The primary theme of this podcast episode revolves around the significance of authentic human connection in the realm of social media and business. We delve into the journey of Robin Wilson, a seasoned professional who transitioned from the tumultuous mortgage industry into the dynamic world of social media. Her insights highlight the necessity of building genuine relationships with clients, rather than merely focusing on transactions. Through her experiences, Robin emphasizes the importance of storytelling in marketing, illustrating how engaging narratives can bridge the gap between businesses and their communities. As we explore her evolution and the strategies she employs, we aim to inspire listeners to cultivate their own impactful stories and foster meaningful connections within their respective fields. The podcast episode features a compelling conversation between Adam Marburger and his long-time friend Robin Wilson, who is renowned for her expertise in social media. Their dialogue transcends mere professional discourse, delving into the personal evolution necessary for authentic engagement in one's vocation. Marburger introduces Wilson with enthusiasm, emphasizing her vibrant personality and the depth of her insights. The discussion begins with a candid exchange about their recent challenges, showcasing the importance of resilience and a positive mindset in the face of adversity. Wilson reflects on her journey from a mortgage lender during the economic downturn to becoming a pivotal figure in social media marketing. She shares how her experiences shaped her understanding of the interconnectedness of personal growth and professional success, underscoring the necessity of building one’s internal landscape before venturing into the external world of business.

Takeaways:

• The podcast emphasizes the significance of authentic human connections, fostering real conversations.
• Listeners are encouraged to take actionable steps in their lives to impact their communities positively.
• The discussion highlights the necessity of developing a strategic approach to social media marketing.
• Robin Wilson shares her journey from mortgage lending to a thriving social media agency, illustrating resilience and adaptability.
• The importance of storytelling in marketing is underscored, as it creates relatable connections with audiences.
• The podcast asserts that while AI tools are valuable, genuine human engagement remains paramount in social media interactions.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Wells Fargo
• Jack Henry
• Kia
• Roper Kia
• Bravo
• Integrity Kia
• American Airlines

This is Adam Marburger.

And this is humans that build real conversations with real people, not just about what they've built in the world, but what had to be built inside them first.

No hype, no shortcuts.

Just humans doing the work.

Humans that build Real people.

Real work.

Welcome to another episode of Humans that Build.

This show's design to share stories from some of the greatest humans on the planet to make an impact, to not just inspire and motivate you, but to actually take action in your life and make an impact in your community and then hopefully the world today.

I've got somebody I've known coming on the show for a very long time.

This woman's spunky, she's feisty, she's freaking awesome.

I'm here with my homegirl, Robin Wilson.

How is Robin today?

You know, every day is a good day for me.

Like, I don't have bad days.

Don't claim a bad day ever.

And I just like, what are we going to accomplish today is my outlook every day.

I needed to hear that because I have a similar mindset.

But I had a few bad days this week.

I can't get this damn water to stop at my gym.

Like, I'm $50,000 into gutters and roof work and skylights.

I just can't get the water.

So I've got another foundation specialist coming out later today.

So, Robin, I would love to say that there's no bad days.

I've been a little challenged this week, just to be honest with you.

I've been there.

I've been.

I've had those days, too.

Like, we have.

I have a.

We have a basement, obviously, in the Midwest or in Joplin, you definitely should have one.

And, like, there.

There was one day, like, I think my husband was working in Alaska, and, like, I had to go check the sump pump downstairs for some.

No, I had a plumber come over the day before, and he was like, yeah, you need to get a new grinder pump in here.

Blah, blah, blah.

And so.

Okay, great.

So they did whatever they did, and then they turned my sump pump off while they were ordering.

Whatever.

I mean, it was still working fine.

The grinder pumps what they needed to replace.

I go down.

I, like, go downstairs.

Because I'm like, why does it smell like a flood down there?

Whatever.

I mean, you can smell it whenever your basement gets wet.

And I go down there and there's, like, a foot of water, and I'm like.

I'm just standing there in disbelief for, like, so long.

And then all of my kids who are grown, what happened?

All my kids who are grown literally left out.

They've left all their stuff there.

Their wedding dresses, all their stuff is in the basement, everything.

And now I'm mad at all of them because I still have all their crap.

I'm FaceTiming each one of them going, is this important?

It's floating.

Is this important?

It's floating.

There's nothing.

I was talking to somebody yesterday.

I don't think there's anything worse than getting water in your house.

Like there's.

That's the worst.

It's the worst.

So let's, let's get right into this.

So you know your claim to fame.

We're going to tell your story, but we'll go backwards here.

So let's.

Your claim to fame is all things social media.

You know, you're known for social media, you're great at it.

You help a lot of people.

Why, why did you get into the world of social media?

What was that?

Where, where were you and what was that kind of aha moment?

Like, you know, I'm going to kind of go all in on this if you don't mind sharing that.

Sure.

So we have to go back a little bit.

So I was a mortgage lender.

I worked for Wells Fargo.

I had worked for Wells Fargo for over a decade.

I owned probably about a million dollars worth of real estate that I was in the middle of flipping down in Rogers, Arkansas when the mortgage meltdown happened, when the world went to crap.

Those boom cities like Bentonville, Arkansas, Henderson, Nevada, all of those areas that like had these booms going on at that time.

They were the first ones to start collapsing because they were over inflated artificially anyways.

And so we had, like I said, about a million dollars, million plus dollars worth of $250,000 homes at the time, at that time, that's a high end home that we would have been flipping to get to 400,000 once we sold it.

That Lake Properties, whatever down on Beaver Lake.

And the mortgage meltdown happened, it just kept happening.

