Hustleburg | Beyond Your Side Hustle

Hustleburg Episode 18 – Answering Your Instagram Questions 2nd of 2

In this Q&A episode of the Hustleburg podcast, Brett answers listener questions about Instagram in the second of two parts. This is the fourth episode of a platform-specific series on the Q&A episodes about the varying social media platforms. Episode 12 and Episode 14 made up a two-part series on Facebook, Episode 16 served as the first in this two-part series on Instagram, and in two weeks, Episode 20 will answer your questions about LinkedIn.

How Can I Organically Grow My Instagram Following?

When it comes to growing a community, no matter the platform, organic growth is always best. Instagram is no different. Regardless of the type of follower, or community member, you need to attract them, and to attract them organically, you’ll need to approach them with something of value, because initially, they don’t know that you exist, right? Or else, they’d be a part of what you’re building already. Your base of content centers on the five focus areas we’ve outlined in-depth previously, giving you so much content to create that your first 10 or so posts.

How Do You Reach People Outside Your Network?

Engage with your existing community to form a baseline of recommended content on the “Explore” tab. With your new tool directly serving you content that it calculates you wish to view and interact with on the Explore tab, you can grow by commenting and following those who add value to you. Use hashtags and local popular posts to find more content and follow accounts that add value to yours. Interact with those new accounts, using the $1.80 strategy outlined in this episode.

What Advantage is There to Using Instagram Stories Over Facebook Stories?

They may ignore you in one place, but consume what you create without a second thought in another. It’s all about the user. It’s rarely about you. There are differing demographics and psychographics of each platform. The community you have on Instagram is younger than Facebook’s, so the context and content of what you share on Instagram Stories will HAVE to be different than what you share on Facebook Stories, because the audiences differ. You also don’t have the same linking capability that Facebook offers its Stories on the Instagram platform, until you’re a MUCH larger account or an advertiser. That forces you to think about how to create and present content in your stories, driving you to be more creative with the content and the context, so you have even more to consider when sharing to Instagram Stories.

How Do I Best Link to Multiple Things With the Same Instagram Account?

When Instagram began, they chose to focus on the visual. They created a platform as an app-only option that also allowed you to “filter” what you shared within the app to take ordinary pictures to make them extraordinary. That makes things more difficult for brands to navigate to spam you with links to other content away from Instagram. There is one link per account, and it’s in your bio. They are forcing you to only send people off-platform for only the MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF CONTENT to you at a time. To offer something beyond that, the market has several options, all operating with a “freemium” model, free with limited features yet paying for a more robust version. There are a variety of options, such as Linktree, lnk.bio, and linkin.bio by Later. For musicians and podcasters, SmartURL might be an option worth looking into.

Start Marketing Your Business Online With These Three Easy Steps

If you’re just getting started marketing your business online, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers a FREE Getting Started Guide.

Find out more about Beyond Your Side Hustle here:

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Hustleburg Listener Community
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Brett’s LinkedIn

If you enjoyed what you heard in this episode, please take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on your favorite player. Each episode is available on its own post, with the entire catalog here. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast catcher. We listen to this show and our favorites on Castbox. It’s hosted by Podbean. We appreciate your attention, and we can’t wait to have you back for the next episode.

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

If you have any questions you’d like to have answered on an upcoming Q&A episode, please take a moment to visit beyondyoursidehustle.com/podcastquestion and ask there. If you’re a St. Pete businessperson who’d like to sit down for an interview, please reach out to us here.

Hustleburg Episode 17.5 – Bonus Episode, Audio from St Pete OPEN for Business Chats 3

In this bonus episode of the Hustleburg podcast, we compiled the audio from 5 Zoom video chats with small businesses here in Saint Petersburg about their creative ways to stay OPEN for business. If you’ve got something creative to share, send me an e-mail at brett@stpeteopenforbusiness.com

You can see these video chats on YouTube or by clicking their name below.

Gerianne Russell from Cross Keys Design

Cross Keys Designs 4565 Plaza Way, St. Pete Beach, FL 3370610AM-4PM – We’ve Moved All Online

You can find Cross Keys Designs online, connect with Geri on Facebook, give her a call, or e-mail her.

Pizza Box’s Kelley Huff

Pizza Box 923 Central Ave, Saint Petersburg, FL 33705
Tues-Sat 4PM-9PM – Take-Out & Delivery Only

You can order Pizza Box online, through BiteSquad, by Phone, connect on Facebook, and engage on Instagram.

