Post Before Perfect | Olivia Allen | Full Battery Media

In this episode of the Full Battery Media Podcast, I sat down with Olivia Allen, founder and CEO of Village Financial Services, to talk about something that changed the trajectory of her entire business - showing up on LinkedIn without a perfect plan and just starting.

Olivia built a 45-client firm by sharing what she knew about Schwab operations openly and consistently, without gatekeeping, without a content calendar, and without waiting until everything was polished. 

We got into why leading with education beats selling every time, how she identified the specific type of post that converted followers into actual clients, and what she did to keep showing up even when running a business with a newborn at home made everything harder. 

What's been stopping you from posting online about your work?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I don't know that I can pinpoint like a specific post. I there is a type of post, like a style of post that I used that once I realized that was what was converting, which was straightforward, not gatekeeping, just saying like this is how I executed this. It was more of a use case of like this is something that we did for this firm for this, like this week. And then sharing exactly how we did it, that type of format really resonated and got the most engagement in all ways, not just likes and comments. Um, so once I realized that it everything became stronger because I could keep um providing that type of content to my network.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

All right, welcome everybody back to the Full Battery Media Podcast. I'm your host, Sean Trace, and I have an awesome guest with me today. Would you like to tell people who you are and what you do?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Sure. Um thanks for having me. I'm Olivia Allen, uh founder and CEO of Village Financial Services. Uh we do virtual assistant work um at its core for financial advisors in the RAA space, as well as uh CRM consulting to help firms become more efficient and um optimize across their um entire practice.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

That's really interesting. Now, what does that mean? In like simple terms, how are you helping people?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah. Um, so on the virtual assistant side, it's all of the account servicing, the paperwork, the hospitality that comes along with servicing um financial advisory clients. Um, and then on the consulting side, it's really digging into the systems and processes that make a business the business. So everything from new client onboarding to prospect to client, um, uh how to update a beneficiary, systematizing all of those things and getting it inside of their CRM to really have it become an operational hub uh for the business.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

I love that. Well, it's interesting because you built your whole business with cold outreach. How does that even work?

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Yeah. Um, so it really was not even cold outreach. Um I haven't I haven't done a ton of outreach at all. It's really just been LinkedIn. So me posting on LinkedIn. I gained my confidence probably six months into having uh or starting Village to actually start posting on LinkedIn. Somebody told me you post about what you know, and I swore that nobody cared about schwab tips. Um, and turns out a lot of people do. So I just led with um education and being open-handed and not gatekeeping the stuff that I know that that made me valuable to all the firms I had worked with, and um, it took off.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

That's awesome. I I liked what you just said there, though. Providing value is a huge thing. And I I think that not everyone understands that like I was doing the numbers on like one of my podcasts. It's called Growing Money with Sean Frace, and it's that's a personal finance podcast where I talk to personal finance people. And I thought that the chant the the videos are going to be doing well were the ones that were all about this is what can boost your metrics, this is what can get you this. But it wasn't. What was really taking off was the like how to spend less money. Like you're spending too much. This is how you can spend less money. And literally, that was um the thing that people liked the best. Like they didn't want all of the crazy stuff, they wanted the stuff that was easy to follow and straightforward, you know?

SPEAKER_00 3:43

And speaking directly to their problem, like the specific problem that they're having, which is that they feel that they they have no extra income in that example, um, and telling them exactly how to solve that, plain and simple, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

A hundred percent. Like, is if there's a problem, how can you fix it? Like, I had I wanted a new camera, and I didn't want to figure out um like this guy was like, this is this, this is and like I watched all these tutorials, and finally one guy was like, This is what this camera does, this is why I like it. If you're doing this, you should buy it. If not, it's not worth it. And I was like, Oh my god, I just watched 25 videos that were all these people trying to sound really fancy. And this guy in a four-minute video was like, here it is, this is your pain point, and this is how this camera fixes it or not. And I was like, mm-hmm, this is what I want, you know? This is what I need.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Mm-hmm. And it uh it and it allows that person who's ever doing this camera demo or whatever, um, to become like the expert to some instead of meh to many. Like that if this is specifically what you're looking for, um, or your problem that you are the per like he is the ex the thought leader on that, so to speak. And it's the same thing for me, where now um I am the schwab lady. Like I anyone that works with schwab um is is guaranteed to want to follow because I that's all my content is talking about how to execute and um navigate and overcome hurdles with schwab. That's interesting too.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