I just kept thinking like, I kept thinking like, remember in Covid, whenever they're like, this will be over in six weeks, this will be over.

That freaking Kramer, you know, Jim Cramer, like he's on the news going, we're only seeing the tip of this.

It's going to get worse and worse and worse.

And I'm like, I hate your guts, man, because I just like live through this every day.

Go, what's going to happen today.

Underwriters weren't approving.

And I'm just like, I can't.

And then they start, and then we, they start vilifying us, right?

We're the bad guys.

We are the ones that have ruined the global economy.

We're, we're the.

Whatever.

And so I'm just like, I can't do this.

Like I, I'm not going to get my ass kicked on the daily and have to work as hard as I do as a mortgage lender.

And you want me to take a forty thousand dollar salary?

Not happening.

It's not happening.

I don't know, probably before then, don't know.

And I was like, I'm, I'm not, I'm not doing that.

And so I've, so I stepped out of it.

And then you have to go through all these hoops right now.

You have to be a licensed mortgage lender.

You have to do all of these things and doesn't matter that you've done it for years.

So, so I, here I was, I was like, I don't know, 48, 47, 48.

And I'm like, I literally thought that was going to be my career until I retired.

And so I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life.

Like, I have no idea.

We've had to.

We lost a million dollars worth of property.

The truck, the car, the boat, all the, everything was gone.

Well, I'm driving a buy here, pay here minivan that I bought with 120,000 miles on it.

My husband and I are sharing a vehicle.

I'm unemployed, trying to figure out like what the crap.

And so I got this job at this place called Jack Henry.

And you may be familiar with them, they're, they're between Joplin and Springfield.

One of their campuses is between Joplin and Springfield.

The big one is.

And they do banking software.

So there's software that runs ATMs, there's software that runs the machines that when you turn in checks, that counts all the checks and does the things.

There's all kinds of software that runs this.

And Jack Henry, the company created, create software that runs every portion of every bank whatever, whatever they need.

And so I had to.

I can't even believe.

I mean, I had to.

It took me six months to get hired there.

I had to go to two auditions.

Like, I had to walk them through a presentation of how to install something that had nothing to do with their business, like, teach us how to do a blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, the only thing I knew is, like, I could teach them how to build a Facebook business page.

And so I'm like, okay.

And the girls after.

The girls that I was interviewing with was like, I don't even have Facebook.

But that was so interesting.

I went, great, whatever.

So I get a job out there not even shitting you.

They're paying me $36,000 a year for me to commute an hour each way at this place that has.

I mean, I was working for Wells Fargo, right?

They had cutting edge technology.

And I have to go for this rinky dink that they're wanting me to be an installer for a mortgage banking software that isn't worth a crap.

Like, it's horrible.

And I'm like, God, I mean.

And nobody's buying it, so I'm driving there and sitting all day installing nothing because the salespeople can't sell it because it's such a piece of crap.

And, like, so I'm like, this.

I don't.

I'm.

I don't do board very well.

And I literally was like, man.

So on my way home from work one day, I stopped at this little community college and went in and went, what kind of classes do you guys offer here?

Like, tell me what you have.

Like, I don't know there's anything I'm interested in.

And so they had a associate's program in business, a business associate's degree.

And so while I was there, that girl was so good, she had me all signed up.

My fafsa done, everything.

I went home that night and I told my husband, I said, I think I just enrolled in college.

He's like, what?

I'm like, I didn't mean to.

Like, I just wanted to go ask him some questions.

She's good.

And so then I spent, like, the next year, I would go, I would commute there.

When I get back in town, classes started at six, from six to nine.

So I would get up, commute there, work all day, or not work, sit, watch, whatever, Downton Abbey, come back home, go to school for three hours and do it all over again.

And while I was there, while I was doing that education portion and I never, I always say that I don't know that I ever learned anything new while I was there, but it opened me back up to learning.

Like my brain was now open to receive.

And so also during this time, we had decided as a family, these small business owners are what turned our economy around.

So they're starting to turn our economy around now.

And I told my entire family, I'm like, we are not shopping big boxes, store.

We are only shopping small, local.

These people are turning the US economy around and it's our job to help them.

It's our job to support them.

I said, no Walmart, no Target, no Amazon.

You're going to go into every mom and pop and if you don't know what they sell, open the door and go in.

We're going to find out what they sell.

And it was the toughest assignment of all of our lives.

I'm not even kidding you, it was tough.

You don't know what they have until you open the door.

You don't even know what they sell.

People are just, hopefully they're buying crappy marketing somewhere that's getting them nowhere.

And so we started SCP Agency on the backs of small business owners.

And we were like, literally like, how can we, how can we help you?

How can we support you?

Social media at that time was free.

If you had a, if you had a business page, which most of them didn't.

They had used a profile and called it first name, last name, like the Closet.

You know, that was their, was their first name and Closet was last.

They hadn't even converted.

But if you had a thousand followers and you made a post, a thousand people saw it.

So I brought on a graphic designer and I brought on a guy that I used to go to church with.

He was a really great project manager.

And so like the four of us started this company and our first client is hysterical because she never knew she was ground zero.

Like until our seven year anniversary.

She didn't know that she was customer number one.

And so I called her one night or one day because I had seen her crappy little TV commercial at midnight and her Target market because her, her Store was repurposed boutique, hip and trendy for less.

Her target market was like 15 to 18 year olds.

And the commercial was on Sunday night at midnight.

And I'm like, hey, so I saw your commercial.

She's like, oh, my gosh.

Yay, that's great.

I'm like, not really.

And she goes, I know.

It was the only time slot I could afford.

I'm like, that sucks for you.

So I told her what we do and how we can help her.

