Grow Your Business With Social Media in 2023 with Joe McCarthy | S2E06

Welcome to the Mavericks Do It Different podcast, my name is Paul Finck "The Maverick Millionaire" and we are here to create a different world for you and everybody else, by doing it different and showing you how people all around the world are doing it different today and every single day. Today, I'm with somebody who is amazing and he impresses me and for all of you that follow me, you know, that's not an easy thing. This guy knows what he's doing. And he's been doing it for felt for a long time for him. However, only a few short years. However, it's been most of his life where at least it seems this guy is Joe McCarthy, and he's just amazing, a 20 year old entrepreneur. And yeah, I know. He's 20 What does he know only this guy has done a deep dive and created amazing results. He specializes in social media branding. You want to know how to do social media, you dive deep into the young ones who've been living in and breathing it since they were able to breathe itself. He grows branding and growth for businesses and he's worked with over 4000 Different companies building up their brand, developing real results and I want him to talk about some of the results that he's created for these companies, which is truly amazing. Teaching you how to scale the business and why it is so important. So let's get started. First of all, Joe, welcome, welcome, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing?

Good, man. Good. I appreciate you having me on. It's an honor.

It is an honor to meet you. I've been an entrepreneur for a long time. And I am always so excited to meet people that are living and breathing it from an early age. I know there are so many people that we look at that get to a certain age in their life and they go oh crap, how did I waste all this time? What have I been doing? Let me stop building other people's dreams. Let me build my own. And then I meet somebody like you who have decided early on learned what it meant to build your own destiny and took the bull by the horns and did it yourself and sell impressed with getting to know you and talking to you. With social media. How did you get started? Well, what's the story here?

Yeah, yeah, it's it's kind of funny. I grew up on a farm, right. So like super humble beginnings. I had, you know, some chickens, you know, maybe some ducks and turkeys and stuff. And basically, I mean, it was I was probably like six years old, right when I got my first batch of chickens and that just, you know, slowly grew into, you know, a little bit bigger, a little bit bigger, until until I was basically like a full full on business. But one issue I was having is, you know, I had all these products, I had tons of eggs and chickens my freezers and fridges were full of products but I didn't know how to sell right so like I was doing old school things knocking on doors putting up you know, road signs and stuff like that saying, hey, come buy my eggs. But nobody was buying so I saw a couple farmers kind of around my area they were utilizing like Facebook and Instagram social media. And they seem to be doing pretty well. They had you know, content they're putting up they're promoting, you know, their products. So I decided you know, why not? Let's try it out. So I was probably around 13 or 14 when I started doing that and just slowly built up this brand, you know, grew my pages, couple 1000 followers each pretty quickly and just, you know, start diving into like content and people love the brand so much that pretty much like as soon as I got product right? I was selling out so that's when I kind of had this Like epiphany, like social media rights, it's a super powerful tool if you use if you use it right, right. So I started diving into that basically just came across, like, you know, different books, you know, Napoleon Hill, you know, Robert Kiyosaki, just the classics. So I just dove into those, you know, learned about coaching entrepreneurship leadership, just got super immersed in growing a business. And then one of my buddies hit me up, that I've been texting back and forth, right on Instagram, just because I've been networking. And he said, you know, hey, let's start this company, or, you know, grow this agency is basically the company that you guys decide to partner with, where we basically help scale up 1000s of brands, help them get out to more people. And I started, you know, a lot along that time, I'd say probably 1617, I started posting on my personal brand, putting out content making videos. And I was having a hard time growing it. So, you know, I was testing all these different methods, just trying to figure out, you know, what's the best way to grow, you know, social media page, because it's super hard these days to get, you know, 1050 100,000 followers. So me and my buddy, we just did all these different experiments until we know, we found something that worked. And the rest is basically history, we've scaled up our accounts to hundreds of 1000s, we've helped 1000s of other people scale up their pages. And that's basically in a nutshell, you know, how I got started

On your page right now, and, and it's right now, and it's probably going to change by the time we even air this only, you're in well, in excess of 300, almost at 400,000 followers, right now, with your Instagram account. That's huge. And most of the people that are listening aren't anywhere near those numbers. What, and I'm gonna ask you a couple of things. Well, first I want to talk about, you know, a lot of people have ducks and chickens, it doesn't mean they create a multibillion dollar brand company, from that as their experience. What makes you different? Like, if you looked at all your buddies, and all the people that you know, that are in your age group even and what made us the guy that built this, where as your buddy down the block is still like, figuring out what, how to put on his pants? Like, what made you different? Any idea? Have you been able to do the self reflection on that?