And I think that like when you are creating a space where people can learn and gain trust, like you are the person they trust. And once you have that trust, it's powerful what you can do with it. But like, you know, with great power comes great responsibility. Like, you gotta figure out, first of all, how to gain it and then what you're gonna do with it once you achieve it. You know what I mean? Like, uh what do you want to build? You know, and where do you want to go with it? Like, anytime someone tells me they want to get into video and I say, Well, why? What do you want to do? Do you want to educate it? Do you want to become the TED Talk guy? Where do you want this to go? And I think when they can answer that question, the whole thing gets much easier.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Yeah. Yeah. For me, it's um where I want to go with it is training all of the CSAs. So outside of like we offer fantastic CSAs, virtual admins to our firms. Um, but I want to take all of this great content, get it out of my, our collective brains, and package it into a way that now RAs can access all of that information in a um uh organized, um, structured training program. Um, so it's always it's leading with open-handedness, but delivering on that in a one-to-many format is the vision.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

I love it. I love it. And I think that's interesting too, because it's all about empowering people. And are you empowering the people that can help people? You know? I wanted to ask you this because um, you know, you've used LinkedIn. And for some people, I use LinkedIn a lot. And I I think LinkedIn is an absolute superpower if you know how to use it right. But, you know, yeah, what did you post about on LinkedIn that actually made people want to hire you?

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Yeah. So it was, it was the Schwab Tips, definitely. Um, that is is where it started. And now I think it's turning more to um I I've expanded and not just talking about Schwab, but talking about CSA operations as a whole. But again, the things that make us valuable, the things that we're being proactive on for our clients, that um is really resonating or causing firms to say, hey, why aren't why isn't my team already doing this? Or hey, I didn't even know that this was possible, that a CSA could be handling this. Um, so that's really it's the kind of converting from just likes and impressions to like actual business um being generated for for Village. Um, because I'm showing them the way, like kind of showing the shadow, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Right. That's awesome. Yeah. I I think too, like one of the things that I started doing on LinkedIn was just to be authentically me. You know, today I I and I think that there's like people have this idea that you want to be successful at business, you need to be uptight, you need to be stuffy, you need to be like, today I crushed it with these 32 things that I accomplished. And I was like, today I posted about when I was driving down the street here in Ho Chi Minh City, I saw this guy crossing the street, look straight up like McGlovin. I was like, oh my goodness. And the fact that I can say McLovin and you know exactly who and what I'm talking about is awesome. And I just was like sitting there, and as the guys crossing the street, my brain is racing a million miles a second. And I'm like, what should I do right now? What should I do right now? And the only thing to do that was appropriate was to shout McLovin as loud as I could in the street. And uh, you know what? The guy turned around and was like, yeah, so he knew, he knew it wasn't the first time someone said he's looked like McLovin, you know? And I was just cracking up about that. Um, but what struck me was that that brand, the understanding of that was so big and so powerful that people can remember that. Like I say the word McLovin, and there's a whole group of people that understand that. I was watching this video the other day, it was like on TikTok, and this guy got a fake ID, and he was going to a bar and he was trying to pass it off, and they were making a video about it because it literally was the McLovin like ID. It was not a it's like a football game. It was like he pulled out the McLovin ID and was trying to, and the guy's carding him, and he's like, McLovin, and but everyone knew McLovin, so the joke wasn't that he was, it was that he had a McLovin ID. Right. And so it was the hilarious part. But I posted about that and brand building, and it was like, you don't have to be so uptight and serious, but you do have to figure out what's the thing that's making you um memorable to people, you know?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Yeah. Well, I think there's a balance between like I could do all tactical posts, but I think that that would be a little bit aggressive. The majority of my posts are tactical, to be clear, but it's also the things that make me me. So like I talk a lot about single motherhood. I talk a lot about building a business as a woman and a mom. Um, I so it's it's interspersing those relatable things from life to um, trying to add some sort of professional context to them that I think also add to the trust building and like creating an audience that's like actually an audience you want to have and that you can support in one way or another, versus just um kind of gathering followers for the sake of gathering followers that aren't actually going to um translate into revenue or business for you.

unknown 10:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Not to mention the networking too. Um, gathering a network. I mean, that's let's not sleep on that side of LinkedIn. Like that's another huge part of Village's success is the network that I've been able to build through LinkedIn and actually genuinely connecting with people that I've met on LinkedIn um to better our industry together and like collaborate with them. Uh, another huge component, and people can see that through or see you through the personal type posts that you you um the content that you you post.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

So I had this the this event the other day. I had someone that was getting ready to come onto my podcast. And what happened was um she had her schedule. And when she rescheduled, um, she emailed us and I said, obviously, and she's like, hey, I've got a problem with my my daughter. And when I said, But obviously, take care of your daughter. And she immediately responded, I knew you would say that. And I asked her, I was like, hang on, why did you know I'd say that? And she says, Every bit of content that you post about on your podcast, you're talking about your family, you're talking about your daughter, you're talking about how your daughter is your why, your core. And, you know, I watch your stuff. And when I know that you're gonna sit there and say, When I say my child is sick, you're gonna say, Please take care of your child. And it was awesome to me that she already knew that before she even said anything. And I think that that's one of the things that I think is powerful about putting yourself out there online, you know?