She goes, oh, my gosh, can we meet for lunch?

I'll buy you lunch.

And.

And at this time, we didn't even know what the market would bear price wise, what they would pay for us to do this service.

Like, we're like, literally just babes in the wood.

We all have our day jobs and we're all, like, doing this at night.

And she says, you know, I have an extra $300 in my budget.

Do you think we can do anything with that?

I'm like, yes.

I leave lunch, I go back, I go, we've got our first client.

We know how much she's going to pay.

We're all excited.

We got a $300 client, right?

She wants Facebook, Instagram, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff.

And she worked us like dogs.

I mean, literally like dogs.

Like, every time new stuff would come in, but that's where we started.

We need to have a social media presence.

We're no good at that.

Will you come and talk to us?

And so I was still working at Jack Henry, and I'm doing this on the side, and I go in and meet with the gm, which wasn't Tustin at the time.

It was a gentleman by the name of Greg McCoy.

And so I sent him over a proposal.

After I meet with him, this is what I'll do it for.

And he's like, come back and meet with me again.

I'm like, crap.

He's gonna, like, want to do a lower price or whatever.

I hate this stuff.

And so he comes in and he offers me a job.

And I'm like, I don't want a job.

And he goes, yeah, you need to work here.

I'm like, no, I don't.

He goes, yeah, you do.

You don't know anything about automotive.

And he goes, I know you know everything about social media.

I'm like, well, I didn't know anything about the dentist office Insurance agent, the shoe boutique, the clothing store.

I didn't know anything about those things.

The commercial carpet cleaner, I didn't know anything about those guys either.

He goes, automotive's different.

You have to work here.

And I said, if I work for you, I'm going to be running my agency from your dealership.

He goes, yeah, I don't care.

I'm, like, done.

And so now, like, now, like, I have a position there.

And so I learned one of the greatest things that he did for me was he made me a manager.

And not because of the title.

I mean, really, at 48, do you really care if you're a manager?

I don't, but because I got to sit it with the department heads twice a week, every Monday, every Friday, New cars, used cars, office manager, parts service, all of them.

I get to sit with them every week and go listen to their pain points and their.

And learn their profit centers and go, how can I help them?

I know where they're struggling.

Like, if we were down, let's say Kia Cash didn't kick in on Optima's until you got to unit number 42, and they only have 25 out for the month.

And I'm like.

And I'm one of those people, I have enough testosterone that I'm a solver.

Like, so, like, I go straight into solve.

I don't ever go into the feeling part of it.

I go straight into.

I bet if I pulled a list of Fortes and Optima owners that are three years old, I could do a call campaign with the bdc, a Facebook campaign, and an email campaign.

And I bet we can get that up there so we can get that dealer cash.

And it worked every time.

And so luckily, I got to learn from the inside out.

I got to, like, there was so much stuff I didn't know.

And he was right.

He loves it when I say he's right.

And so that was my.

What was it like, though?

I got a question for you.

So how eye opening was it when you started the dealership?

So, you know I'm a recovering finance manager, right?

So my whole life has been in automotive.

But what were you just mind blown blown away your first week sitting up there looking at these guys and gals.

And was it.

Was it pretty wild?

Eye open?

It was the funniest thing was the very first sales meeting I sat in, the sales manager meeting that I sat in, he stood up at the end of the table and just talked the entire time.

And all the rest of these managers, these other 12 humans, sit around the table and didn't contribute, didn't need to.

He told them what their numbers were, told them what they needed to fix, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then.

Then go around the table and go, tim, what do you got?

Test him.

What do you got?

Like, nothing.

Boss ready to roll.

Nothing.

Boss ready to roll.

Right?

They didn't say anything.

And so we're all, if you've been to Roper Kia, but upstairs is where the conference room is, and everyone's walking downstairs.

He's like, well, what'd you think of our first meeting?

And I'm like, it was horrible.

What do you mean it was horrible?

I said, you could have phoned that in.

They didn't even get to.

I said, I assume you hired the best in the business for a reason.

They didn't even get a voice.

This isn't a meeting.

It was a monologue.

It's like being a church.

And he goes, huh, okay, so that was our Monday meeting.

And then Friday he comes in, he goes, well, Robin says our meetings aren't worth a.

And they're all looking at me like, shut your damn mouth.

I'm like, I, like, literally, like, I don't know.

I'm the one person that told the king that he was naked, right?

I'm like, no one else would say it, but it was.

There was a.

There was a huge learning curve.

You know, they would talk in acronyms all the time.

I had no idea what they're talking about.

He's mad.

One time, he's slapping the desk, and he's like, this CIT list is out of control, and he's losing his mind.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm there with him.

And so I lean over to the.

I think the GSM that's sitting next to me, and I'm like, what's a CIT list?

And he's like, contracts in transit.

Like that makes any sense.

Like, now I know it's a funny.

I'm like, yeah, he's not going to tell me.

So I finally go to the other woman that works at the dealership, and she's the office manager.

And I go down.

I said, like a third grader.

Explain it to me.

She goes, it's all cash flow.

So she explains it all to me, and I'm like, oh, yeah, he should be pissed.

Why are we.

Why are we 45 days.

Why does we have a car that's 45 days on the CIT list?

That's ridiculous.

Yeah, so.

So it was.

It was a big Learning curve.

And.

And I was so glad that I got that in dealership experience before I took the show on the road.

And I literally negotiated that with them.

I went to them at the beginning of the year, and I said, look, I need to pick up more dealerships, and I can't do that if you guys need me here 28 days a month.

I said, so I'm gonna give you 25 of my salary back.

I want one week a month where I don't have to be here.

