Here’s the full transcript from Episode 42 of the Wild Business Growth Podcast, featuring Lights, Camera, Live Creator Stephanie Liu. Please excuse any minor typos from the transcription service. For more information on this episode, including the episode link, check out the show notes here.
Full Transcript – Stephanie Liu Podcast Interview
Stephanie Liu: 00:00 If you’re going to go live, you have to 10X your energy.
Max Branstetter: 00:20 HeLiu. Welcome back to the Wild Business Growth Podcast presented by Hippo Direct. This is your place to hear from a new entrepreneur or innovator every single Wednesday morning who’s unleashing creativity to grow their business. I’m your host Max Branstetter Digital Marketing dude at Hippo Direct and you can reach me at max@hippodirect.com for any help with podcasting or digital marketing. This is episode number 42, shoutout Jackie Robinson, and today’s guest is Stephanie Liu. Stephanie is a live video expert, the creator of the Facebook Live show Lights, Camera, Live and also runs her own social media agency. You’ll learn how to excel at live video and also some pretty fun and unusual tricks for creativity. Lights, Camera, Live. Enjoy the show. Alrighty, we are here with Stephanie Liu, the live video expert and founder and creator of Lights, Camera, Live. How are you doing today, Stephanie?
Stephanie Liu: 01:16 I’m doing outstanding. How are you feeling today?
Max Branstetter: 01:19 I am doing outstanding as well. Thank you so much for joining. I’m very excited for this conversation. Your content and your video series and agency are very impressive. There’s a lot of different things that you’re doing. Obviously a lot of it you’ve really established your niche as an expert in this live video space. For anybody that’s not as familiar with you yet, do you mind going a little bit into how you got started with your professional career and what’s kind of led you to where you are today?
Stephanie Liu: 01:44 Oh yeah, sure. Okay, so for those of you who don’t know, I’m an ad agency veteran, so I pretty much spent the last decade and a half deep in the trenches of agency life. My background is pretty much in PPC and SEO (Max Branstetter – all of the acronyms) Yeah. That’s how I got my first site. It wasn’t until 2015 when I had my daughter that I was like, okay, this 50 plus hours a week thing isn’t going to work when you bring another human being into this world. (Max Branstetter – Right) So they decided, okay, cool, I’m going to go ahead and launch my own agency. You know, if I could do this for a Nike, Sephora, Clinique, I sure as heck can do it for myself. So I went about that and then I realized that like everyone else was calling themselves, you know, like a a digital marketing strategist. (Max Branstetter – right) Yeah, and at that point Max, I was like, okay, well how do I separate myself from the sea of sameness? And that’s when I decided now like jumping in front of the camera and instead of just telling people what I do and actually showing them behind the scenes what I could do, I could go ahead and win more clients that way. And that’s basically how Lights came alive. Change of life.
Max Branstetter: 02:52 Oh. And how has that adjustment been since your daughter has come into the world? How has, how has that changed your lifestyle?
Stephanie Liu: 02:59 Oh, it’s like living with the Tasmanian Devil. (laughter) It’s, it’s a blessing. I mean, she is everything to me. And you know, I work four days a week. Wednesdays is whatever we want Wednesdays. So I completely shut down on a Wednesday. I’m like, no emails, we are going to the park or going to the museum. So she’s brought a lot of joy into our lives.
Max Branstetter: 03:21 Yeah. Well shout out alliteration for that. Whatever we want Wednesdays. Going back to your ad agency career, you mentioned you’re an ad agency veteran. (Stephanie – Yeah) What were your favorite parts from the agency days? Like what did you do that you enjoyed the most?
Stephanie Liu: 03:38 I loved pitching clients. I think that was like the fun part was when everyone would go into the boardroom. Right. So I worked at an agency where we had in-house branding, creative, digital, social, all of that under one roof. And whenever we had to pitch a new client, you know, we would go into the boardroom and we would work out or presentations and that just, that made me super excited. You know, just, just like performing, you know, and like being to sweep the leg on your competition because you guys have rehearsed. Right?
Max Branstetter: 04:13 Right. Uh, yeah. In the blood you got, you get the butterflies every time you get the blood is pumping. Do you have any tips or advice for anybody that is pitching clients like that and putting on theatrical performance?
Stephanie Liu: 04:25 Any advice for that? If you’re going to be performing or pitching by yourself, you know you have to get into the most confident state, right? So you’ve got to want it. You got to completely own it. I mean, walking into the room, you know, maybe having the Rocky Balboa song stuck in your head like Eye of the Tiger that will get you going, right? But if you’re going to have other people on the, on the same pitch team as you, you guys got to coordinate like what your stories are going to be because it’s really what the stories are that’s really going to hook your audience in when you’re pitching them. You know, like as you mentioned earlier, there’s so many acronyms, especially in the digital marketing world, that if you just hit him like with the PPCs and the SEOs, they’re going to clock out.
Max Branstetter: 05:08 Yeah, yeah. They’re going to GTFO. (laughter) No, it’s very true. You make some great points about pitching, and next time I’m working out, I’m going to blast the Rocky Balboa Song. So, shout out for that. But so you, you had that experience in the ad agency world. It sounds like you really changed things up once you had your daughter. What’s been the biggest change you’ve noticed so far professionally about going out on your own versus being part of an agency?
Stephanie Liu: 05:36 Well, the beauty of going out on your own is that you’re able to pick and choose clients based on of your own values. And I feel like that’s the most empowering thing that you could, you could do for yourself. Because you’re no longer just accepting clients because they’ll pay the bills. You’re accepting clients that align with your values. You know, for me, like working with clients that leave a legacy is one of my top priorities. So if I had a client that is doing the best that they can to make the world a better place for the next generation, I am so on top of that. But if you are, you know, a brand and you’re like, I just want to get clicks to sell some merch, I’m like, eh, that might not work out for us.
