347 Three Effective Ways to Grow Your Business Without Social Media
Growing your business without relying on social media
3 effective ways
Growing Your Business Beyond Social Media in 2025
"One of the things that I hear from my clients is that they feel like they don't want to be on social media forever or that they hate social media.".
What about you? Are you...
Frustrated with the Social Media Algorithm?
Not seeing the results you once were?
Wondering if there's a better way to build your business that doesn't rely on Social Media?
We're diving into growing your business without relying on social media in this episode of the podcast.
In this episode, Kelsey talks about...
Her personal journey balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship and wanting to be more 'offline'
Three impactful ways to grow your business beyond the social media hamster wheel.
Results from hosting workshops
How to pursue meaningful partnerships and collaborations
Getting more word of mouth marketing strategies in place
& more
Episode Time Stamps:
[00:00] I reduced my work hours and my focus and results skyrocketed.
[06:38] Growing your business without social media strategies
[13:00] The power of hosting events nad building strategic partnerships.
[17:21] Partnerships and collaborations WILL drive effective business growth.
[20:34] Giving exceptional service will lead to referrals and less reliability on social media.
To connect with Kelsey:
Access the transcript for this episode:
-
Hey visionaries. Welcome back to the podcast.
You today just for a mini catch up episode, just me and you. And first, just want to say thank you for tuning in to all of these solo episodes. Means the world that you're here and I never take it lightly that you are popping in your earbuds and listening while you're driving or out on a walk or doing the dishes or wherever you are tuning in. We are almost seven years into this podcast and it never gets old to sit down with you and just talk about business and marketing. And as of recently, well, maybe not recently. As of the past 12 months, we've been talking about motherhood and I am sitting down with you today on the final day of November. We're coming into the final 30 days of the year. And I can't even believe I'm saying that.
Last year at this time, I was preparing my business for maternity leave. I was wrapping up work. My goal was to be done work last year by December 1st, in case.
Our baby came two weeks early.
We didn't even know if we were having a boy or a girl. Life was so different because Freddie was our first child. So we went from no kids to one. And last year, December 1st, I just remember thinking anything could happen this month. I had such an open mind and I was ready for the journey of how it was going to change my business. And I was someone who had previously been working 40 hour weeks, maybe 50 hours, 60, I don't even know. Like work was my baby. And knowing that I was about to welcome our first child, I thought, oh.
My gosh, I don't know how this.
Shifts everything in my business, but it's all going to change. And I am so excited to be sitting down with you to first share that. Number one, it's been the best change ever for the business. I went from working my, whatever, 40 hour work weeks and I work about 13 hours these days. And that's split up over two more structured workdays where I have a little bit of childcare for four hours and it's on nap times. Right now we have a kid who naps for about two to three hours a day. And so I run my business same way I did for the past seven years, but now I do it in about, you know, 30% of the time, a fraction of the time that I used to. And just that alone has made me a better marketing consultant because I've had to learn how to really focus on what matters and push everything else to the side and really look at what drives results in the business and what doesn't.
Because when push comes to shove, if you have one hour to work on your business, or 10 hours or 100 hours in a week, you have to know where to focus your efforts. And I think that's one of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs face is when.
You sit down and you open your.
Laptop, you go, I don't know what to work on.
Or all of a sudden You've got.
Like 38 browser tabs open and you can't qu quite focus. And focus in this day and age is absolutely a superpower. But whether your brain is squirrely like mine or whether you have this more, when you lock in on a project, you just go until completion. If you're going to be an entrepreneur, you really have to find that system or that strategy that allows you to execute consistently and to produce results from that execution. And I know that this is like a bigger topic, but if you're feeling like, oh, my gosh, I'm always overwhelmed. I don't know what to work on. It's a really good time in your business to reach out and hire someone, bring in a coach or a consultant like myself. Not saying you have to pick me, but this is a game changer because it really helps you to dial in.
What are those three to five strategies that I do to build awareness of the business? How do I nurture my leads because not everybody's there to buy right away. And ultimately, what is the conversion strategy? So, anyways, I digress. As we move into December, I don't.
Know what you guys are excited for.