I will still take care of all the social.

I will schedule it around commercial shoots.

I will do whatever they agreed to that.

Then in quarter two, I bought another week back.

Quarter three, I bought another week back, and by the end of that year, we were in a vendor relationship.

I love that.

You know, here, Robin, I.

You can't put a price tag on going to the university.

Basically, you went to the University of Automotive.

You and I are both.

I don't like to use the word vendor, but let's just call it vendors, for I'm a vendor.

Yeah, you and I are both vendors to the automotive space.

And how much more valuable do you think you are to your client knowing what you just shared with me?

Right?

Because dealers could smell like.

Dealers know if you don't.

If you've never been in automotive, they don't want to work with you.

Most times they see you later.

You don't know what we go through.

And I'll tell you, that's why we're successful at Ascent is because we're all retail people.

Dealers like to work with retail.

So hats off to you for going in and grinding that out.

Thank God that we didn't scare you away week one.

Well, you know, it's funny, I said one of the.

And I may be in conflict with other things I'm involved with, but one of the greatest compliments that I get all the time is like, oh, she's a car guy.

Don't worry about her.

She's a car guy.

That means talk freely, say whatever you want to hash things out, you want to pencil it, she's going to pencil you back.

Do whatever.

And so.

And I hear that probably several times a year, whenever I'm dealing with clients, they're like, oh, like, if I have a gm, introduce me to a gsm, like, to do whatever.

He's like, don't worry about this.

She's a car guy.

Just, let's get all.

Get to the bottom of all this stuff.

So now you graduated from the University of Automotive, you got the Agency.

So then let's take us through that next phase of your career.

I didn't break out from there.

And.

And it's funny because, like, a lot of people don't know the.

The dirty behind the scenes story, right?

So I'm making six figures again at the dealership at that time.

And I go to my business partner who still has her side job, right?

She's still a flight attendant for American Airlines.

And.

And we're still supporting the business.

We're just like, doing everything all the time.

And I told her, I said, I need to be in the business 100%.

And so I spent that whole year adjusting my finances to take a big financial hit because I knew, like, I knew what we could pay me, what I needed to be paid.

Like, this is my bare minimum.

I've got.

I've paid off all of this stuff.

I have all of.

I've got my bills as low as I can get them, and I can survive on a couple of years at $3,000 a month.

So that's the pay cut that I took was like, can we do that?

And she's like, yes, we can do that.

She stayed working, she stayed flying up until Covid.

And the funny thing about this is that nobody knew this about us.

They thought we were this big, stupid agency because, like, they may call on a.

On a Wednesday and go, yeah, we're really thinking about doing something with you.

We just.

I don't.

I just don't know if it's a perfect fit.

And I'll go, you know what?

Let me just fly out there and meet with you.

And because I'm listed, I was listed as Bev's significant other on her buddy pass.

Like, I could fly anywhere on standby.

And so people were like, oh, my God, she could just drop in on Monday.

Like, I just talked to her Wednesday.

Who the fuck can do that?

And it's hysterical because, like, nobody knew for years and barely, probably people even know now and that, like, I would just fly wherever, go in, do the thing, blah, blah, blah, fly back.

And there was times when I got stuck in an airport for a day and a half on standby, not able to get out, you know, And I'm like, beverly, get me home.

And she's like, okay, I think if you go to Los Angeles, here And you can catch the flight here and get to Tulsa.

Then maybe can someone pick you up in Tulsa?

And it was.

And so we did that.

The hustle was real and the facade was real, and we looked like we were a lot bigger than we were.

And I made a determination one year that was gonna speak on five stages.

I'm like, you are not an expert until you tell people you're an expert.

And then you show up as an expert.

You have to be the thing before the thing actually happens, before anybody.

No one's gonna go, oh, my God, Dr. Robin, she's a genius.

Amen.

What you just shared, I've done a lot of these shows already that we're going to go backwards because we're going to unpack.

There's a huge lesson in the brilliance that you just shared.

It might be the most profound thing that has been shared on this show so far.

Just so you know, this for business owners, I want the younger generation to.

We're going to unpack this.

For the younger generation, it's imposter syndrome is a real thing.

And then the whole fake it till you make it, we all had to do it, you know?

And you know what drives me nuts, too?

When you get an established company and you see people that get big and then they start shunning the startups.

Oh, they're just a startup.

At one point, we were all a startup.

We were all a startup.

So everything you just said I can relate to at the highest level, because I would be like the guy that would just jump on a plane quick and go meet somebody.

Because I had to.

I had to.

I needed to look bigger than I was.

I needed to feel bigger than I was.

And guess what?

I believed in my heart that we provided so much value in the marketplace.

Nobody was going to take that from me.

So I had to fake it till I make it.

So, Robin, what you just said, that grind behind the scenes to make yourself look a certain way.

So for the younger generation, there's nothing wrong with that.

You have to do those things.

You have to fake it till you make it.

And the key to it is just having psychotic belief in yourself, in your product and your service.

If you have psychotic, psychotic belief in yourself and your product and your service, who's to tell you you're not bigger than you actually think you are, right?

Just because you haven't spent your money with me yet doesn't mean that you're not stupid.

You are.

Because, like, if you fell in.

If you fell into one of the other organic Social media providers.

I'm going to tell you, the first time I went to digital dealer and I had to beg my GM to send me because understand, I knew nothing about automotive.

You know, I'm one of those people that I'm not necessarily a car person.

Like, I don't.

And buying a car is painful for me still to this day.

And so I'm in a dealership.

And then a friend of mine still is still someone I do business with.

He is the marketing director at Bravo.

At the time he was with another dealership, Integrity Kia in El Paso.

