blackpool, so I stayed overnight and I hadn't done a live thing forever. You know, I used to do it when I had my former Facebook account that was taken away just like that. And we'll touch upon this because you had a LinkedIn story recently, and you've got some very great ideas people really should have been to in order to protect themselves. But I figured, you know what, I'm going to go live on Instagram. I'm going to do it. Well, it took me five minutes to sort out where the button would be. There you go, because, you know, I've got the picture and I can make it into a story, and I've got an edits app, and I can make it into a reel, so I'm advancing. And I thought, Okay, let's go live. Finally find the button, and then they tell me, you don't have 1000 followers, so yeah. And I'm like, fine.
And I do find it. I find things like that so frustrating for people who have you've built up my energy, and you're like, Yes, I'm going to do this. You do all of these things, and then these social media goes, no, it's like that. The computer says, No, that
tricked him. Anyway, I I took a video and managed to put that in as a reel. So, yeah, I really outdid myself early in the morning. There you go. But I can really measure that other people when they hit this point that I did with Instagram. Like, okay, I don't have enough followers yet. They would not post anything anymore. Whilst they had this energy, like, I had to say how happy they are. If you know, the sun was rising over Blackpool, it was beautiful to see. I love it there. We had a great day here yesterday, recording. Now we're recording. It's also great. So I wanted to do something with that energy, but I can well see that people would be so like, oh, and not do it anymore. And ultimately, I think that for me, the whole social media thing is bringing your feelings, bringing your wisdom, across in a format that works for you. If I had a choice, honestly, I would only write things, yeah, and only post things in writing, which is weird coming from a podcast host, but in my, in my, in my ideal world, I would just write. And I've come to know that obviously a lot of people have different ways in which they consume information and different learning styles. So I now cater to those who love audio, I cater to those who love video, but I would love to be this little hermit and just write, and I would be very happy that doesn't mean to say that I love interviewing, and we talked about, like my upcoming launch, that you worked with me, with me on and that there's not going to be a big live launch event, and there's certainly not going to be a solo workshop, because I work best when I speak to someone. Others are just great. You know, they do the workshop, they have the slides, they definitely
and it's that weird. It's that weird mentality that you see somebody else doing something and you're taught that that's the way that you should do it, yeah, yeah, but just because it's the way that somebody tells you that they do, it doesn't mean that that's the way that it's going to work for you and your business. And there's many different experiences that I've had in life where I've gone against what somebody's told me I should be doing, and I've done the right thing for me, and actually I've got much better results doing it that way, because it's not forced. I'm not in a I'm in alignment with everything that I'm doing. So of course, the energy is different. You can tell that it's not forced, but I think it is really, really important to do what you feel comfortable with doing. Into anybody that I work with when they say to me, Well, should I be doing this? And I'm like, do you want to do that? No, not really. Well, don't do it. Then don't don't do it if you don't want to do it, and it's not going to bring you any joy, don't do it because it's just going to cause you resentment. In the long run, the amount of people that have Facebook groups, and I love a Facebook group, I have Facebook groups, but the amount of people who have Facebook groups, and they're like, I don't like Facebook groups, I'm like, Well, get rid of it. They're not what have you? Why have you? There's so many other ways of building communities nowadays. There's no one way of doing anything.
Yeah, and like you said, there are many ways, and you can choose to build a community and communicate in the way you wish. There are people who love to be in that group. Love to be in life. I'm more like, and that's also, you know, how the membership will be set up. It's more like an evergreen situation. People can work through the program. There'll be bonuses, there'll be the moment that I'll do resume, and people can ask me questions, but it's set up in a way that, the way I wish to go through a program with a lot of independence, a lot of freedom, and a little, you know, someone holding my hand, whilst others really thrive in a situation where they take you from A to Z, basically, you're in that group almost every day. Everybody shares everything, and that's fine. It's just for me,
it's utterly overwhelming.