This month, but I can just rhyme off a few things. Like, I know it gets dark early here in Ontario, Canada, where I live. I'm in a small town about an hour outside of Toronto, but it actually allows me to just feel into more of my life and my business. In the summer, I feel like I'm running around like crazy. There's so many activities. But I find when I slow down, a lot bubbles up. Not always for the good. I've mentioned in previous episodes that, like, sometimes when I slow down, the grief around my mom passing away comes up.
Sometimes when I slow down, I feel a lot of emotion that maybe I've been putting aside. But also on a business friend, sometimes when I slow down, I finally generate these ideas for how I want the business to look, how I want to continue to impact, what values and missions I want to bring into the business. And I think going into 2020, I just know that my deep purpose here.
Is to be the most valuable person.
Or resource in marketing that you have in your back pocket. And that's it. Whether I do more courses or one on one coaching, or you join the.
Mastermind or take one of my workshops.
Or I'm speaking on a stage, I just want you to feel at the end of an interaction with this podcast or looking at Instagram content or whatever the case is, that I've really added value to your life versus clutter.
And the reason why I'm saying that is because I feel like there's a.
Lot of noise lately and everyone's trying to get your attention on social media. Everyone's trying to sell you something. We're currently on Black Friday weekend right now, and it's like we are inundated with stuff. Like there's so much coming at us. And so instead of producing at a volume that feels unsustainable, I remember tuning into this Alex Horosi workshop and I really admire what he's building and how he's building, building in public. But he was basically saying, like, you need to create a hundred pieces of content a week. And I also know. So that's a great strategy.
But in this season of life, I'm like, volume is not my superpower right now. Because as a mother first, I don't want to be on my phone 24 hours a day.
Right.
As you can imagine. And I know a lot of you feel the same. However, one thing I can do is when I show up, I can be the most helpful person in marketing. I can share tips, I can give away a lot of my strategies for free. I can create blogs and I can.
Record podcasts like this for you, where.
I dive deep into something that's lighting me up, that's bringing me energy. And my hope is that I can transfer that energy to you and that I can share strategies that are not going to clutter your brain in your business, but strategies that can support the substance and longevity of your business. So that's actually what I want to chat about today. This is a topic I feel particularly passionate about, and it is ways to grow your business without so social media in 2025. So, as I mentioned, you have so much to juggle, but one of the things that I hear often is I just feel like I don't want to be on social media forever. Or I get on calls with people all the time who say, I hate social media. They go so far as to say that word. And first I just want to say, I get it Social media is a lot.
It can feel like this hamster wheel that you never get off of. You're constantly showing up, asking, what are the latest trends?
How do I go viral?
How do you know? Post something every single day, Monday to Friday, Saturday, Sunday morning, night, what time's the best to post? Who do I need to be tagging? What music do I need to put behind it? And it's like, wait, is this actually working? Is this the driving force of my business? And so in today's episode, I want to share a few ways that you can grow your business without social media. I'm not saying to shut your profiles down because I think it's really strategic to have social media activated. Whether that's choosing Instagram and LinkedIn or maybe you're more like TikTok and Twitter. It's finding the platforms that work for you, but also having other things in motion so that we can see at the end of each month what actually worked. Because oftentimes what my clients are seeing is that social media, maybe it's a fun outlet for them, it's a great way to have an extra touch point for your clients, but it's not necessarily the main driver of revenue in their business, which is so interesting. So, yes, we want to perhaps have social media active.
It's great.
It's content that lives on the Internet. People can browse it. But it's not necessarily the only part of your funnel that we need to keep active. So as I mentioned today, I want to share three ways to grow your business without social media, especially if on your long term vision board for 20, 25 and beyond, is to reduce screen time, maybe get away from this content hamster wheel that you feel like you're on, and start to plant seeds in different soils.
So let's get into today's show. Okay, so the first strategy that I'm going to share, if you want a way to build your business, build your brand and get more visibility without being all over social media and trying to go vi. And this one may come as no surprise if you follow me on Instagram or if you live in Ontario, where I live, and that one is to host workshops and events. I'm going to be recording an episode in the coming weeks with my marketing predictions for the coming 12 months. And you guys, I would hedge my bets on the fact that those of you who are willing to gather community in person, those of you who are willing to host meaningful workshops both online or offline in the real world, those of you who are willing to Put together events. And when I say events, I don't mean like a 200 person room. I literally just mean gathering a couple of your dream clients. Maybe it is hosting like a little boot camp in the park behind your house.