Max Branstetter: 06:18 Yeah. So how often do you think that you’re saying no to potential client opportunities versus yes?
Stephanie Liu: 06:24 I probably say once a week. Yeah. Cause yeah, coming from the agency world, what’s really nice is that once you’ve built up your credibility, you know, everyone wants to refer business to you. And at that point sometimes they know you for one thing. So in this case, let’s say social media retainer is, and I’m make Ah, you know, I’ve actually shifted my business and now I’m doing more live streaming for brands.
Max Branstetter: 06:46 So, so that’s a good note. So, uh, that’s a good segue. I would love to speak about Lights, Camera, Live. So for anybody that hasn’t seen your show yet, are familiar with the brand, can you give a little intro to what is Lights, Camera, Live?
Stephanie Liu: 07:00 Yeah. Well Lights, Camera, Live, is a live broadcast on Facebook where we shine a spotlight on the best and brightest marketers in the industry. So you could take your business from unknown to unforgettable using social media. And what’s really fun about it is that yes, it’s a live show, but it’s completely branded. And I think that’s what really separates it from the sea of sameness is the fact that it’s branded, you could bring on guests. We do a lot of screen casting tutorials and it just really puts it on a whole different level than what you usually see in the Facebook newsfeed.
Max Branstetter: 07:33 Hmm. Yeah. And again, with the alliteration with the sea of sameness, that’s a second sea of sameness. Second sea of sameness in this show. I can’t think of any more s’s but here we are Stephanie. Um, so I, I love the idea for that and you describe it and in such a wonderful way. Where did the idea come about come about in the first place?
Stephanie Liu: 07:55 Um, you know, it’s one of those things where as soon as they hit the button right, of course, like we talked about like the Eye of the Tiger. I was like, girl, you got to hype yourself up, right? In my head. Instead of saying lights, camera, action like Lights, Camera, Live. And as soon as that came out, I mean at this point, you know, I’m all about alliteration. So I was like, oh, that’s the name. That is the name, trademark. Let’s get this, you know, lightscameralive.com done and done.
Max Branstetter: 08:22 Wow. Okay. There you go. And what’s been, when you think back to the video series, what’s been some of the most memorable moments from it?
Stephanie Liu: 08:31 Oh Gosh, so many. You know, but I, I would say like the part that really resonates with me the most is the fact that every time I go live and I see one of my fans or viewers leave a comment, I could tell right off the bat if that is a loyal listener or if that’s someone that’s completely new because then their names will pop out and I’m like, Max, hey you’re a first time viewer. Thanks for chiming in. You know, it’s like, and that just builds like an instant connection for me. And I think that’s probably the most memorable piece is just seeing how your audience grows with every single episode that you release.
Max Branstetter: 09:09 Yeah. When you’re such an expert as you are with live video, it amazes me the streamers, how much multitasking is involved? Because obviously you’re speaking, you’re speaking into the camera, but also you’re paying attention to those comments. How do you manage that?
Stephanie Liu: 09:22 Oh, okay. Strategically, before in the beginning when I first started live streaming, it felt a little overwhelming. It felt a little bit of sensory overload because to your point, you know you’re looking at the camera because you’re trying to make eye contact with your viewers and still pay attention to what your guest is saying. Right. And then through my peripheral, I would see like comments popping up and that’s because I use Ecamp and they have this little thing where you could see each of the comments coming up. And what I started to realize is that instead of like having my eyes dart all over the place, what I could do is I could say, okay Max, here’s a question. And as soon as you start answering Max, I switch the screen so it’s on to you. And then I could look over at the comments and be like, okay, cool. This person had a question. Cool, cool, cool. (Max Branstetter – Oh) switch the screen and then I’m back to it.
Max Branstetter: 10:14 Whoa. We’re getting some real behind the scenes here. (Stephanie Liu – Oh yeah) It makes sense. And you do it seamlessly. And how do you go about finding the guests that are on your show?
Stephanie Liu: 10:24 It starts off with a social media strategist group. So I have a bunch of social media strategists in there and from time to time I’ll literally ask them like, Hey, what are you guys working on right now? What do you need help with in order to reach your goal this month? And sometimes they’ll, they’ll say a few things like, oh, you know, I’m really struggling right now with Instagram, or I want to learn more about Twitter chats. I’ll use that information and start putting it into my editorial calendar of like which guests I want to bring on. Because I know that if there’s a specific need and you already have a built in audience that’s saying, Hey, I’m raising my hand, I need help with this. Then if I actually go live with that particular topic, their ears are going to perk up and they’re going to tune in. And that’s exactly what you want.
Max Branstetter: 11:08 Yeah, it is and with that group, it’s a closed Facebook group. Correct?
Stephanie Liu: 11:13 It is. Yeah. I try to keep it, um, I try to keep it spam free. Like you know, I don’t like people that posting ghosts. That’s no fun.
Max Branstetter: 11:21 Yeah. Another great rhyme. Yeah. So let’s talk about that for a little bit. So I, I obviously one benefit of a closed group, but how did you decide overall to go with the closed group as opposed to an open Facebook group?
Stephanie Liu: 11:33 I mean you search for like social media marketing on Facebook and you’re going to find like hundreds if not thousands of groups. Right. And I wanted the social media strategist group to be in a whole different level. Like I wanted real strategist. I wanted other agency people like me who are just like, you know what, I’ve got a template for that. Hey, you want to do a social media retainer estimate, boom I got you. Great. You’re ready to have likeminded people in there. And so it started to grow over the years in terms of like the conferences and whatnot. And then eventually I started letting other entrepreneurs in there like if they really wanted to learn and what I have right now Max, is that as a filter where I’ll ask like three questions like 1st Why are you interested in joining this group? Which specific social media discipline are you most interested? Cause that goes back into the show, right? 3rd is, you know, if you want to get updates for Lights, Camera Live, give me your email address and then you’re in. If they don’t answer any of those questions, I’m like, you know what, you’re not as serious about this as I am. So how about you just go find another group?