Yeah, so that's a really good question. So there's a couple of things that come to mind. Number one, I would say is like the work ethic, because like, when you're running a farm, it's like, it doesn't matter if it's negative three degrees outside, if you don't go feed the animals, you're gonna die, right? So basically, that discipline of having to go out every single day, no matter, you know, how you felt, what the weather was, you know, how you know, the animals, or you basically had to go out and, you know, work every single day. So I think, kind of like that repetition. And just that discipline helped to build this, like, indestructible work ethic in me to where like, I don't care if, you know, it's day after school, I have, you know, four hours of homework, I'm studying for exams, you know, I'm gonna take like, five hours to like 1am or 2am, to dive into business because, you know, I'm, I have a big worth that work ethic. Number two, I would say is that I actually love what I do, right. So like, I think a lot of people, they don't have the privilege like I did to find find out what they actually like to do and figure out how to make money from it. So they're kind of just wandering throughout life, going to college not knowing exactly what they want to do. Whereas with me, right, I was probably seven, eight years old. And I knew that, you know, I didn't want to work for anybody, I wanted to do my own thing, run my own business, I don't care if I started with farming, you know, I knew that I want to sell my own service or product. And with social media, it just happened that I loved putting out content, I love building brands, I love you know, helping other people with social media. So I think the second thing is just that I loved what I was doing to where, you know, I work at 1213 hour day or 15 hour day and not even really realize it because I it was kind of what I do anyways, right?

I love the way you described the person who's the lost soul who really doesn't know their way and trying to figure it out as the guy who's going to college world that love that. And you know, and it's so important to know yourself and to know that that you know that it doesn't matter the education, the formal education, what you did is you grabbed hold, understood who you were, what you what motivated you what you enjoyed, and when and applied that work ethic into that and put your head down and just did it. And it's such a great job that alone as far as the message and what you can be telling people out in the world, Joe, that is a powerful message. And it's so few people no matter what age, had been able to do that and understand themselves well enough to get into the trenches, get it done, and stay focused on laser focused on a goal that they really want to accomplish, that they want to create in their world, I give you all the kudos for all that you've done, it's going to set the stage and the platform for the rest of your life message that is so powerful. And for you to get out there and tell that message alone is, is a worthy task for the rest of your life, over and above everything else that you're going to accomplish, because I know, this is only the beginning and watch this guy, watch what he does. Because when you're able to create this kind of magnitude of results this early on there, the sky's the limit. Exactly. And it's so great. Let's get back into social media. Let's talk a little bit about that, with branding and and what companies do. And I work with a ton of entrepreneurs in building up their business building up their brand, attempting to figure out how to monetize it, what some of the biggest mistakes are the biggest mistake you see people make and in branding their company?

It's a good question. So I think ultimately, they will I think if you're just starting out, I think a lot of people, they don't put out content that is valuable, they kind of just either don't really post it all, or they, you know, post what people aren't really going to engage with. I think another thing is they don't really put out themselves. So I see a ton of companies, right, they may post, you know, content or videos of like their products, or maybe they're posting just random gifts and stuff like that. But it's not like them, it's not like them on camera talking to the actual audience, they're not really making a connection, because I think as a business owner, or even just, you know, having a company page, you want to have somewhat of like a personal connection, because you are the business, right? So if you can put yourself in front of camera, start posting consistently, at least couple times a week, and you're posting like your face, I've seen that be like a huge game changer. That's, that's something easy, right? There's other things, little things that people do that could you know, improve their skills with marketing, it was getting more growth. But I think the simple thing is just putting yourself out there putting your face out there, because people want to get to know you, you know, as a person, you know, versus the company, if that makes sense.

Yeah. You mentioned something, they're not putting out valuable content. Define valuable content.

Yeah, so I think another thing is they don't like define their niche. Because I think one one thing I tell people is if you're going to start out in like social media marketing, like have like a brainstorm session, write down exactly like who you're trying to help. Because like, if you're trying to help everybody, right? Like, you're just, you know, I'm just gonna go out and post content and, you know, try to help everybody, you're basically not helping anyone. Like, I think the people who really make a big impact are people that have somewhat of like a guidance to who they're helping, whether it's like, you know, hey, I'm gonna help the 18 to 25 year old young entrepreneur getting in the game, and then you just almost formulate all your content to that. So you have kind of like this consistency with what you're providing. And then I think a lot of times people post content, like I said, you know, give just random gifts, or they post just like, you know, videos that aren't really helping people, like you may post content, and maybe you think it's awesome, right? But you kind of have to go in your audience's shoes and think like, you know, will my audience find value from this, because you want some kind of incentive for an audience to stick on and engage. So if there's no value, if they can't extract anything from that, you're not really going to grow? Basically,

What would you call? What would be a example of an incentive for them? Is it simply to be entertaining or is there more to it?