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Yeah. Yeah. It's people start to know you before they actually get to like meet you too. Um, like, and I started Village at the tail end, I guess, of the COVID world. But a lot of a lot of times, especially in remote businesses, like you don't actually ever meet a lot of our clients, I've never met face to face, but I feel like I know them. And a lot of people know me before we even do an intro call because of um, you know, the content and the transparency in not only my content, but also in the comments and the engagement piece, which is so important to success in LinkedIn, is engaging with other people's content uh and being your true self and not having, you know, just AI respond um to people's uh other people's content.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Yeah, I I love it. I wanted to ask you this too, because a lot of people are scared to put themselves out there online. What would you say to someone who keeps taking uh themselves out of it and they say, you know what, I just don't want to do it. I don't want to go there. What would you say?

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Um, I think a lot of people, it's actually I have two things. So I think a lot of people um have like the perfectionist syndrome where like everything needs to be perfect before they need this whole content calendar and like this whole plan instead of just doing, just starting um whatever it is, just starting to post and like develop that um rhythm in your head of posting. And then the other piece of that is like the head trash that comes around and it's like, okay, well, what I have to say is not valuable, or I don't really know what I'm doing. Um just removing all of that and just starting. Just do something. Um that's what I would say to that.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

I love that advice. Just do something. I think that like so many people like I work in creating content with people. I have a production company in Vietnam and I have clients in the USA, and I all the time we'll get people and I'll do a pitch with them, and I'll be like, you gotta just get going. And they're like, you know what? I think I'm gonna start next year. And I said, if you start next year, you're gonna be a year behind. If you just start now, and it doesn't have to be like perfect, just start, just put something out, just get the ball rolling because if you do, you're gonna sit there and be a year ahead of where would you be you would be if you hadn't started, you know? But you have to get started now, you know?

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yeah. Yeah. It's it's developing the muscle. Um, and then also like it it's it's a certain part of your brain, I think, the creative brain to to develop content. And so you only do that like the enemy is the blank page. Like you have to start getting stuff in and seeing what works and what's what's actually gathering engagement and not. Um and the only way to do it is to do it, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah, right? It is, it's the only way to get going, you know, is to get there. And so I I think that one thing too that is interesting to me is that people also get worried because they don't know whether something's working versus just getting likes. Like, you know, are you converting? Are you getting people calling about your product? And how do you know when your content is actually working versus just getting likes?

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Yeah. So um one is asking, straight up asking when I have people book intro calls, where did they hear about us so that I have that data? Majority of my answers are LinkedIn. Um I don't, they obviously don't tell me the specific post, but you can actually see, and this is only something that I've started looking at more recently, is like the engagement. It's not just the impressions of like how many people looked at my post, but if you click on it, you can see um how many. If you have links in there, you can see how many people are actually clicking to go to different links that you've included in there, or how many people are saving that post, how many people are sending it to others. So you can take that and kind of deduce, put it in the AI, whatever you need to do to figure out which post, what what is the content of the posts that are gathering the most um track shit, like the the the next steps, if you will, beyond just a like or a look. Does it make sense?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

It does. It does. Like, because you're like, you're putting stuff out there and you're like, how's this even working? You know, I I was putting stuff out and I had this idea that people were gonna like this content. And I was creating all that content. And then suddenly I was like, actually, what was working was this stuff over here, and it was completely different than what I thought. And so it was not until I started listening to my audience that I realized actually, they like it when I talk about topics that I'm having a problem with. Like for my Growing Money podcast, when I talk about money stuff that has been impactful to me, then people go, Oh, I can relate to that and it gets more traction. Granted, the other stuff that I create and produce is also, you know, relevant. But if you can listen to what people need, it allows you to kind of start shaping and and growing in a different way that might be more organic to what people are seeking, you know?