It's such a different way of learning. And I think a lot of us as business owners have started to step away from the should, we're starting to step towards the How would I like to learn what support did I need when I was at that point in my business? So a lot of mine is very much. A lot of my business is very much. What did I need when I was at that level of business? What? What what level of support did I need? What level of hand holding, what level of knowledge? Because I think people, I see a lot of people getting priced out, and people are getting left behind because of the way things are taught, and because stuff is gate kept, and stuff is kept behind pay walls. And yes, we should be paid for our work. Obviously, that's important, but equally, I like to, I get told off quite often for the amount of support that I give my clients. And I'm like, but that's, that's me, because that's the level of support I would want from somebody. I like that place. I like that. People can come to me and go, Shelly, is this okay? And I know that, you know it's okay, you know it's okay, but what you need is that one person to go, yes, that's fine. You need that validation before you press play or send or whatever. And I completely understand that, because I have been that person, and to some degrees, I still am that person. I still have people that I will run sales pages past. I'm just like, can you just look over this? I kind of know it's okay, but just check, because we need that. We need that we haven't all got big teams behind us where we can sense check. You know, we just need that little bit of support, and I think that's that's been lost somewhere along the way in the online space, maybe because we're not face to face, maybe behind your laptop, but we've lost that level of support and community, and I think it's really, really important to bring that back and remember that the at the other end of that phone is a person, yes, feelings and emotions, so give them, treat them how you would like to be treated.
To me, it's that simple because, and also it's so important, because we all hear about the big successes, the big launches, but it's way more than for me. Also, the membership will open, but it's not like always open and I can leave it behind. That's when the service really starts. When someone signs up, do you? Do you deliver on the promise that you make, be it your sales phase or your post, that's when it starts. You can't just, you know, say, okay, so I made X, and I'm going to run with it, because people do, and like I said, you can explain in the setup, like the amount of volume of support is going to be but whatever you promise, you have to deliver hardly anybody speaking about that phase, and also how that can face you as a business owner, because once you're building something, and you're in the pre launch, and it's all exciting, it's all and it's all automatically going well,
excited we're building this thing,
and you're the driver of the bus, but there are no passengers yet, so you decide to speak. Decide where we go. You decide itinerary. You you decide everything. But then you load people in the bus, and they have their expectations, and you have to treat them well. You can't derail the bus. So and that phase is so overlooked. How do you also, you know, keep yourself sane in a delivery phase and make sure that before you launch something, you realize that, what are these promises? Can you really live up to it? Does it fit your time schedule? Because most of us have more than one product, service, even business venture. There's a lot of people out there like myself, who do different things. Can you all make that work? Because disappointing yourself, like I've done for way too long in the run up to a launch, maybe not launching at all, or whatever, is something else and disappointing other people?
Yes, yeah, I'm very much a I'm very, very considerate of everybody who is paying me for something, and I'm very conscious of their paying me for something, so I want to make sure that they're getting the value. So in my programs, I've got a couple of people who haven't interacted for a month. I will reach out to them personally and just be I just want to make sure you're okay. I know that you said when you signed up that you were quiet, but I just want to make sure that you're okay. I want to make sure that people are getting value. I don't want people to continually be stuck. Yes, of course, they've signed up for a program. So there is that there, is that obligation, but there's that obligation on both sides. There's their obligation to commit to the payments, but there's my obligation to make sure that I am delivering what I've promised, and even if I am delivering what is promised, if they're not consuming it, I still feel that element of I need to check in. I just want to make sure they're okay. Because, like you say, life happens. Stuff happens. Things happen. A couple of people have said to me, sorry, I've been really, really quiet. This has been going on. It's like, great. No, that's that's as long as you're okay, that's fine. And I think there is that level of responsibility that we're not just taking money for the sake of taking it. There's that responsibility to make sure people are supported. You know, it's it's a tricky one, because obviously terms and conditions are there for reasons. I think we can be caring and considerate at the same time, like you say you're making sure that. Do we have the energy to deliver what is promised? Can we do that? Because I think it's for me, it's always better to under promise and over deliver than to do it the other way around and to over promise. And then all of these things happen, and people sign up for something that starts as one thing, and then slowly, over time, it it changes. And the things that were promised every week go to every two weeks, and then they go to every week. But the price doesn't change, but the things just slowly start dwindling away. And as a business owner, I think, okay, I messed up. I over committed. I'm going to be truthful to the people like, I don't have the capacity to go live here every single week, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to adjust the price to reflect that, because I know that when you signed up, that was what was promised. I think we have to have that level of responsibility.