Yes, I mean, it really depends on like, what your niche is, or what you're trying to do, like, for me personally, right? I couldn't really get away with just posting funny stuff, right? Because like, I'm specifically trying to help like young entrepreneurs, like with business, so I'll give tips, right? So like, let's say, you know, I'm giving like my three tips to XYZ, or what I would do if I was starting from zero or you know, how to XYZ right, so I'll put out this content or these reels that actually help people and then maybe mix it in with you know, behind the scenes stuff, travel stuff, that's like I said engaging so they can get to know you as a person. I think mixing in that stuff with the valuable content which like I mentioned is, you know, something that they're gonna get value from. I think that's like the main thing but like I said, if you just put out solely like content that's not providing value, or if you're just using Instagram almost as like this, you know, portrait of like a photo album, like it's not really going to grow as a brand, basically.

Yeah, putting it putting yourself out there being real, putting your face on, on everything so that people have a persona, something to connect to, is part of your messaging and what you're talking about. Absolutely. Because, you know, there's an old adage that people buy from people that they know like and trust and when they don't know you, they know a company name, they know company logo, but they don't know who's behind the curtain. They don't trust you enough to buy from you. Exactly. And especially not in a large way and the higher your ticket item, the the higher it is that you have, the more trust that you need. Fascinating stuff. So we've kind of talked around it only. There are some people that I know, it's hard to believe there are some people that don't believe that all this work on social media, which it does take a ton of work. There is no company I know right now that is doing well on social media that doesn't have a support team and support help to make it happen. Why do need to spend all this time and energy on social media?

Yes, so I mean, ultimately, I think if you are trying to scale up a business and 2023 Like if you're not on social media, then you're quickly falling behind. Like I know, there's obviously you know, old school guys, they say, Hey, I get all my business from referrals or in person, you know, XYZ, but like a guarantee, there's like an untapped market, especially on Instagram. So like, if you're not on there, creating content, building a personal brand, like you're missing out on like a huge chunk of potential clients, you know, potential reach as well, just making an impact with content. So I think like if you if you aren't, you know, creating content and building a brand, then you're, you know, hugely missing out.

You focused on Instagram. And that's, that's obviously your main your main force here. You have expertise and ability to work with all the platforms, however, you've chosen Instagram as the the nail that you put up on the wall. Why Instagram? Yeah, what makes that different than the platforms? Or what kind of company would go to Instagram versus the others?

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think I'm kind of biased, right because I just I've crushed it on Instagram versus like Facebook, tick tock, stuff like that. So I think it also depends on like, what your business is, right? So I think like, the younger audience definitely would vibe towards tick tock, right. So if you're selling like a younger audience, do tick tock...

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on you're 20, how much younger of an audience am I going after here?

Well, teens, teens, but yeah, I would say like Facebook is more so like organic, it's more of like the older generation who are looking to do like bigger stuff. Instagram is more so like, it's almost like a melting pot. Like there's young people on there you can get business from, I know a ton of like older people who you can get business from Instagram. And then pretty much everybody is using Instagram these days just to build a business. And then just, you know, algorithm wise, it's easier to grow, it's easier to reach more people, especially if you do it the right way, like your content that can reach 10s of 1000s of people versus you know, with Facebook, you have to really get it right get in early, you know, to be able to reach 1000s of people. And then with LinkedIn, it's more professional, right. So you're not going to reach a huge audience necessarily with LinkedIn, but it might be a little bit more, you know, high scale. But with Instagram, like I said, it's kind of this big melting pot. So it's almost like the perfect mean for literally everybody. Plus, like I said, I'm a little biased because Instagram was the first platform I used and obviously I've done really well on it if I get 89% of my business just through it. So, you know, just for personal experience, I think Instagram is the best for brain and, you know, clients and stuff.

Is there anybody that Instagram wouldn't work for any type of business that Instagram would be like, Yeah, you know what, that's not gonna work?