Max Branstetter: 12:36 There we go. I’m sure there’s a fourth question of are you interested in the sea of sameness or are you against the SoS? But it’s effective. And we’ve seen a lot of top marketers out there have a lot of great results in just great engagement with these closed groups out there. Um, especially, you know, it’s another one of those things that I think kind of arose once organic reach to start a dying on Facebook. I mean, within those groups it can still be effective way of reaching your fans and people in your community. So I love how much effort and energy you put into that. (Stephanie Liu – Oh thanks) Of course. You know, for Lights, Camera Live, you also have training that you do. And I know one of the levels is about $5 a month.
Stephanie Liu: 13:15 Oh yeah, the 360 Marketing Squad. Oh yeah. That’s, that’s a ton of fun.
Max Branstetter: 13:21 Yeah. Can you speak about that for a little bit? Like what’s, what’s involved with that and, and uh, and I’m curious how many of your clients you get from the lower costs like that versus different offerings.
Stephanie Liu: 13:31 Sure. Yeah. So the 360 Marketing Squad, it’s, it includes myself where I talk a lot about live streaming as well as video marketing. But then you also get Mike Allton who was like the blogging brute. He knows everything about blogging, right?
Max Branstetter: 13:44 Oh my, he’s, yeah, he’s incredible in blogging. He’s like, it’s hard to believe the quantity and quality of his posts is just insane in itself.
Stephanie Liu: 13:51 He’s a beast. I feel like every time I’m done with the live show, he was like, oh, d d d d . I just published a blog post. And I’m like, what are you talking about. (Max Branstetter – and it’s that quick too) It is. Wee have this long running joke that that Mike probably has long toes and he’s just typing underneath his desk by the time that written up and live show like he already has, he already has it published.
Max Branstetter: 14:13 There we go. Shoutout Mike Allton’s toes. There we go.
Stephanie Liu: 14:17 There you go. You can tell him that. He’s, he’s totally going to kill me now.
Max Branstetter: 14:20 All right. Whatever. It’s not like it’s on the record or anything. Whoops. But yeah, but about about more of that.
Stephanie Liu: 14:26 And the squad. Yes. And then we also have Amanda Robinson who is such a minja whenever it comes to Messenger bots and Facebook advertising. And then last but not least we have the grandmaster, Jen Herman. So there’s a lot of people in our circles where they would ask us, you know, we each have like our own groups. (Max Branstetter – right) People would always ask us these questions and then we’re like, you know what, let’s just form a group. Right? Kinda Like I always laugh because I always think of like transformers. I’m like, Optimus Prime, we all come together and who’s marketing squad, you know, and ask a question and then you’ll get 360 feedback in terms of how to approach your specific marketing problem in terms of PPC, SEO. You know, how live streaming can play into it and so on and so forth. And people are finding a ton of value in that.
Max Branstetter: 15:15 Yeah, it’s awesome. I like, I like the transformer.
Stephanie Liu: 15:18 Yeah, I’m pretty nerdy.
Max Branstetter: 15:21 Hey, it’s great. You’re, I’ve said in a previous episode, but nerds unite all, I’m all for it.
Stephanie Liu: 15:25 Oh yeah. Nerds unite and I think I’ve been branded as adorkable cause I’m just like, I will geek out on anything.
Max Branstetter: 15:34 That’s great. I’ve actually never heard that before. I’ll just start using that, adorkable. And that could be as little as $5 per month, right?
Stephanie Liu: 15:43 Yeah. And sometimes we have, we have, um, a couple of the members are like, okay, I was digging that free as digging that advice. Now I want to go in depth and that gives them an opportunity if they want to work with us one on one, then they could go ahead and book a consulting call. Right. So it’s more of like a, an easy in at that point.
Max Branstetter: 16:05 Kind of take a step back here. Let’s talk about live video is more in general. How’d you hone in on live video in the first place? Why was it appealing to you?
Stephanie Liu: 16:17 Well, that’s such a good question. (Max Branstetter – thank you) You know, as, as I think to myself, well, again, how do I make myself stand down and how do I make myself top of mine into the phone? Another alliteration for you.
Max Branstetter: 16:29 I’m blown away by the, you only need like three letters in the, in the language and the alphabet with the alliteration you use.
Stephanie Liu: 16:38 Seriously. And so, um, what I notice is that every time you went live, anyone that you were connected to, would get a notification. And I was like, okay, so how can I leverage that? How can I use that to my advantage? Because if I just posted a video, you know, I might not get the organic reach than I wanted, but if I could strategically leverage the free advertisement that Facebook is going to give me, then I might as well do that. So I started live streaming back, I think was it 2016 and I would play around with certain things. Like I was using OBS Studio back in the day and I was like, you know what? I’m just going to mistake it until I make it. And you know, I fumbled my way through it for a little bit, but I had an audience that loves the hero journey. They’re like, okay, Max, like what are you working on? Oh you know, he figured it out. Oh cool. Like it’s, it’s now a thing. And yeah,
Max Branstetter: 17:28 they were just looking at as a real example, by the way.
Stephanie Liu: 17:30 Yeah. Do they just say they would follow you all throughout your journey and then at that point, that’s how I built up my audience. But what was really cool was because I came from an ad agency background, all the clients that has ever connected to all the other colleagues that I had worked with in the agency, were now getting a notification. And so they’re like, oh hey Steph, like what is it that you’re doing now? Hey, do you need clients? And all of a sudden it became like my goto referral.
Max Branstetter: 17:59 Oh yeah. That’s amazing.