I think so too. And yet, you know, our experiences tell us that that so often lacks in the in the Go, go, go, launch, launch, launch, hippie, hippie, hippie.
It takes whatever to make the sale, and that's great, and you've got a big launch number that we can talk about, but then let's talk about who's actually getting results afterwards is just as important like for me, I would want to be able to to email every client and say, could you leave me a testimonial please, and know that They're happy. I'd rather have a much smaller launch figure and happy clients, of course, because that will then lead to them staying. You know, they'll become the lifetime clients. They'll be the clients that continue up your ecosystems and through all of your programs, rather than I've taken money from them once. It doesn't matter if they're happy or not, because I'm going to launch it again, and somebody else will come
in now, because, you know, we're in business, you know, because we also want to make an income, which is only natural, but we, you know, at the basis of it all, are the clients happy? Can they implement it? Can they make it? Work for them. When I sign up with someone, I don't care if they've made and when we started, I started in the old days looking into online options, and then people were talking about five figures, before we now, we've moved to six figures, and then people move to seven figures, and I see now figures, or even saw something on Insta hypnotherapist, I can make you a billionaire, and I'm like, whose life goal is this? And I'm fine with people making money in honest way. I'm fine with that. I have nothing against money. I have nothing against people making money. But would I sign up with someone just because of the figures, no would I sign up with someone because of clients indicating that they felt nurtured, that they felt that they got what was promised, that they made it work for them. That's what attracts me to a person I've never maybe it's because of my corporate background, where I've always worked with extremely wealthy people,
the numbers themselves say nothing to me.
Yeah, I think it's that experience, isn't it? I think when you've worked with wealthy people, that's not the aspiration. I think for some people, when they see people making a lot of money, and it's that mindset of, well, if they've done it, they can help me do it, and I get that, I absolutely get that. But like you say, it's taking that step away and saying, Okay, well, let's look at the results how what else is going on? Because those figures are only one part of a very big story.
Excellent. I can also tell you that for the very wealthy people, they have very worldly challenges. Yeah, it brings comfort. I'm never going to say that money can't bring you comfort, but they face the same challenges when it comes to family dynamics, when it comes to business issues, and there's the added How do I navigate this wealth? How do I make it work for generations to come? And we all I've seen too many times that family dynamics change. A lot of money is thrown into the equation. So maybe that's also one of the reasons that I'm not that drawn to a figure in itself. There is always a price to pay, in a way,
they have different problems. To sit there and say, Your life is easy because you're rich and you have money is it's short sighted, because people with money still have problems. Yes, there are some problems that would be easier to solve. So if their dishwasher breaks down tomorrow, that's going to be a lot easier, and it's not going to inconvenience somebody the way it might inconvenience somebody else. If their car breaks down tomorrow, that kind of thing. Yes, I see when people look at it like that, it's like, well, you don't have any problems. But when you look at like family health, family politics, all of that kind of stuff. They still have problems. It's just different problems on a different on a different level. And I've seen people earn money, and the family politics have changed because, because they've started earning money and they are much richer than the rest of the family, then the dynamics in the family change, because then it's an element of, well, oh, you're still only spending like 20 pound on birthday and Christmas presents for us, though, but you've got money, so yeah, all of that is a completely different problem, but they do still have, they do still have problems
that other people have.