And he goes, rob, he's, he's this big O, huge Mexican.

He's a friend of mine.

He lives right down in El Paso.

And Robin, have you been to the digital dealer?

And I'm like, I don't even know what that is.

He's like, you have to go, you have to go.

And so I look it up to see what it is.

And then I go into my GM and I'm like, well, he goes, those are just parties.

And everyone goes there to get drunk and do whatever.

So I went back and stewed on it for a little bit and I was reading through the agenda of who was going to be there speaking.

And, and so then I just, I devised a plan.

I printed off the agenda and I took it to the managers meeting and I passed it around.

I made one for everybody and I said, we where?

You guys, look at this.

If I go to this conference, which sessions would you want me to sit in and learn something for your department?

And so they all circled their things and gave them back to me.

And then I took them into him and I was like, I'll pay half, you pay half.

And he was like, okay, fine.

So he did.

And what, what opened my eyes so much was not the sessions.

When I got into the expo room, the expo area, and all of these vendors were solving a problem that I didn't even know we had.

I didn't know the dealership was experiencing these problems.

I didn't know that that was a solve that somebody needed.

And this creative human had already created an answer for something I didn't even know yet was a problem.

And I was like, I walked to everybody, tell me what you do.

What problem do you solve?

Tell me.

And I was just like a sponge sucking up all of these things because now I understood the problems that I was getting ready to face at the dealership because now I knew that people, if people solved the problem, it was a problem.

And did we have it too?

I don't know.

And so that was probably the most important for me.

And I'm going to tell you, imposter syndrome.

I hate that phrase because in the beginning, we're all imposters.

That's a good point.

We're learning our job as we go along.

It really is.

You don't want to walk in there.

I mean, even a car salesperson doesn't want to go, I just started today.

No, you're going to act like you've been there freaking year.

Yeah, I like that.

I like that you said that.

Because we all have it.

We all have it, and we're supposed to have it.

You know, when we start something new, by definition, we're a rookie.

It's just what it is.

When we start something new, by definition, we're a rookie.

Everybody started somewhere, right?

And I was talking about this earlier.

It's like we all started somewhere, but we've also all fell on our ass.

Like, I know you fall on your ass.

I don't know how many.

I've made more mistakes and had more failure than success.

Just, people see success, they don't see the darkness, you know, And I was going to ask you, you know, going back, going back, you know, to the earlier part of our conversation when crap hit the fan, Lehman's collapsed, the industry's done.

I'm sure you were dealing with some stuff during that.

Had to be really difficult.

But let me ask you, you probably learned a whole lot about yourself in that time, didn't you?

Oh, you probably learned a whole lot about yourself.

And I'll tell you one thing, too.

If you've ever been in the mortgage industry, do not go watch the Big Short, because that's nothing.

Ptsd.

That's all that is, is just there's things that I forgot that that triggered me in that movie.

I'm like, I'm not watching this movie ever again.

I mean, you know, the thing is, is that.

But here's the thing that's so important to people that first of all, failure is a gift.

100 A gift.

Because that's a lesson that you don't have to learn twice.

You know, hopefully, you know, listen to that, our listeners.

Hopefully you're not making it twice, because.

That's the greatest teacher of all is.

And so we have a.

We have a kind of a motto around here.

So, like, if something happens, somebody fires us because we screwed up, or we posted a Nissan on a Cadillac page, something happened, whatever, and they get mad and they fire us.

We're allowed to feel it for One day you're allowed to mourn the loss and the failure for one day.

And then on the next day, remember who the hell you are, kick your own ass and get back to providing top notch service.

Mistakes happen.

Nobody's holding this over your head.

Feel it for one day.

Be sad, be mad, be whatever and then move the fuck on.

I love that.

I love that.

That's really, really good advice, you know, because getting let go and we've had a.

It's only happened, it's happened a few times to us.

It kind of hurt.

It stings a little bit, right?

Things a little bit.

I like the idea.

Quick, let's, let's move on.

Things happen, you know, mistakes are going to happen too.

People, humans are humans, you know.

Absolutely.

And that's why I tell them, I would tell them too.

I'm like going up.

I said, I handle your reviews for you.

I know how many times your service department screws up.

I know that there are times when they did the thing that was wrong to the customer.

Because you and I are having this conversation and a human made a mistake.

Correct?

Yes, I said one of my humans made a mistake too.

Did you fire your service guy over that or did you go, man, let's don't do that again.

We learn from that.

And they're like, I know, Robin, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And like, okay, anyways, moving on.

Yeah, yeah.

So let's, let's kind of, let's talk a little bit about your agency.

You know, you've made some shifts and some pivots within your agency.

You're all in on social now.

Let's talk a little bit about, let's talk about your current state of affairs and your agency.

What's hot, what's new, what's fresh, what are we doing?

What problems are we solving right now?

Probably the biggest thing is so organic social people, dealerships, number one.

And we handle other, other verticals other than automotive.

But automotive is our mother, is our mothership.

And I think getting through to dealers and letting them understand that today's buyers are different.

They want to be, they're not transactional.

They want to be relational and, but they can't do that if the only story you're telling, that you sell Chevy's and you sell this kind of Chevy and that kind of Chevy and you sold it to these people and that people and you're not letting them behind the scenes or you're not letting them in on the culture of your dealership, on the why buy here?

Not just the why buy.

But the why buy here, you're missing the boat.

Because the first thing that happens is they're out there looking for where they're going to spend their money, not on what they know they're going to be buying a vehicle.

That's what they have to do.

But where am I going to buy it?

They have options.

And so it isn't.