Stephanie Liu: 18:01 Yeah. And I was like, okay, well, you know, screw trying to post five times a day on Instagram. Right? Like if I just go live twice a month, and by the time I’m done with every single broadcast, I’m getting a new lead – for sure sign me up for that. Like, where do I put my name? Let’s do that. Let’s do it.
Max Branstetter: 18:20 Yeah. And so you’ve really, your network was already filled with tons of people that were like-minded from a business sense. So that’s, that’s incredible. It’s, you kind of hacked into the algorithm for Facebook there and it’s worked incredible for you from a lead standpoint.
Stephanie Liu: 18:36 Uh huh.
Max Branstetter: 18:36 So that’s very cool. For anybody that’s interested in starting a live video series of their own, where do they get started?
Stephanie Liu: 18:43 It really depends on what it is that you want to accomplish? So like have a desired outcome. Right. One of the, I’d say the biggest mistakes most people make with live streaming is that they just push the button and then all of a sudden they’re just a deer in headlights. And you’re like, what’s happening here?
Max Branstetter: 19:01 Yeah, well I’m envisioning like an hour long live video of someone just staring at the screen. (laughter)
Stephanie Liu: 19:06 Or they’re just I have this one client Max where she’s like, oh, what is this new Facebook live feature? And she hit the button and then someone called her name and the office and she put her phone down in her lap. Totally forgot that she was live streaming the whole time. You’re just like looking up her nose, client texting or what are you doing. Stop that. But for sure you know, if you’re going to go live, have a desired outcome and know exactly what it is that you want to accomplish. Right. Do you want to inform, educate, inspire your audience? Because that’s really going to help you out in the long term because again, Facebook is going to push your content to the top of the newsfeed and take advantage of that. You know, if you’re just kind of fumbling with the tech and you’re just like, oh what button do I push. People, you know, the next time that you go live they’re going to totally swipe, they’re going to scroll past you at that point. Definitely have a plan.
Max Branstetter: 20:00 Yeah. Yeah. Well you have to be very prepared and there is more like, I think most people would say there’s more pressure with live video then other types of video. I mean video in itself is a bigger ask and there’s more involved with it. So there’s more work. But live video, I mean your live, like you’re you, if you mess up, people are going to see that. So how do you manage that pressure and staying composed while you’re Lights, Camera, Live?
Stephanie Liu: 20:26 While you’re living? (Max Branstetter – yeah while you’re living) The way that I imagine it is that the camera itself, I just imagine it as if it’s like my best friend. I’m just like, dude, it’s been forever since I’ve seen you Max. How are you doing? And just having that vibe, you create this instant connection and it’s no longer of thinking like, Oh my God, people are going to judge me and yada yada. It’s because when you’re talking to a friend and if you flub on your words, it’s okay because they’re still hanging out with you. Right? (Max Branstetter – right) So just having that mindset of this isn’t necessarily if I’m performing to an audience, it’s I’m setting aside an hour twice a month just to kick it with you just to hang out and geek out and if you’re ready to geek out, then come hang out. Right?
Max Branstetter: 21:12 Yeah, that’s a great way to look at it. I mean, I would be very bummed if my friends stopped hanging out with me because I stumbled over my words. (Stephanie – Yeah, friends don’t do that) Right, yeah, exactly. What does your preparation process look like as far as what you do like right before you go live? Do you have a pre sort of a pregame ritual?
Stephanie Liu: 21:33 Oh my gosh. Yeah. I was like, I was just laughing because I was like, he’s going to say pregame. I hear it. He’s going to say it.
Max Branstetter: 21:39 Yeah. Well I tend to like sports as well, so I any sports analogy, I work it in.
Stephanie Liu: 21:44 Oh, love it. Yeah. Thursdays are usually when I go live and so like the whole entire morning I am just in the zone. I’ve got like my favorite jams playing. I’ve got Eye of the Tiger on there, I’ve got a little bit of Kanye West. I’m just like doing my thing, like whatever makes you feel like the most confident is what I’m doing. So sometimes on my Instagram stories I’m like you guys, this is happening. You know like I’m dancing on camera and I’m like we’re going to do this. And that’s probably the best way that I get hyped up for this show. Because if you’re going to go live, you have to 10X your energy. Like, if I was just like talking to you the way that I probably talked to you, like my girlfriend at a restaurant, it’s, it might not come across as well, right?
Max Branstetter: 22:26 Yeah. Well I’m very, I’m fluid in all languages so go ahead
Stephanie Liu: 22:31 And so to, you know, to really like pull in a viewer and to make their ears perk up and just really want to hang out with you. You have to TEDx your energy and you have to get into that confident state. And so, in the morning I don’t take any other client calls. I’m just completely in that head space. I’ve got my jams playing, I’ve made sure that I’ve had like my coffee and I’m good to go. Like same thing, like even today, like I knew, okay, I’m going to hang out with Max today at 10:00 AM this is what I’m going to do. Right? I felt like my playlist going, I got my copies by me and I was like, all right, let’s take a look at the questions. I’m good. I’m feeling good. Cool. Let’s do this.
Max Branstetter: 23:11 Damn, well, awesome. Those are incredible tips. And then how about after you’re done with the show, what’s your process after? How do you take those potential leads and actually turn it into business?
Stephanie Liu: 23:22 Usually what happens is after I’m done with this show, the leads would just come in honestly. Cause at that point you’ve built that know like and trust factor. They’ve seen you on camera. They’ve had a conversation with you or maybe they’re like one of the, the silent viewers, you know what I’m talking about? Like they watch but they don’t say anything and then all of a sudden they messaged you in the inbox and they were like, Hey Max, I’ve been listening to you forever. And you’re like, what, you’ve never left a comment.