It could be free, it can be really, really simple. But it's gathering people. It is showcasing what you can do and bringing your brand to life without just posting a pretty picture or an Instagram carousel. So I want to tell you a story. Back in the day, my calendar was actually packed with goal setting workshops that I taught at Tribe Fitness. I did nutrition workshops for athletes at the Spin studio that I taught at. I actually ran branding and marketing workshops out of Staples co working space. I hustled and gathered people to teach workshops based on what I knew, what I was learning.And I wasn't shy about putting the.
Invite out there even if nobody showed up.
And every single event gave me the chance to meet people, to learn what.
They wanted to teach from what I.
Knew at the time, even though I was not an expert to listen to what the demand was to connect with new community members. So the key idea that I really want you to get out of hearing this is that businesses run on relationships and relationships are a lot more challenging to form in the digital space than in person or relationships are a lot more challenging to form posting on social media versus let's say having conversations in your dm. So we need to go beyond just.
Posting on social media.
And this strategy that I want to share is to host a workshop. Maybe that's just gathering five people on zoom to talk about foods that affect your gut health. Maybe that's gathering five mama entrepreneurs because you are a branding expert and you love working with mamas. Workshops are such an amazing way to get visible, to really show your authentic self. And I think more than ever, just being yourself is a marketing strategy and to leave people with with something helpful. My guess is that you're not just building a business to see your bank.
Account grow, even though that is the.
Most amazing thing and the best side effect. But also you want to make an impact. You want to make people's lives better. You don't want to leave this world in a worse place than where it is now. So you're contributing your skill set and making the world a more valuable place.
Well, why not do that through hosting.
Some sort of meetup, workshop, event, community gathering, whatever you want to call it. I would highly recommend reading the book the Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. She has some great tips, even if that's Just gathering a few friends for dinner to test out this idea of what does it mean to gather people. So strategy number one, if you want to build a business off of social, is to host a workshop, host an event, either in person or online. All right, let's get into strategy number two, and that is to consider building out the right partnerships. So I'm sure you have had many days in your business where you basically feel like you're going at it alone. Maybe you have a small team, maybe you don't. But for the most part, you wake up on a Monday, you go down to your computer, or you stare at your phone, you're alone.
You get on a zoom call, you end the zoom call, you're still alone. You have to plan for the upcoming month. You're making some tech changes to your website. You're still alone. That's all well and good. You are the creator. You are the founder of your business. However, when you really try to dial in your marketing plan, you try to get in front of new audiences.
You want to grow your business at a quantum rate. You want to make millions. I get it. Me too. This is going to be more easily facilitated by making partnerships. Partnerships can be a game changer for your business because they're like a backstage pass to an audience that isn't yours yet. So think about it this way. You have a certain number of people in your orbit, and generally your marketing strategy revolves around, okay, how loud can I shout? How much can I put out there? What can I do to get people to find me? What partnerships do is they essentially pick you up as a human being, as a business owner, and plop you down in front of an existing audience of people.
How cool, right? You could team up, team up with another business. Maybe it's a complimentary business. It's like a massage therapist and a physio partnering up on a program. In our WAVE community, we had a naturopathic doctor and a sleep consultant partner on a program. So it's teaming up with some other association or brand or business or individual who has similar values, who aligns in their shared vision of a better future. And the goal is to swap audiences to add value to their community.
They can add value to your community.
You can share resources. You can introduce your business in a way that feels really organic. Because if you're a Pilates teacher and your bestie is a nutrition coach, there's a lot of synergies there. So instead of just building your own.
Businesses, well, you should still keep things separate. But think of how you could swap.
And do some co marketing or collaboration.
I think in this day and age.
And I'm going to keep saying that we've gotten into these really horrible patterns of like, I just need to post more, I just need to look down at my phone more, I just need to try harder. When in reality it's like, you know, you need to wake up and talk to the other business owners in town, ask them how you can support them, give to others freely and know that that will give to your business in return.
So some examples, I mean, I co.