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Yeah, yeah. And sometimes that's hard because you might feel very passionate about something that's just not landing. And I think it's still okay to post those things, right? Because you still want to get that information out there, whatever it may be. Um, but as far as a marketing tool, you have to give the people what they want, still authentic to you, but speak to the things that are working and follow the the breadcrumbs.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Right. You started your business with a three-month-old at home. What did your content look like during that season? Did it ever just did you ever just want to go quiet and step back?

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Um, so in the beginning, it I didn't really know what I was doing. I wasn't posting. I still don't really post with any, like I need to post three times a week or anything like that. But it was just kind of really just throwing it at the walls and and seeing what stuck. Um, when I wanted to go quiet was actually not related to case. It was actually when the business um started getting really busy and managing baby and business was becoming really hard. And so LinkedIn felt um one, like I kind of put it on the back burner because it was generating business, but I didn't really want all of the business to be generated. Um, but what I realized is that the brand still continues and like my voice should still be out there. Um, so what I did is I actually started looking back at um old posts and seeing how I could repurpose the content. So it wasn't taking a ton of mental energy from me. Um it was just taking things that I have already put out that already worked. I looked at my engagement, you can search that to see um the bet the best performing posts that you've had and just tweaking those. Also using different types of content, so not just written, like doing polls based off of those, um, just to keep your name still out there, um, but not have to think so much about um, you know, what it is that you're trying to say.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

I love that. When you start getting too deep or you're too heady, I think one of the things that like I realize is to you have to not overthink things too much. Like, I think that finding stuff that's relevant in real time is one of the most valuable things because when I sit there and I get into my head and I start thinking about what would be the best thing, what would be it's one of the biggest mistakes I can do is to just overthink content. And I wanted to ask you like, what's the biggest mistake that people make when they try to grow a business using social media?

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yeah. Um, so I mean, to tack on to what you said, I think it is trying to over-assess or making it sales instead of leading with um education or like knowledge or whatever it is, like giving away those little tidbits and trying to gatekeep, but just using link their LinkedIn profile as a sales profile of just like uh, you know, click this link here to book time, or for $95, you can have this. Um, instead of just leading with being a thought leader and letting people recognize that and build trust before they even book the meeting with you. Um I would say that's it.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

It's a great point. Like, I think that one of the things is like if people can have faith in you, they know you, they know what your product is, they know what you're doing, they know how you show up, they know how you operate because they've been seeing everything that you've been putting out online. I think there's a starting point, and you don't have to like reinvent the wheel at that point in time. There is this like this introduction that's already happened. And I think for me, um I had learned this years ago when I was working in a hair salon. I started making videos in a hair salon, and we were making hair tutorials, and we were having people fly in from all over the US and going, and they knew everyone in the salon. Like, oh, that's Mateo, that's Nelly, that's this. And it's like, um, you know, and it was just I was like blown away that simple little videos could be um so powerful and creating familiarity even when they didn't already know us. Like my wife is a famous singer in Vietnam, and we built this family friendly brand built around who she actually is. And when people meet her, they sit there and they like they. Literally think they already know her. Um, you know, and it's powerful like that, right? Because we've created the space where there is already trust.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Yep, yep, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

I wanted to ask you, is there a difference between content that builds an audience and contents that actually brings in clients?

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Is there? I don't know that there is. Well, so yes, I guess so. I don't really do it, but there is the clickbait content, right? Or the things that stir people to, and that just gains followers usually and engagement, but they're it's that's typically not the people that are going to convert and actually build business, right? Um, so I would steer away from the audience building and um stay true to yourself or like trying to chase the algorithm and keep up with the algorithm. Yeah, I mean, it's probably good to think about like, you know, having the video or having the the picture as part of the post because that does in um in uh irrefutably help your engagement, but not chasing the shiny objects and just staying true to yourself to stay on the business building side of that equation.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Right. And I think that one of the things too that like if you're always focused on the business building side, it can get exhausting. Like you have to have I like to think about having the heart in your content. And there's sometimes there's something that might not convert, but might be a foundational thing, you know. I remember for years, uh my um wife and I were after she had a baby, there was nothing that we were able to do. She wasn't booking shows, there wasn't anything going on. And so we had to find ways to make money. And we just started singing together, just singing together. And um, it was awesome and fun. And it didn't make any money. It didn't make any money. Uh, but what was powerful was that it was brand establishing, and people were like, I remember you, I know you guys, you did this um thing together where you sang with your wife, you know? And I was like, Yes, yes, we did, you know, and it was amazing like that because people paid attention. But it wasn't those videos, um weren't the like the the groundbreaking, like they weren't things that everyone remembered, but they established this thing that later on people reference back to. If does that make any sense?