I know we all think it is, and maybe it Is for those 720 plus credit buyers or whatever.

It's not about price.

And if it is about price, they already know where they're buying.

For the rest of the world, who's learning your business and learning how to do business with you?

The stories that you tell and the way that you portray yourself on social media, don't forget the first word of that, which is social.

It's not business media, it's social media.

The story is what sells.

Stories are what sell.

We've known it forever, right?

Stories sell.

And so if I can get them, they're like, why did we post that?

Like, well, because you're part of this community and that's a community event that's going on in your area and we get to tag other businesses, borrow their social media.

And so I think the biggest thing in evolution right now, obviously video, is what's getting preferential treatment within the algorithm.

Stories are fire.

People aren't using stories near enough.

Literally should be like three to six stories.

Okay, that's what I was going to ask you.

Okay.

Because that's where I'm challenged right now.

I'm revamping some things at my gym and I want to get a little psychotic on my pursuit on this.

Three to six fresh stories a day.

Should they all be video, Some be static ad, maybe an offer?

Yeah, they can be static with music, overlay, whatever.

So people are sitting there scrolling through it, but absolutely.

Three to six a day and I'll tell.

And the coolest thing about stories that I think that people are missing the mark on is being able to look and see everybody that looked at your story.

Right.

Like, that's my favorite.

And so I'll tell you.

I did.

I've been doing an experiment and so I Bev and I go to the gym almost every day and I make her take a selfie every day because she hates doing this.

And she's like in visible on social media and I'm like, take a selfie every day.

Post it while we're at the gym.

She gets so mad because it'll take her 10 minutes and she's down, she's bad mouthing herself and blah blah.

And I'm like.

And it's a battle every day.

And so at my gym they have a posing room, right.

The lights are low, they have the blah blah, blah.

And all the mostly guys are in there doing the thing.

I'm like, let's go in there.

Let's go in there and take pictures.

And so here's these two old women sitting.

Like I make her kick out.

She doesn't get to be in there with me.

And I like sit my phone up and I'm like making some muscle pose or whatever.

But so I did the first time, it's like that wasn't really that great.

So the next time I took my shirt off.

So I just had my sports bra on and my.

And all the rest of my gear, whatever.

And the ones that I take, okay, I'll be 62 next month.

The ones that I take with my shirt off with just my sports bra on and I'm all flexi.

Whatever.

Like at least 2x views I get on my story.

Yeah, because men are pigs.

That's why Robin, not all men are pigs.

A lot of.

Says the same thing.

She goes, see, it doesn't even matter.

It doesn't matter how old you are.

People will look at this.

I'm like, I don't care either.

And so the funny part of that is, is that I think about if I were selling something, like if I were in the market of selling something, like if I were selling cars, right?

And every time I posted a story with an SUV in it, I could see that Mary Jane every time either gave me a heart or watched my story or did whatever.

After a few times of Mary Jane only, only tuning in when it's a suv, I'm going to click Mary Jane's name on that story.

It's going to take me straight into messenger with her.

From the stories to messenger.

And I'm going to go, hey, Mary Jane, I see that you keep watching my SUV videos.

Are you in a.

Are you currently in the market for an suv?

And I have a direct connection to them right there because they've already looked at my stories straight from that story, straight to messenger with her.

It's gold.

Why would I not use stories?

So.

And they disappear in 24 hours.

So for, for anybody in automotive, like I think especially big volume stores that want to just keep posting their sold pictures in their feed every day, it pisses people off and it makes them unfollow you because you're just Burying their newsfeed with all your crap.

They belong in stories.

They're up there.

They're not interrupting their newsfeed and they, they're gone after 24 hours.

All of your employees, you have 70 employees and you want to post their birthdays every.

And they're all on your newsfeed.

Put them in stories.

It's only their birthday today anyways.

It's only their anniversary today anyways.

And it shows.

Let me ask you this.

So when you post something on Facebook, we don't know how many people get to see it because the algorithm will decide that for us.

What is the difference in the algorithm on the story over just posting?

Like what.

How can you talk through that a little bit?

I'm just curious.

So it really doesn't even, like, I don't know what the algorithm is as far as when you open up your app, like which ones are served up first?

Like right here so that you can see the first one or whatever and it shows your oldest one first and they all within 24 hours.

So like the first one, the first one is always your.

The one you took the longest time ago.

But I think the fun thing about stories is, is that when people just don't have a lot of time to keep scrolling, they can literally go to your store and then swipe, swipe, swipe, tap, whatever and see all that stuff and then be done.

And they're not having.

It's a short visit and they get.

I watch stories more.

I want.

I don't scroll as much as I used to.

Me either.

I watch more stories now.

Can I ask you another question about this?

What about reels?

Like where do, where do you, how do you feel about reels?

I love them.

The commitment to reels is a video commitment.

Right.

So like you're.

So I'll give you a few tips.

So one of the things, all of the platforms, so whether it's TikTok or whether it's Facebook or Instagram, YouTube shorts, it doesn't matter.

Matter of fact, if I were going to be posting a real sized video, I would start with it first of all on YouTube and post it as a short.

I'll tell you why this is magic.

I'm write this down.

I'm learning from you today, Robin.

So who owns YouTube?

I'm having a brain fart.

Google.

Yeah, Google.

Thank you.

Who owns Gemini?

Google.

Right.

So we have a search engine that owns social media platform.

And so if you are pushing your shorts out to YouTube shorts and now we're wanting to be Found inside of an AI generator.

Why would we not go with the one that owns this one?

Because they're going to take.

They're going to make preference over their own content.

Whenever you're searching and they're gonna.

That's gonna be part of that search that comes up again.