No my son sometimes ask, if you win a lottery, what would you do? I said I wouldn't tell you. I wouldn't tell you. I suppose I've seen from very close what growing up in an abundance of money does to kids, like I said, it's, it's, it's, it's a difference. You know that there's a different bond between siblings. There's a different bond between the kids and the parents, and it also if, if there is, it's very hard to keep them motivated to go out there, yeah, because ultimately, anything you do out there is more than just the income that you derive it, you know, having a job, you know, my son has a job for a couple of hours a week, but it teaches him so much. He teaches him about money, about you know, but also about himself. What does he like? What doesn't he like? I said I wouldn't, I wouldn't take that away from you, because what can happen if you do so I'm all about working with people who bring wonderful results for their clients, not because the client. Duplicate what the particular mentor business owner has done, but that what the knowledge that has been brought helps them do whatever they want to do in their business with clients, and that's the best result you can have. I don't want, I wouldn't want anybody signing up for my membership to wish to start a membership, I would wish for a certain way of changing thinking that they can help in their business where we said, if they want to start a membership, fine, but it's it need not be the same thing as I'm doing. That would be
very odd to me. I went through a stage of buying all the designer handbags and designer shoes and all this stuff, because I thought that's what success meant. That was the sign of success. That's where I had to spend my money. Now, don't get me wrong, I've still got the designer bags. They're lovely. They sit in my wardrobe. My daughter is very, very happy. My sister often pops over and says, I'm going out. Can I borrow a handbag? Love that the shoes I got rid of bacon, absolute waste of money, whereas now it that's not important to me. You know, I do go to a lot of concerts. I go to a lot of shows. For me, it's more about making memories and making life memories with my family members and having experiences. And that's not saying that people who buy designer goods are bad, if that's what brings them joy. Absolutely go for it. I love that for you, like go go shop. But I think what's important is whatever knowledge we're taking, we're taking it and we're growing a life and a business that works for us, not what Instagram says it should look like, not what somebody on LinkedIn says it should look like, not what a family member says you should or shouldn't be doing with with your life. What is right for you? And I always say whenever I make a decision. It's, how will it affect me? And how would it affect the three other people living in my house, my husband and my two my two children. I say children, they're 26 and 22 seriously, they need to move out. We need they need to go.
Children, you need to go.
But for me, that's so much more important. When I make any decisions, it's not it's about what will be best for this, not okay? Well, I need to go out and I need to go and buy a new handbag, because that's what I've seen this person do. And I need to go on holiday. I need to go on really expensive holidays, because that's what we've been programmed to do. I'm not that bothered. I can sit by the side of a pool anywhere. I don't need to be in a five star hotel, just as long as I've got a pool
and a book. Yeah, and that you love exactly do doing it our way. Before we move to the bonus part of the episode. We touched upon this at the beginning. I, you know, years ago, lost my Facebook profile, didn't manage to get it back. Could you just maybe comprise, say what happened to your LinkedIn and a bit of the process and what people could do to add a layer of security? Because I've seen it happen too many times to too many people for it not to be a thing, so to speak.
So my LinkedIn got hacked.
I was sat at the laptop doing some work. An email popped in and it said, your LinkedIn password has been changed. And I was like, Well, it hasn't, because I'm sat here, so it's not like I saw the email and the email had come in overnight. The email came in live, so I had a look at it. Checked the email address that it came from, it was definitely LinkedIn. So I opened up the internet. Obviously, I didn't click on any links. Went to login, couldn't log in. The password was wrong. So I thought, okay, fine, whatever. Clicked on the change the password link, sent a code to my email, great, but then they wanted to send a code to the mobile phone that was linked with the account. And then, of course, by that point, the hackers had already changed the mobile phone. So I didn't panic. I didn't spiral as much as I thought I probably would do when this happened. I alerted the kids and stuff, and said, Can you just please quickly log into my LinkedIn? Is it still there? What does it look like, and everybody kind of like just around me, because my daughter works with my brother in law, so they all just went in and just reported it as hacked, which was brilliant, but then it was a three week process with LinkedIn to get it back, and there was lots of backwards and forwards and lots of automated responses and the generic, well, you've broken rules, so we're not giving you account back and me going, but it wasn't me. I didn't break any rules. My account was hacked, so I did use AI to help me. I said, What should. I do, and they said, give it a week, like, don't, don't reply. If you do reply, you're going to get all of these responses. And they gave me the specific text that I needed to use that would trigger it, bypassing like the bot system. And luckily, after three weeks, I dropped an email in and it was restored. But straight away I went in and I set up two factor authentication, so whenever I go to log into LinkedIn, now, yeah, it will send a code to my phone, okay, but also it it's not so I'm not using the SMS. So normally, what a lot of people do is two factor authentication. It says send a text to a mobile number. Now that's actually really, really easy for for a hacker to bypass, apparently. So if they give you the option of using an authenticator app. So I think Google have got an authenticator app where it sends you a code. There's an Adobe one, there's a Microsoft one. Use those because apparently they're much, much harder for hackers to get past. So now for all of mine, those are the two factor authentication. So even though we could have two factor authentication on which I technically did, because they bypassed the phone number, because it went to a different phone number, they were able to change the phone number quite easily.