Max Branstetter: 23:48 Right. Yeah. Which is actually, which is interesting because even outside of live video there’s people that are called like have the reputation of, I forget what it’s called, like lurkers or stalkers that, that view stuff on social media but never like or comment on anything. And it’s so it’s, it’s funny that that applies to live video as well.
Stephanie Liu: 24:07 It does, it does. And so when I think about this is that when someone buys something, right, they have to see your brand or your product x amount of times. And when they finally feel comfortable and confident in knowing that like, okay, this person can definitely help me solve this problem, then they’re going to reach out to you. And so that’s generally what happens is that they’ll reach out to me in my inbox. I’m like, hey Steph, like I’m working on this project, would you be interested? Yada yada. And that usually helps out a lot. But usually after a show, you know, I’ll hop into the comments and I’ll see like who’s tuning in? And that’s when I could see like, okay, you know, being attuned in might tune in. Awesome. Wait Max, you’re brand new, right? Like what brought you to the show? How did you find me? And that’s like a really great way for me again to let’s just build the audience and work from there.
Max Branstetter: 24:52 Yeah. A lot of this keeps going back to personal touch, which is so important, especially as the world just gets more and more social and social and kind of virtual connections with everyone.
Max Branstetter: 25:05 Hey wild listeners, have you been wanting to start a podcast for yourself or your business but didn’t know where to start? Or do you have a podcast of your own but you’re struggling with the time commitment? I’d love to help. Shoot me an email at max@hippodirect.com with any podcasting questions you have. I’m also happy to jump on a 30 minute call where we can discuss your idea, planning, production, promotion, and other elements of the podcasting world. Let your podcast run wild. So, let’s move into a segment on inspiration and creativity as you’re a very inspirational and creative individual. And so we’d love to see kind of what makes you tick. Get into the mind of Stephanie here. So first question here, what do you do to stay creative?
Stephanie Liu: 25:47 First off is, you know I take breaks during my work hours so I’ll work for about a good 90 minutes and then you know, I’ll take a break and actually walk outside and get some vitamin D cause I feel like, I feel like sun is what energizes me and gives me those creative ideas. I also love listening to binaural beats. You know what I’m talking about?
Max Branstetter: 26:09 I don’t, no, could you dive into that a little more?
Stephanie Liu: 26:12 Yes. The binaural beats is like knowing the different brainwaves, right? And so alpha waves are the ones that are really going to go ahead and spike that creativity in you. And I noticed that when I’m listening to binaural beats, as I am working, all these new ideas go ahead and pop into my mind. And so I have these post-it notes all over my desk. Like you can even hear it if I like, those are all post-it notes and I’m just always putting ideas on them. I’ll put on a post-it note and then I’ll put it on my whiteboard. I’m like, cool, I’m going to work on this leader. That’s, that’s definitely one of the ways that I keep my creativity open is I listen to binaural beats. I read a ton of books. I’m like, I’m really into hypnosis and NLP. (Max Branstetter – Oh, yeah) Yeah. You know, I think it also stems back to the fact when we were all at the ad agency, like every single pitch team is trained and certified in Neuro-linguistic Programming, knowing how to communicate effectively. And so I love reading stuff about that and I feel like anytime I’m reading a book, like let’s say hypnotic writing, a new idea would come in and I just have like this, I have like a Google doc called stories and I have a story for like how to overcome objection A objection B and like so on and so forth. And that’s how I keep sharp when it comes to being creative.
Max Branstetter: 27:31 Wow. There’s a ton there that is fascinating. Let’s start with hypnosis because actually when I first reached out to you, when you were looking at my previous episodes, the one that stuck out to you was the episode where we had a hypnotist on. Yeah, Rob and Kennedy from ResponseSuite, you know, they, they run an email marketing platform but also Rob is a hypnotist and Kennedy is a mind reader, uh, over in the UK there. So they, uh, so we dove into to a lot about that. But it’s a, it’s cool how it’s, that stuff is very appealing to you as well. Are there any books about hypnotists that you recommend?
Stephanie Liu: 28:06 Yeah, well, Milton Erickson total like that. That’s the bar right there. Erickson for sure is when I’m actually like, you probably hear my voice moving around cause I’m like, where is my books? Did I just drop it on the floor? (Max Branstetter – Oh, they are under your post it notes) Hypnotic Writing by Joe Vitale is one of my favorite ones. It’s all about pacing and leading, talking about, you know, different formulas that you can use in your writing even in your presentations I think is pretty spot on. Um, another one that I like is How You Use NLP in Your Presentations. It’s like, I’m trying to take a look at my bookshelf and it’s like all the way across the room. I’m like, it’s right over there.
Max Branstetter: 28:49 We need someone to hypnotize the book if we could.
Stephanie Liu: 28:54 Yeah. You know, but there’s, there’s just a lot of stuff that I love to read. Um, just in terms of NLP in general,
Max Branstetter: 29:01 Are there any other topics that you enjoy reading about? Any other genres, I guess?
Stephanie Liu: 29:08 I want to say something, but it’s going to come out completely nerdy, but whatever. I’ll say it. Like, I love watching Korean dramas. I love the way that they edit their videos. (Max Branstetter – That’s adorkable) Yeah, the way that they shoot and edit their videos, sometimes I find myself taking those ideas and repurposing it into Lights, Camera, Live, or into lifestyle videos that I do for my clients. I just, I just try to pick up what other people are doing and do my own variation from it.
Max Branstetter: 29:43 Right. Okay. And are there any names that come to mind to drop out? This will be the first Korean drama reference in podcast history. (laughter)
Stephanie Liu: 29:51 You’re totally gonna judge me, but that’s okay.
Max Branstetter: 29:53 No, no, I love it.
Stephanie Liu: 29:55 That’s like a total love connection and we’ll be best friends forever. (Max Branstetter – Perfect) Goblin is definitely one of my favorites right now. Um, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim? Is another good one. I swear to God, if anyone ever comes up to me at a conference and they’re just like, hey, let’s talk about Korean dramas. I’m like, let’s hang out.