Founded a mastermind with Emily Elliott called Wave. It is the premier mastermind for female entrepreneurs in Canada and Emily and I have swapped communities because of that. I have partnered with a software company called Practice Better and I've been showing up and teaching workshops to their audience. I show up, they don't pay me, I teach for free. But in return they expose me to large and growing audience. I've been the marketing mentor for the Female Startup Club before. I have done workshops for the CSN Alumni Association. Every time that I've been able to tap into one of these audiences, I've found that not only do I feel good because I get to share my wisdom with a whole group of people that I've never met, but I actually get a huge lift on the other side, whether that's followers or email subscribers or paid clients or workshop registrations.
Most recently I spoke at a summit and on the back of that I was launching a promotion for an annual planning workshop that I'm teaching. And all of a sudden I realized someone I had never met who found me through the summit had signed up for my workshop. So partnerships, collaboration, co marketing, whatever you want to call it, is so, so, so effective it'll never die because we are always looking for complimentary services to what we're currently investing in. And it's a really fun way to of your own bubble and to support another association or gathering of people while they support you too. So go on and give that one a try. You will not regret it. I really think that the most successful entrepreneurs are always looking for their next partnership and collaboration opportunity. Okay, the final strategy, if you want to grow your business off of social media, is going to be getting referrals for being amazing.
We talk about things that are different, we talk about the unignorable, we talk about things that are remarkable and we don't talk about things that are average. So I want to ask you, how can you be remarkable? How can you create a service where people just can't help but speak about what you do, the transformation you provide. I remember back when I worked at a previous corporate job, all of my colleagues who I would see on a weekly basis, they were going to this hypnosis practitioner and she lived in Oakville, Ontario. And first our one sales rep went and then she told the other sales rep to go and then the marketing team started going and this lady's name was Fatima and you could only text her because she didn't have a website, she didn't have social media, she literally had nothing.
But you could text her to get.
On her wait list. And then she texted me right back.
And she's like, it's going to be a six month wait to get in. And I was like, oh my God.
Like this is crazy. So I waited six months to see Fatima and she was amazing. And then I told all my friends to go see her and wow, this was like virality in action. And it was just from this lady Fatima providing an incredible hypnosis service. So I tell you this because she was unforgettable and every person who worked with Fatima left with something to rave about. It's word of mouth at its finest and that is gold for a business. Referrals happen because you're amazing. Referrals happen because you go above and beyond and people don't shut up about you because they don't always get that type of remarkable experience.
So yes, this one's going to take time, yes, this one takes effort. But I'm willing to bet if you go above and beyond, if you create a digital product and you make it it the best you could have possibly ever created, you're going to get people talking about it. If you spend extra time with a client and you really get them results and maybe they don't like their logo and so you really work with them and you make it amazing, they're going to talk about you. If you are a therapist or you.
Know somebody who sits face to face.
With a client and you're really compassionate and you listen and you get them results and you make sure you send them the best treatment plan ever, you are going to get referrals. So I would ask you, if you don't want to be on social media, there is something easier and that is to provide an epic service with the clients. You already have to be so good that people have to talk about you to not just show up and be like, ugh, I have to do my work today or oh, I'm just going to do the bare minimum if you go above and beyond, if you do take that 1% at every touch point and say, how can I make this 1% better? And if you do that, I have no doubt in my mind that your business will grow organically through word of mouth and through referral. These are some of the oldest forms of marketing, and I still believe in them so deeply today. All right, so there you have it. Those are three ways to grow your online business without touching social media. So again, you can host a workshop or an event, you can form partnerships, and you can go above and beyond and get revert referrals. So if the idea of getting off social one day feels really good, then I want you to remember that it 100% is possible.
Maybe social media simply acts as a secondary touch point or something that you use within your marketing mix, but it's not the main driver of business. I have many other episodes in the archives where I talk about these topics. Unconventional marketing strategies, clever tactics for showing up without being online all the time, so make sure you scroll back. We've got over 340 episodes of visionary Life at this point and I am just so grateful that you tuned into the end. So if you want to leave a rating, whether it's on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you know it means the world. Or the other thing that you could do to support the show is simply take a screenshot of this episode and share it on Instagram. All right, you guys, well, I hope you have an amazing rest of your week and I will talk to you in the next episode.
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