Krysten Strauser from The Tipsy Trotter Mobile Bar Co.

The Tipsy Trotter Mobile Bar Co. Seminole, FL 33772
We’ve Moved All Online/Delivery

Reach out to order through their website, order by phone, pin their content on Pinterest, connect on Facebook, and engage on Instagram.

Banyan Bookkeeping Service’s Sara Evans

Banyan Bookkeeping Services, LLC Virtual in St. Petersburg, FL 33713
9AM-5PM M-F, We’ve Moved All Online

Reach out through their website, by phone: (727) 682-3312, connect on Facebook, find Sara on LinkedIn, or send her an e-mail.

Todd Williams with FastSigns of Largo

Fastsigns of Largo 7713 Ulmerton Rd Largo, FL 33771
M-F 9AM-5PM (Lobby Closed) – Delivery/Curbside Pickup Only

Reach out through their website, by phone, connect on Facebook, or send an e-mail.

Start Marketing Your Business Online With These Three Easy Steps

If you’re just getting started marketing your business online, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers a FREE Getting Started Guide.

Find out more about Beyond Your Side Hustle here:

Website
Hustleburg Listener Community
Facebook
Instagram
Brett’s LinkedIn

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

Hustleburg Episode 17 – Interview with Pedal Pub St. Pete’s Eric Olson

“These people are going to be bringing business to me…”

You’ve likely seen the 16-seat Dutch style bikes moving between bars as a rolling pub crawl in downtown St. Pete. In this episode of Hustleburg, Brett talks with Pedal Pub St. Pete‘s Eric Olson to learn about how the pedal-powered transport came to be a fixture downtown.

Eric and Brett discuss how he “fell into” the business, the process for having the bikes made, and how the tour between bars and pubs materialized in St. Pete.

Pedal on Over

Bicycle pub crawling with Pedal Pub St. Pete:

Website
Facebook
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Twitter
Call

Hustleburg @ PedalPub St. Pete — Ride with Eric Olson, owner of PedalPub St. Pete

Hear Your Question, Answered, on Hustleburg

Interview Transcription by Otter.ai

Brett Bittner
So these Dutch style bikes that are a mobile bar, why is that what it is you do?

Eric Olson
It’s kind of dumb luck. Okay, actually, it started in back in February 2006. I got an email from a fellow homebrewer lived in Minneapolis and part of the Minnesota home Brewers Association he saw one in Belgium actually took a picture of it. And it was more of a joke email, you know, hahaha would this be fun? As a club vehicle for events, parades, things like that, why song is the thing? That’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. All right, zoomed in, I could barely make up a name. Yes cafe, did a Google search for that and found this Dutch website, the kind of website where you press a button and that translates and it’s kind of packed that you can figure it out what they’re saying, sure, like, but I could figure out their email address. So I clicked on that send an email said, Hey, would you guys like to give us directions on how to build one? The homebrewers Club might want to put one together for events and parades. And they write back No, no, we’re not gonna do that. Okay, so how much would one cost if one were to buy one said well never shipped one to the US before, but including shipping to be about $40,000 Whoa, well, my cheap Best Buddies in the beer club now. Look, it’s just in beer club. You try to make the best beer for the lowest cost, right? So that’s just part of the fun of it. Well, they’re not about to kick out that much money for a parade vehicle. But I was a business professor. At the time at normandale Community College and, and I’ve been in business for myself, you know. So it’s not that I didn’t think it would be that difficult. So I started reading together a kind of a proposal, kind of a business plan, some pro formas, it was difficult to do, because there’s no historical data to go off of. And if you start a pizza place, you can find historical data. This is how much you should be paying for sauce. This is so much lower labor that how much rent, your market size should be this big, that kind of thing had none of that because nobody had ever done it before in the United States. And but I started putting some numbers together, got a hold of a couple of guys that I thought might be good business partners. And one of them said, you know, let’s go to Amsterdam and go meet those guys. So I flew to Amsterdam, and while we were there we met here and Hank Fennell are their brothers is here as a truck driver. Hank was a welder. Their dad was a welder, just blue collar guys. And they dreamed this thing up on the back of a bar napkin in Amsterdam. Wow. Yeah. And the bar owner saw what they were drawing and said, Hey, you know if you get that, ready for The Queen’s Day Parade, which evidently is like the hugest thing in Amsterdam. Okay, I’ll pay for the parts. And that’s how they had to develop the first one, four or five years prior to us stopping there. While we were there. They said, Would you like to be a US distributor? Well, that’s what we wanted to do. So it took about six months to work out the international distribution agreement, because even though we have the kind of the same common law base, there’s a little different than ours. And you know, what governing law are you going to use if there’s a dispute, things like that? We got the first one delivered in March of 2007, in Minneapolis, and opening day, the first of these in the country, actually, on April Fool’s Day 2007. Did all the tours me and my business partner for that first year, and the next year, we had to hire somebody to do some of the tours. Then we started, people started noticing us across the country and we just so we’re operating a distributorship. Okay, nationwide distributorship, as well as retail operation and in Minneapolis and Things started going really well, Minneapolis and more people started asking us about, you know, how do I start this business? So we wrote up a nice business manual. And we sold that along with the bikes. And we ended up doing that selling those these bikes into 38 markets across the country sold over 150 units. I sold out of that business two years ago. Okay, and now I’ve got this pedal pub, I got pedal pumps and P offices. So that’s the that’s the story.