So look for the connections and go.

If I'm gonna post right now, I'm going to post to here, like right now.

I mean, Facebook bought Manus, but I mean, Manus is not anything anybody goes to and asks it any questions, you know, if, if they had bought open AI or if they had bought Claude or it or Perplexity or any of those things that it may be valid.

But that was a good move by Google to have to create Gemini and to create it so well that people use it quite a bit.

And now we.

I would post all of my videos and all of my reels first to YouTube shorts.

Let them sit there and get some traction.

Whatever.

I'm feeding the AI machine at the same time.

And then be sure to use different captions for every platform.

So if you're using AI to generate your captions, tell it, I need captions for this video for TikTok, for YouTube, for Facebook, for Instagram, because they'll be written different.

Like it may be on TikTok to say, remember me on your FYP, you know, I'm saying it wouldn't say that on YouTube.

So make sure that your captions are different for each real platform that you're going to post it to also.

And it's time consuming to do it this way.

A lot of people like to go out to like cap, cut and create their captions there for their.

For their reels.

The SEO of it says create it in the platform that you're creating.

So if you're in TikTok, upload a native video.

I mean, you've already edited it, but don't add the captions and then add the captions in TikTok, because if you just put them on top of the video, then it's just a video and TikTok can't read the words.

But if you let TikTok add the captions themselves, they know what the words are.

And so then the SEO is finding the people that should be interested in all the words that you're saying in your video.

The same with YouTube, the same with Facebook.

So make sure that you add captions inside the platforms that you do.

So it's a little bit more work to do it that way, but it's going to get you better reach.

So unless you're just checking a box, do it however the hell you want to.

If you really are concerned with my reach and how I'm going to get the most out of the time that I took to shoot and edit this video at first, you may go, I'm only going to post to two platforms because that's a lot of work.

And then go pick the two that you think are the best for you and then be in that tool whenever you put those captions on.

Okay, I'm grateful for this conversation.

You got my brain kind of the wheels spinning my brain right now.

But let's kind of, let's kind of, we'll kind of kind of hit our descent here.

And I want to, there's a few things I want to ask you and I think this will help people because I believe that social media, I believe that organic, paid organic, meaning you pay somebody to edit and develop and create incredible content for you and you post it organically.

I've not had tons of luck on the pay to play, but I've had a lot of luck on organic.

Now that's, that's my take.

You may agree or disagree.

We're, you and I are not, we're not always going to agree on things, which is fine.

But what I want to know from you is what are some of the biggest mistakes people make utilizing social media?

Well, they don't have a strategy, right.

What is your.

For an example?

So a friend of mine that lives in Florida calls Beverly, who doesn't, although she's my co founder, she doesn't really mess in the social media world.

She handles all of our contracts, our billing or this or that.

And so she calls Beverly and wants to talk about this pickleball tournament thing that she wants to put on.

And they're going to do, blah, blah, blah.

I just need you guys to run a couple ads for me.

And she goes, I keep telling you that you need to do this, that Christy needs some ads for this pickleball thing.

And I'm like, okay, you're the reason I'm not answering you because is, that's, that's a, that's a whole workflow that you're asking for.

So you have to ask the questions.

Is it, once I create an ad, what am I wanting them to do?

I need to know where they're taking an action.

Do I want them to click here?

Do I want a lead ad?

If it's a lead ad, where are we going to push that information to once we Push them to somewhere.

Is there a way for them to pay to sign up?

Like, there's.

I need to know the whole flow.

And she's like, oh, well, I. I don't know any of that.

I'm like, then don't talk to her.

Give her to Shasta and let Shasta call and take this thing.

So the thing that people mess up on is they.

They go.

When I ask them, what is your strategy?

Well, we want to sell this out.

Okay, well, how much money are you going to make if you sell it out?

We're going to make $125 per person profit on all of this.

I said, okay, how many people can you accommodate?

18.

Okay, I'm going to tell you, I'm going.

You're going to pay me more than you're going to get ROI on.

So I think the problem is, is that people don't have a strategy behind what they're doing.

So what are you wanting to accomplish with this thing?

So I go back to the optimist story, right?

So if the goal is that they set dealer cash at this dollar amount, so this month we know that it's going to be a $750 bonus all the way back down to zero a customer cash on this right here.

Why are you promoting any other vehicle?

You're going to make the most money if you've got enough inventory to literally saturate the market with the Kia Optima back in the day, the K5 now, whatever.

And so I don't think that they think through a strategy.

They just think everything's important to everyone.

And it's not.

Okay.

It's not.

So what's important to a single mom versus what's important to a guy that hunts for, you know, for recreation?

Those are two different things.

And so if.

If they are on organic social, acting like their website and not speaking to a tribe of people, and I don't know whether we've talked about this or not, but knowing what tribes do business with you is important.

Knowing what they're interested in is important.

So, for example, let's go back to the hunting guys, right?

The guys that they're sportsmen, they do whatever, blah, blah, blah, they love to drive trucks.

They do this thing.

This is the conversations they have.

When you're posting about the trucks that you have for sale, are you speaking to everybody?

Are you speaking to that tribe of people?

Because what you put into that content will attract the people that you want.

So if you look back over the last year and analyze all of the People who bought trucks from you and go, hey, I think about 65% of these guys were probably guys that, you know, hunted on the side or whatever.

Then you start creating your social with a strategy.

Meaning all of my images, if I'm heading into late summer, early fall, all my images are going to be probably hunting based, outdoorsy based, blah, blah, blah, blah, speaking to that tribe of people and literally drawing them in.

Because the images I'm putting out there is something that their reticular activation system is pulling in because that's what they're interested in.