SPEAKER_00 24:48

It does. It's it goes back to our building trust thing and then like filling, um, not filling, well, yeah, it is filling the empty space, like when we were talking about the the quiet periods of like how I attacked that. Like um, it doesn't always have to be super in-depth tactical posts um that you spent 30, 40 minutes thinking through. Um, sometimes it's as simple as it could be a personal thing, like a video of you and your family, or or it's just something that you did that week professionally that was like an aha moment for your client, or or what just like pick from something that's already happening and just talk about that. It's the reps, it's the it's the showing up that count the most, I would say. Um not the um, not it's not necessarily always the content.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

And it doesn't have to be flashy all the time. I think that's something too. It's the reps. It's the reps, and it's putting out there that honest you, you know? And I I want to ask you this because you went from zero to 45 clients pretty fast. Was there one post or one moment where things just really clicked?

SPEAKER_00 25:54

Um I don't know that I can pinpoint like a specific post. I there is a type of post, like a style of post that I used that once I realized that was what was converting, which was straightforward, not gatekeeping, just saying like this is how I executed this. It was more of a use case of like this is something that we did for this firm for this, like this week. And then sharing exactly how we did it, that type of format really resonated and got the most engagement in all ways, not just likes and comments. Um, so once I realized that, it everything became stronger because I could keep um providing that type of content to my my network.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

I love that. I love that. One of the things too, like as you're creating this, the consistency has to be there. All these things have to be there. But how do you keep showing up when it gets hard? When life gets hard, how do you keep showing up?

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Well, I give myself um grace first and foremost. Like when I have really hard weeks, sometimes it's a post talking about how I'm having a really hard week. And not a pity post, but just actually I find that those posts bring out all of the entrepreneurs that are in my network. And it's like a validation affirmation that we all get it. Um, but that is a piece of content too, right? Um, of like um just further showing myself and being vulnerable um with my network. Um and and the things that I've said before is just taking content that you've already created and repurposing it in some way if you're blogging, or um, it could just be a post that you did previously, take a snippet of another video and highlight that piece. Like just just um and also one post is enough. Like it's some people get stuck on they need one post every single day at 8:30 a.m. And it's just not true. Um, what's important is that post at least once um and engage. Just get on, do a couple of comments, and leave it at that. Just keep keep the sometimes, like I equate it to like working out, right? Some weeks are better than others, some sessions are better than others. Um, but the thing is that you just show up again. And even if it's just going for a walk or um just doing yoga instead of a full strength train, the same thing applies to um to creating content.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

I love that. I like because it does, it's the same thing. You show up. I hate the gym. I love the gym and I hate the gym, but I show up at the gym because it's something that's good for me, you know? And if I can keep showing up consistently, day after day after day, then you start to get results. And I think that you have, but you know, the process is the showing up. And you also have, right? There's no magic bullet, but you also have to have the intention. Like, why are you showing up? What is the purpose of your process? You know, because if you're just showing up but you're doing the wrong exercises, that ain't gonna help anyone. So, you know, are you doing the right thing and do you have that that focus? You know, what is that North Star that you're working on? You know?

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Yeah, definitely. That's just the difference between discipline and motivation, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:18

100%, right? Well, one last question. Like, if someone has never posted anything about their work online, where do they start?

SPEAKER_00 29:31

They start with what they did this week. They start with what they did this week, they start with the thing that their best biggest and best client found the most valuable in them, and they start talking about that and they snip it into little pieces. We don't need to give it all away at once. Um, we talk about it in increments um over time. And once a week, I don't I some people just try to dive right into the deep end. Start with just committing to yourself to post once a week and engage three times a week with somebody else's posts. Um, and let that be enough. And once you get that, now add on a second piece. Like don't you can't. My mom always says you can't give birth to an adult. You have to start as a baby. You start as a child and um don't, yeah, don't overcommit. Just start small.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Yeah. Start small one step at a time. If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, what advice would you give yourself about this whole journey?

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Start sooner. Just do it. Yeah. I was I started by talking about the people that have like um analysis, paralysis, or like perfectionists that need everything, like want a content calendar. No, I I did that, and no, just start, do it, and you'll learn as you go. Bet on you first that you'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

I love that. Well, I appreciate so much what you brought here tonight. And can you tell people, uh, if they want to learn more about you, where to go to find out more about you and what you do and the services you offer?

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Sure. So uh LinkedIn first, Olivia Allen, uh Village Financial Services on LinkedIn. Um, and then our website's www.villagefs like financial services.com.