I think I have a for signs that they sent you a then you can choose SMS or mail, but obviously I should, you know, follow up on your advice, because automatically
go for SMS. I always did. Because I was just like, Oh, it's so much app and doing all of this. And luckily for me, LinkedIn actually wasn't my big profile. I'd only really started growing it again at the beginning of the year, and I was just a bit like, Okay, well, I might as well use it if I'm posting in other platforms. So it wasn't my biggest platform. Now, had I lost my Facebook, I would have been absolutely devastated, because that's so many family pictures. So what I have done is I've actually backed up my Facebook and downloaded my entire Facebook profile and all of my photos. So if anything ever does happen, I've not lost all of those memories. So I would have been heartbroken with that. But equally with Facebook, if I, if I run Facebook groups, I always add my family members as admin. They love it, but I always just in case. So if something does happen, because even if I don't get hacked, Facebook sometimes blocks you because you've said the wrong thing on the wrong day, and you know, it's very volatile. So I think that's why it's so important if you're going to do anything. I always say, only ever do things if you want to do them, use whatever social media platforms you use. The only exception I would have to that is you have to grow an email list. That's no ifs buts whats why fors. You have to grow an email list. Because when we grow our businesses on social media, we're growing it on rented land, and at any point, those landlords can come away and just pull that out from underneath us and take it away, at least when we have an email list that's ours. So I was able to email people and say my LinkedIn has been hacked. If you get a random message, please don't open it. I still have that way of communicating. Plus, we know social media platforms go down. Things go down. It's annoying. And I've had that happen before. When I was going live and I was launching, I think I was offered a live training or something that was supposed to be on Facebook, and I had to email everybody, going, Okay, here's the Zoom link, because we can't get on but I had that different way of communicating backup, and so many people don't have the backups. And that's why I talk about growing a business backbone, because there's so many things we have to have in place to support us that we have backups. So ask yourself, if Facebook went down tomorrow, what would I lose? Would I still be able to communicate with the people who are in my group, in my membership? Would I be able to contact them in some way? What content would I lose? Would that, if I've done lives in there, would I lose them? Should I be hosting them somewhere else? Which you should
such valid advice because you hear about it or experiences yourself way too often. So anybody listening, and there's been a lot of information, and anybody wondering, how can I best do this? What about growing that email list? How does that work? Shelly, is your lady? Need. Also, with respect to anything strategic, anything systems, because she is a master of many systems. And also, if, like myself, you find yourself doubting your ability in any way, go to Shelly. Shelly, where can the audience find you?
So they can find me? I do have a website, www, dot Shelley shawn.com, I post a lot on Instagram, so come and follow me on Instagram. I'm at the Shelley Shulman, or follow me on YouTube. Come subscribe there. I post videos every single week, lots of how tos, lots of hints and tips that's at the Shelley Shawn. And there you'll find all of the information if you want to join my email list and work with me further, wonderful.
It's been a joy. Thank you again for all the assistance you've given me and the wisdom
with the audience. And I will
see you shortly in the bonus if you want to have the bonus part, sign up for the sub stack details in the show notes, see you next time. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Stop waffling, start selling. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope it helped you on your business journey. And if you liked this episode or the podcast in general, do share the link and For further information, non stop offering, start selling, have a look in the show notes. See you again next week. You.