Well, so I would say the only people like I've talked to like, really, you know, high ups like people that you know, have billion dollar companies and obviously, like, some of their clientele may not be like browsing Instagram, right, they're doing much bigger and better things. So for like the very small amount of people that you know, they're already making a ton of money, they really don't need to be on social media. Those are really the only people I can think of, you know, who don't necessarily need to or won't benefit a ton from it because I already have a ton of stuff established but for like the everyday person or even just like 98% of people who do you know, who would you know, enjoy a little bit more business a little bit more exposure. Instagram is definitely a huge benefit.

Even with the companies that are well established, is there and in history, we've watched companies that man they were the top of the game and they And over the next decade, they they lost everything. And they weren't in the game at all anymore. And what I would say is most companies, if not all companies, no matter what size they are, they need to be actively involved in social media. Otherwise, they're over the next five years, they're going to be gone. Yeah, because they won't have the presence with the new market, they won't have a presence with the new buyers.

Yeah, exactly. I think like one issue is they don't like adapt, right. So like, really, only the ones that adapt and evolve are the ones that are going to continue to crush it. So like I said, like towards the beginning of this podcast, right? If you're not on social media, like, even if you don't think you're gonna benefit a ton from it, like, I guarantee you kind of like moving down the line in the future, like, it's gonna benefit you hugely to have a social media presence and some of the biggest names in the space, right? Whether you're an entrepreneur, or just like the biggest, biggest companies, they're investing 10s of 1000s of dollars into, you know, their growth on social media, you know, marketing ads, all kinds of so a lot of them are starting to get in touch with, you know, investing into social media. But yeah, there's definitely, you know, a few that think they're too big to fail. So I guess we'll just have to see what happens. Oh,

I could name companies that that took that philosophy, and yet you wouldn't even know their name.

Yeah, exactly.

There's ever heard of a company called Blockbuster? Yeah, get out there. And it's company like that. And even companies like IBM was the player in the in the computer age, and then they lost traction, like no one would think about buying something other than an IBM way back when computers started, then they got lost in the shuffle. There's so many companies that are around now that needs to look at history and recognize unless than doing the things that are the next generation, they're gonna miss out and there's no question that it happens and it's cyclical and it'll constantly turn unless you're looking at how to innovate, how to change how to invest in your future, you're going to miss. Everything that you're doing Joe, you're in the right space at the right time, that's for sure. Any we've got people that are listening all around the world and especially United States Canada, with all of our listeners. What are some key takeaways if someone wants to grow their brand now on Instagram? What are the three top things that they should be doing?

I mean you could go into like just like strategies with like hey post reels do this do that. I think like one issue I see a ton of people having is more like a mindset thing they're like too scared of what people are gonna think. They're scared like, you know what, if this video flops, what if this piece of content doesn't reach people, what if this, what of that and it's like they get bogged down by this what if so they don't need to start, right. So it doesn't even matter like what tools you know and like what different like strategies you know, have to get engagement if you're not even gonna, you know, post. It took me a while to get comfortable, you know, putting videos out on camera, but like once I did, it's like a spark. It creates this momentum like I was telling you, and you know if you can put like 2030 videos out just like I used to pride take 40 retakes of a video. Now I can do it in like one or two retakes, or not even like I can do it in one take, right and put it out. So it gets so much easier.

So I got it. Yeah. The retakes. Yeah. And this is such a common thing. So you used to take 20 or 3040 retakes and now you do you know one take wonder.

Yeah, what one video would take me an hour.

However, is the one take any better than the ones that used to trash?

Yeah, I mean, like I would like 40 retakes take me an hour and they weren't even like that good. Like I find when I scroll down on like my Instagram feed I look at some of my videos. I cringe because like it's I was not confident but...

So with the experience you've gotten better and better that's the ability. Only the reality is even their worst is better than nothing.

Exactly yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like even if like you're I mean like it's not going to be the worst forever, right. Obviously you're you're never really good at first anyway so like you might as well just put out a piece of content take action and then as you continue to put more out and more out you're gonna see that you build more confidence and then like I said, it becomes way easier to where you're you know at video 40, right one retake or just one one take it's going to be better and more high quality than the first video you put out which took 40 different you know retakes. So it gets a lot easier and going back to like my tip I'd say like don't care what you know other people think like you're probably gonna flop on your couple first pieces of content anyway, so you might as well get it over with put it out and then as you continue posting, it's going to get you know more high quality as you get the experience. But yeah, mindset wise You're gonna obviously die, right? So like, Why do you care what like, you know, Mr. Joe, across the world and you know, in Australia thinks about your video, if you know they're not going to be at your funeral, they're not going to really care. Ultimately, you might as well just put out the content and do what you want to do because it's, like I said the other day, you know, life is pretty short so I don't think I don't think you should just be stuck kind of caring what other people are going to think.