And so then you're attracting the people in that you want instead of just throwing it out to everyone.

Look at this classy truck.

Nobody gives a crap.

We care about.

Is that classy truck parked somewhere where I would go, you know, is that K5 parked in front of the Coach store?

You know what I'm saying?

Because I'm gonna get me another coach bag.

So there's a good chance you park that in front of that Coach store.

I'm probably going to take a look at it.

And so I think they, not thinking about it marketing wise, they just feel like, I need to sell a vehicle, I need to sell a vehicle.

And they're not thinking about the people that will consume it.

And the minute that five guys who hunt regularly show interest in this post, Facebook goes to work finding people just like them.

They go, oh, if these guys liked it, let's see if these 15 over here like it.

Then they push it out to them.

They go, oh, well, these guys are just like those guys.

Maybe they'll like it too.

And it just pulls them into the vortex.

And so it's the number one mistake with Organic Social is not thinking about that.

And then going back once a week and analyzing, analyzing your posts and going, what did really well, this one outperformed that one.

It was our outlier.

It outperformed it 6 to 1 every other post.

Great.

Turn that into an ad.

Turn that one into an ad.

Let it prove it organically before you put money behind it.

Okay, okay, I, I love that.

And I, I'm gonna ask you something because I know you have a crystal ball.

This is my final question for you.

I could talk to you.

I try to keep these at 45 minutes.

I could go 4 hours and 45 minutes with you, my friend.

So I want to know, where do you personally see social media?

And let's just say five years, like AI is such the biggest buzzword of the world right now.

AI, AI, AI.

But let's talk about social, like what's the future of social media?

What does it look like?

What changes?

What, what's gonna be different in five years with social media?

Think back to the first time we had the automated recordings when you called in and everyone's yelling representative, representative.

We're trying to get to a human, right?

We're like so frustrated, right?

And I think it's going to be a really short trip on the AI scale with people like creating what we call AI slop because they're not really good at prompting or at like, I mean sometimes to make one post I use three different AI tools to do it, right?

If I'm making a video, sometimes I'm creating the image over here, bringing the motion over into here.

I mean there's a lot of times when I'm using three different AI tools.

So I think that the general public will start tuning out AI slop when you, the minute you see it, you know it's AI and you're just like, whatever.

And I think that organic user generated content is going to win out again.

And it's going to be the people that go back to, back to answering the telephones manually, right?

Those are going to be the people.

Because we all still want that human to human contact.

And so if the humans will stay consistent during this and not turn on the AI slop, use it, it's a tool, it's not the answer.

And I think five years that we're going to see, I think we'll see a lot more mergers happening with AI.

Like they've got to, they've got to.

And, and the thing is with AI ads coming out now too and we knew they were coming.

We knew they were coming a year ago.

I knew they were coming a year ago.

So once that becomes monetized too, then all of us agencies obviously need to learn how to play within that field right there.

But to me it will, to me, in my opinion, it will always be the human is going to win.

And I love that.

That was the theme of Soda Con this year too, you know, the year of the human.

I was, I was, I had obligations, I couldn't get out there.

This year I didn't either.

I'm in the middle of producing the Women in Automotive show and I'm just like, I can't look away for a hot second.

And so I was glad that that was thing because you know, after we talked last time and you're like, you need to apply to nada.

And I did.

And if they accept me, my, my session will Be on.

It'll be on that.

It'll be the human versus the AI Sloth.

We will have been so saturated with it this year that that'll be, like, a great topic, because I think people just got to remember, stay solid, stay human, get in front of the camera yourself, screw up yourself.

We don't need AI perfection.

Yeah.

I'll tell you, this has been.

I took a lot of notes on this.

I took a lot of mental and physical notes on this.

So for those listening and for those that are going to watch this, Robin is an absolute incredible asset.

If you don't know her, you've gotten to know her a little bit more now.

You need to follow this woman.

You need to connect with this woman.

She doesn't just work in automotive.

She works in multiple verticals.

If you are a business that wants to grow your social media to the next level, Robin is that person.

So, Robin, how do people connect with you?

Share all your information, if you would.

I'll put it in captions and stuff later.

But for those that are just listening, what.

How do people connect with you?

You know, I'm on every social platform.

Robin Wilson.

Pretty easy to find me, I think, like, on Instagram, which I don't use as much as I should.

And it's only because, like, I'm one little human, you know, trying to do all the things.

But meet the Robs.

There's a funny story.

Some lady named me Robs at an airport one time, and so we just stuck.

Even my grandkids call me Robs now.

So meet the Robs.

But Robin Wilson, on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on TikTok, I have a couple of channels.

There's some fun ones.

There's that Boomer Bish, because I do some old people stuff on there, but, yeah, you can find me anywhere.

And literally, if you reach out to Adam, he'll give you my cell phone number because.

Absolutely.

Yes.

Yeah.

Private.

Yeah.

So, Robin, it's an honor and a privilege just to be your friend.

I mean, we've got to spend time many times in person, and you're just.

You're a ball of positive energy.

You got a great story.

You're so impactful, and you do so much, not just for the industry.

I love automotive, but you do a lot for just a lot of people.

So thank you for taking the time coming in, Robin.

And for those that tune in and follow and support.

Thank you guys so much.

My job is to bring people like Robin on a consistent basis to share information like this so we can impact our businesses that then impact the community.

So, Robin, thank you again for coming on and hanging out.

And for those that are tuning in, we'll have another episode dropping next week.

So have a great day, everyone.

And, Robin, hang tight for just a second.

I want to chat with you off air.

And y' all, have a great day today.

Humans that build, real people, real work.

See you next time.