Max Branstetter: 30:14 There we go. All right, well now you’ve revealed the key to your heart, so it’s on the record. There we go.
Stephanie Liu: 30:19 Yeah.
Max Branstetter: 30:20 And, and let’s, let’s touch on the beats that you mentioned, which you said binaural beats? (Stephanie Liu – binaural beats) Yeah. So is that a special type of music or audio or is that like, uh, can we hear that in popular music?
Stephanie Liu: 30:33 Um, I don’t think you would actually hear it in popular music. I’m trying to think of the name right now. Um, it was like Thievery something. But um, you can find a lot of these binaural beats if you, if you do a lot of meditation and you can find a lot of it on YouTube. Like sometimes I’ll just have binaural beats alpha waves playing the whole entire time. I actually have another good friend of mine who’s a shaman and he makes his own beats and he’ll send it out to our mastermind. We have a mastermind of NLP practitioners and master practitioners, and he’s like, you guys, I got this new track. Take a listen and let me know what you think, and it’s a thing.
Max Branstetter: 31:13 There you go. That’s like Dr Dre beats by Shaman. (Stephanie Liu – Yes. Yeah) Wow. I get to check some of this stuff out. This is, this is crazy. Also in terms of inspiration and creativity, how about people? Like who’s been most influential for you as you’ve gone into the marketing and entrepreneurial world?
Stephanie Liu: 31:31 Oh, where do I even start? You know, I’d probably say that Amy Porterfield is like one of my favorites. (Max Branstetter – Oh, yes, she is awesome) Yeah. I just love how she takes really complex topics and breaks them down into bite size and you’re just like, I can do this. Like she totally makes you feel empowered. By the time you’re done with the podcast, you’re like, I could freaking do this, Max and I could do this in my sleep. Just watch me. So I absolutely love her. I’m also a big huge fan of Mike Allton, you know, which is why he’s a part of the 360 Squad is, I love that he, his previous background he was the CMO of this, of this company called SiteSell. And he has so much knowledge about that and he’s so well versed in terms of blogging and news jacking and all of that stuff. And he and I sometimes I’m just like, Yo, I’ve got this idea. What do you think? And then we’ll just kind of riff off of each other and come up with new ideas. It’s like this idea baby that that comes to life.
Max Branstetter: 32:27 Idea baby,
Stephanie Liu: 32:31 I have this idea, you have this idea. Boom.
Max Branstetter: 32:32 If that’s not trademarked already, we’ve got to get on the idea of idea baby. Those are incredible examples. I recently attended one of Amy’s webinars, uh, with John Lee Dumas, who I previously had on this show and I was just blown away. Like I know she’s the queen of webinars and she’s very good on video, but I was just blown away by how inspiring and how polished she is. I mean she’s, she’s on another level, but I think Stephanie Liu is coming for her. I don’t know, maybe that’s just me. (laughter)
Stephanie Liu: 33:04 If anything, I’m like the official hype queen whenever it comes to live streaming.
Max Branstetter: 33:09 There we go with the hype queen and founder of idea baby. (laughter) Let’s move to a fan favorite segment called the Wild Business Shoutout of the Week (Wild Business Shoutout of the week) I couldn’t tell if you were, if you were laughing or you were like drinking water,
Stephanie Liu: 33:35 I was drinking water, and I was like, don’t choke, don’t choke.
Max Branstetter: 33:39 Yeah. We don’t want you to choke. But Wild Business Shoutout of the Week, this is where we talk about a recent marketing campaign or something a brand is doing that caught our attention. And earlier you were talking about something that most people have experienced, especially when growing up, but also into their adult lives. And you speak about your Girl Scout cookies example.
Stephanie Liu: 33:59 Oh my gosh, I love Girl Scout cookies. In fact, like just a few weeks ago, a Girl Scout had came to the door and my husband was the one that answered it. And he’s like, no, no, no, we don’t want anything. And then he came back to the living room and I was like, who’s that? He’s like, Girl Scout cookies. I was like, ooh, you turned her away? I was like, who did I marry, oh my goodness. (Max Branstetter – oh my God) Come back. Like, I love my girl scout cookies. But one of the campaigns that really stood out to me was this girl, this little Girl Scout so so clever. She was from Colorado. And you, have you ever had momoas?
Max Branstetter: 34:40 You mean Samoas.
Stephanie Liu: 34:42 Yeah, sorry. Samoas yeah, see I’m completely like,
Max Branstetter: 34:46 Yeah, of course. Yeah. Those are, those are some of the most popular ones.
Stephanie Liu: 34:49 Yeah. So Samoas is my absolute favorite and this gal in Colorado, basically she rebranded her Samoas to Jason Mamoas, and I was like no way! Like she literally took the Girl Scout box of Samoas and slapped a picture of a shirtless Aquaman on there. And I was like, do you want a Mamoa?And I was like, I would so buy that right now if she was right in front of me. I’m like, yes, please. And like put it on my shelf behind my show. Like in the background. I’m like, yes. By the way, I have a limited edition Mamoas. No, you cannot have one. But I thought that was so brilliant.
Max Branstetter: 35:28 Yeah. Yeah, it, it is a, but shout out Vinnie Chase from Entourage, the original Aquaman. But we’ll get to that separately. How did you hear about that campaign in the first place? Oh, I guess it wasn’t even really, I guess. Yeah, it was. It was her campaign.
Stephanie Liu: 35:42 Yeah, it was her campaign and I think I first heard of it, on maybe Reddit. I think it popped up on my, on my Reddit feed and I was like, this is so smart. You know they, they just snapped a photo of her and then they shared it and I was like, you guys, this is so smart. This is smart branding. This is actually news jacking. You know, we, when a movie comes out, Aquaman whatnot, and it’s popular, that’s a great way for you to go ahead and make your brand top of mind top of tongue. And it just, it was so clever. Right, perfect timing. Just had like a Girl Scout come to the door and I was like, man, this is smart. I like looked at my daughter and I was like, girl, you’re going to be in a whole nother level.