It's such a valuable message. And you're so, so right. So many people worry about all the people that are never going to be at their funeral, but they worry about what they think rather than creating a life for themselves and their loved ones and their closest friends. What a big difference. So cool. All right, I've got a couple of things. We'll do some lightning round questions here. Just to get to know you a little bit outside of the business world. What's your favorite hobby to do?

So recently, so I don't know if you've heard of Andy Frisella, but he does this thing called "75 Hard" it's like a challenge with fitness. So I actually got super into just like working out, believe it or not, like I was I was also very skinny kid. So like, I like to, you know, kind of get into like fitness recently. So that's one thing is, I might just take like an hour or two to, you know, go to the gym or rewind, go on a walk or bike ride. So that's something recently but even more recently is like day trading. It's more like, I know, it's more like high risk, high reward. But I've gotten into like, you know, just putting, like, you know, four or $5,000 into, you know, just day trading and kind of learning that because a couple of my buddies do it. And it's kind of something just fun to try out.

Great thing to try out only as a...

Only with money you can afford to potentially lose.

... as a hard and fast entrepreneur - Go build business. I heard Grant Cardone talking on an interview once and they were talking about stock market and the guy was interviewing him and was like, Oh man, who is obviously really into stocks and I asked Grant Cardone. Oh, what stocks do you invest in? Grant laughed. Exactly why he said, "I don't invest in stocks. I invest in the company." Yeah, "I control what I invest my money." That's the word of advice. Don't do day trading. Good. Take your money, invest in other companies build other companies keep building more and more brands. You're great at building brands, just grab a company, build a brand and take a percentage of the profits. That's my tip of the day. And it's something that I help my clients do all the time. Learn how to scale and how to monetize what you're doing. Yeah, that's a great, that's the power play. That's where you want to spend your time. And at little advice from from an older entrepreneur, if you will, on how to build it. Great. You're in a great, great place, though. So on a personal note, favorite book you'd recommend everyone to read.

I mean, my personal favorites "Rich Dad Poor Dad," I feel like everybody recommends that I would probably say like a book that I recommend is the "10x Rule." Like you're just talking about Grant Cardone. So the "10x Rule" by Grant Cardone, I think that just teaches you how to like think big, like I had, you know, small goals, but like, I've recently had these massive goals, right? And like, that helps a ton, right. So I think like that helps you kind of see what's possible because like, I never would have thought like, you know, 20 years old, you can make, you know, 10,15, 30, $50,000 in a month, right? Like most people make that in a year. So it just helps you kind of see what's actually out there what's possible. So I'd say "10x Rule", honestly by Grant Cardone

Excellent choice, Favorite music, what do you listen to?

Dude, I listened to all it depends on the day I listen to like classic rap, heavy metal, pop rap. I mean, like, there's some, like musicals that I've listened to my wife loves musicals. So like, I mean, she's gotten me into like, some recent, like, classical type music. So there's really no like, rhyme or reason for like, what kind of music I listen to is really just depending on my mood or like the day.

That's awesome and you mentioned your wife, how long have you been married now?

I actually just got married in March. So I know a lot of people don't get married super young, but I just got married recently in March. So I mean, I've known her since high school, which is funny, like, probably six, seven years. Like we kind of knew that, you know, once I'm out of high school, moved out, like established like, it's probably a good next move and I think it's it's awesome.

Congratulations. Thank you. It is having having a great partnership is what will build you to another level as well. It makes you a better, better person. Exactly. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, great, great stuff for everybody. And we've got a ton of people that are listening here as I said all around the world - last bits of advice for everyone.

I'd say like I said, if you're not on social media, get on it ASAP, right, especially with Instagram, start posting, just put out the content. Like, even if you're a little bit scared of what people think, right, just start posting content, it'll get easier. It'll get better. As far as like practical tips, obviously reels and video content that's doing really well right now. So maybe you start putting out more reels or video content. But yeah, other than that, I think just, you know, making sure you take action at the end of the day is the most important thing, because I know a lot of people, right, like they read up on business, they study, they do research, almost as it's like delayed to actually go and make something happen. But I think you learn 10 times more and 10 times faster if you actually go out and just, you know, implement and take actions. At the end of the day, one of my biggest messages on my page is just take actions. That's what I'd say.