Max Branstetter: 36:21 Right? Yeah. Yeah. It’s a great example and I think it’s just, it was one of those ideas that in hindsight seems so simple and like a minor change, but it just resonated so well with anybody that came across it. And, you know, like you mentioned news jacking, it was right around when that movie was making all the buzz in coming out. So incredibly smart and creative campaign tactics by her. I mean it will be, it will be interesting to see like if this will inspire many other girls to start making changes to their Girl Scout cookies. Like, like what do you think? Do you think people, you think this is going to start sort of a trend of people more customizing their Girl Scout cookies or whatever offering they’re doing and door to door like that?
Stephanie Liu: 37:00 I hope so. I think that would be hilarious. I mean, one of my girlfriends is the, what is it? She’s like the CMO for a cannabis cannabis place here in San Diego. And they hit the news because they actually had a Girl Scout post up outside of their shop. And as people went into, into the store, they’d come out, they’d see her like, well yes, I would totally love some Samoas right now. And like she was just selling them and I was like so smart. Like know, know who your audiences.
Max Branstetter: 37:31 Yeah. Yeah. It’s so true. So that was a Wild Business Shoutout of the Week. So, so a couple more segments here. First one is a segment called the Unusual. So get ready for the unusual here. Think about it. (Stephanie Liu – Okay) Pet peeves, quirks, weird talents. So first question, what is your biggest pet peeve?
Stephanie Liu: 37:51 Okay. The first thought that just came to my head is when people go live and they don’t actually write a description of what their live streaming about.
Max Branstetter: 37:59 Yeah. You see the deer in headlights and you’re like, what, what is this deer in headlights for?
Stephanie Liu: 38:04 I guess, I guess for me it’s kind of like, okay, cool, you’ve got my attention, but now you want me to watch and not give me a reason why I should buy in. You know? It’s, for me, I’m just like, Oh man, it was a missed opportunity. Like if you think that I’m going to stop everything right now to watch what you’re doing, that’s not going to happen. And so that, that’s kind of a pet peeve,.
Max Branstetter: 38:25 Right. Yeah. What do you recommend for that? Like how long should the description be?
Stephanie Liu: 38:29 I think the description should be long enough to get your point across. Um, I usually, I usually tell my students that there’s four types of audience. There’s the why, what, how, and what if, right. People want to know why they should tune in; what you’re talking about; how your show is going to impact their business. And, if they can’t tune in, then where should they find you next. And I think you could cover all of that within like the first 10 seconds in your actual show or just even in your description. You’re like, you know what’s up you guys, I’m going to be hanging out with Max and today we’re talking about live streaming for your brand and why it’s important because you get more engagement. So I’ll show you how to get started. And if you can’t tune in, then you could always catch the replay. Like it’s that simple. And if people don’t nail that in the first 30 seconds, you lose so much of your audience at that point.
Max Branstetter: 39:19 Yeah, it’s so true, and I’ve seen that from the podcasting world as well. Like I mean some of these top show like notably, you know Joe Rogan, Tim Ferriss, guys like that and some of the other big names out there, their shows are incredible. I mean like so not taking anything away from that. And they have such a huge and massive fan base. Um, but some of those shows, like sometimes the, the ad reads at the start and the introduction, sometimes it’s like seven, eight minutes before you’re even into the interview. And it’s like people are here for the interviews and the guests into the interesting conversations, they are not here for the giant intro at the start. So that same logic applies to live video as well. Just keep it concise and clear and meaningful at the start. Don’t take too much time before you really get into it. (Stephanie Liu – very true, very true) How about quirks? Uh, say I guess you, you mentioned a couple already, but I think think what, uh, what it would, by the way, I’ve like, I’ve ton of them. Like it’s a, I love quirks and quirkiness. So anything you can think of that like your daughter or family or friends, anybody calls you out for that, like is just a little bit quirky or like an interesting or unique part of your personality?
Stephanie Liu: 40:26 Oh my goodness. I’d see the inside joke that people always have with me is the food funnel. Have you heard of this?
Max Branstetter: 40:33 No, but I’m interested. Go for it.
Stephanie Liu: 40:35 So I feel like on every single interview or whenever we’re doing a 360 Marketing Squad show, um, it always comes back to food. Like we’ll talk about like the digital breadcrumbs that lead you back to the buffet, which is your website and just, it always becomes a thing. It’s one of my quirks, like, I think it’ll always pop up in any conversations that I have. We were in a middle of the show and we were talking about how we’re all gonna meet up at Social Media Marketing World. And so what was funny is that we were all trying to figure out how we could hang out with each other. And I was like, Yo, you guys, let’s do dim summit. And they’re like, what is dim summit? I was like, it’s digital internet marketing over dim sum. Let’s do this. And they’re like, and in the middle of the show, like one of my viewers, George, I was like, I’m going to camera right now. And he just made a flyer, posted it on my wall. And then all of a sudden, like by the time the show was over, everyone was like, how do we get an invite to dim summit? And I was like, this is the food funnel, the food funnel is what brings people together because you just sit there and you have like food. And I was like, okay Max, let’s kick it, let’s hang out.
Max Branstetter: 41:37 Bam. There you go. Who doesn’t like food and dim summit that has a ring to it. So I, yeah, and you’ve got the food in there. I mean what’s, what’s not to like. And then how about weird talents? Anything that you’re like you can randomly do but it doesn’t have too much of a benefit. Like for example, like making like shapes with your tongue or like, (Stephanie Liu giggles) like an m or like curling your tongue, whatever or like, you know, bending your thumb so it can hit your forearm. You know, like random tricks like that.
Stephanie Liu: 42:10 Yeah. Have you ever heard anyone, someone click with their tongue before? That sounds so weird. (laughter)
Max Branstetter: 42:17 Can you do it?
Stephanie Liu: 42:18 It’s, it’s a really, really loud sound. So I’m going to like push the microwave button. POP. Did you hear that?
Max Branstetter: 42:26 That was your tongue? And you were standing across the room too?
Stephanie Liu: 42:32 No, I’m like right here. Can I give you the backstory for it? (Max Branstetter – of course) Okay. So when I was younger, I grew up in Japan. I would walk home from school and to give my mom a signal that, hey, I’m like close by, you should unlock the door now. I would click my tongue and it would be so loud that she would hear it from the house and she’d unlock the door. Right. Crack it a little bit open and I’d come home cause she didn’t give me a key. I was like in the third grade or whatever. Well ever since then that has always been a thing. Like if I’m at the store and my husband goes to the other side of the story, I’ll just click and then all of a sudden he’ll find me.
Max Branstetter: 43:11 Wow. If you don’t mind, could you do that one more time?
Stephanie Liu: 43:16 Yeah. So it goes POP (click of tongue sound).
Max Branstetter: 43:20 That’s incredible. I feel like you have a full sound team with you. Like a movie sound effects team creating something. Wow, there we go. Yeah, that definitely fits in the weird talents category. (Stephanie Liu – that is a weird talent, laughter) Wow. Wild Business Growth Podcast exclusive. So let’s wrap up here with rapid fire Q and. A. You ready for it? (Stephanie Liu – sure) Alright, let’s get wild. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life had to be the same thing for every meal, what would it be?
Stephanie Liu: 44:00 Jajangmyeon. It’s black bean noodles Korean dish (Max Branstetter – How do you say that again?) Jajangmyeon, it’s black bean noodles.
Max Branstetter: 44:04 Wow. Okay judge it. I learned a new food as well. (Stephanie Liu – See it just came out) If you could only listen to the same song over and over again for the rest of your life and it, and this is uh, a stipulation. It could not be Eye of the Tiger.
Stephanie Liu: 44:20 And it could not be Eye of the Tiger. It will be, This is Me from The Greatest Showman soundtrack.
Max Branstetter: 44:26 Hey, there we go. Well, you are ready for your theatrical pitch as well. Alright. What is your favorite thing to watch on Netflix right now?
Stephanie Liu: 44:33 Memories of the Alhambra, a Korean drama. (Laughter)
Max Branstetter: 44:37 Ahh, there we go. I should have known. And what is your favorite movie of all time?
Stephanie Liu: 44:43 My favorite movie of all time is Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring.
Max Branstetter: 44:47 I was going to ask which one. Ah, you, you’re one step ahead. Okay. And if you were stranded on an island, which I know you’re in San Diego, so you already have the island weather basically, if you were stranded on an island and couldn’t bring any sort of technology, what would you bring? One object and why?
Stephanie Liu: 45:04 Oh God, I don’t know why this came up, but I was like Chapstick (laughter) give me my Chapstick and I’m cool on the beach.
Max Branstetter: 45:13 Stephanie might be on a stranded island, but she’s got her Chapstick. Well, thank you so much Stephanie. This was a ton of fun. I learned a ton in a excited to share out all your amazing tips on live video and beyond and checkout, some of the really cool things that you’re into to stay creative. So thanks so much for coming on.
Stephanie Liu: 45:32 Thank you. This is, this is a ton of fun. It was probably the most embarrassing, but whenever I love it.
Max Branstetter: 45:37 Oh yeah, well I can edit it. I can edit anything out if you want later. But I think, I think you’ll be okay. I think people will think fondly of you.
Stephanie Liu: 45:44 Oh it’s, it’s adorkable this, this. It’s totally on brand. It works.
Max Branstetter: 45:48 It is. So speaking of brand, where’s the best place for everyone to connect with you and your brand in videos?
Stephanie Liu: 45:56 Yeah, you know the best place to hang out is in the Social Media Strategist Facebook group. So it’s facebook.com/groups/smstrategists.
Max Branstetter: 46:05 Perfect. Okay. And then do you want to shoutout like your other social media channels for just personally as well?
Stephanie Liu: 46:10 Oh yeah, absolutely. You know, you’re more than welcome to go ahead and hang out with me on Facebook facebook.com/heyStephanieLiu that’s where you’ll catch all of the episodes of Lights, Camera, Live. You’ll also find me at lightscameralive.com
Max Branstetter: 46:23 That I was going to try to reconnect. Reenact a high pitch uptick there, but I can’t, so it’s so, so we’ll keep it monotone. But awesome. Last thing here, the stage is yours. Do you have a final quote or final thoughts? Anything you want just to wrap us up?
Stephanie Liu: 46:39 I mean, honestly, I feel like if you ever see me at a conference and you just shout out Food Funnel, like let’s hang out because then I’ll know like you listened to the show
Max Branstetter: 46:50 And that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Food references, the gift that keeps on giving. Thank you so much, Stephanie, for coming on the podcast. Make sure to hang out with her and say hey, and thank you, wild listeners for tuning into another edition. If you’re hungry for more business growth insights, make sure to subscribe to this podcast on your favorite platform and leave us a five star review on Apple Podcast. You can also chomp on our blog at hippodirect.com/blog and our newsletter at hippodirect.com/newsletter. That newsletter is the Hippo Digest and it’s your weekly recap of creative marketing from all around the web. For dessert, you can take some bites of our social media sweets at the handles, @hippodirect, and @maxbranstetter. Until next time, let your business run wild. Bring on the bongos.
Until Next Time on the Wild Business Growth Podcast
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