Brett Bittner
So who is it that’s wanting to get? What is it? 123 12 to 15 other friends to bike around?

Eric Olson
It’s mostly birthday parties, okay, bachelorette parties, and just friends on the town. Okay, I break it down when people are are checking out and they’re about to pass. That’s one of the required questions. Okay. Yeah. A little over almost 70% fall into one of those three categories. Wow. And there’s other ones too and that, you know, it might fall into, like a charity event or corporate out I guess that would be fourth out of the out of the West we do a lot of businesses where they’ll they’ll rent out two, maybe even all three of the bikes because I can put 48 people on board. Okay, bikes, each bike called 16. And then we got to be careful where we pick where we’re going to go because there’s some places we would overwhelm with 40 people, but we do that all the time. We got the Chamber of Commerce ambassadors coming on next Thursday, their rent to bikes, and it’s just a hell of a lot of fun. Yeah.

Brett Bittner
So do you have like a predetermined route? Or is it just kind of the places that they want to hit in a bike like Pub Crawl? It depends on private tours. Yeah,

Eric Olson
if you rent it, I say you Brittany’s wherever you want to go, as long as it’s back in two hours because that’s the time limit. I don’t really care. Usually on private tours, they got one ideas like we really want to stop at first, or really want to stop at avid or wherever someplace in this area. on public tours where people rent by the seat. We pick the stops. Okay? Because we can’t have people trying to you know, we got a bachelor party of six in the town of four and their time, well, where do we go? And now I’m public tours, which are about half of our tours, we set exactly where we’re going to stop. Okay? Actually, my drivers do that at the time of the tour.

Brett Bittner
So today, your businesses where it is, where do you want to be taking it? And what is it that you’re doing to get it there?

Eric Olson
Well, as this business has been here for we started in, I started in 2012. So it’s, this is our beginning of our eighth year, okay. And what I want to do is maintain stability and sales because what happens and has happened has happened across the country in all these all the other markets, all 38 markets is about your six or seven, is that when that’s when sales start to come down a little bit in that plateau, because all locals have done it. Okay, you know, three or four times some of them right and in a lot of places you don’t have any kind of tourist business going on. Sure. So I’m not looking to grow beyond these three bikes because I don’t there there isn’t gonna be that much demand for it I can’t stir up or create more demand for it. So yeah, that’s where we’re gonna keep the three bikes full. And and kind of stave off that seven year. Yeah, it’s fine or plateau, kind of inevitable. The cool new thing first few years are real struggling right just about when under a cup in first few years almost seems to keep on tossing money at something saying well, maybe we can get it to work. Okay, right. It’s good. Can you do with a used car? Well, I fixed transmission but now the engines going on. Right? You know, the sunk costs situation. So the first several years, three years make any money then it starts taking off pretty good, and now it’s flat towing, but we’re plateauing at a good level.

Brett Bittner
So what are some of the things that you’re doing to try to make sure that you’ve got butts in the seats for all three bikes as much as you can possibly tour?

Eric Olson
i’ve tried a lot of different thing, okay, I tried. I mean, nothing against creative loafing but I put an ad in there that was a complete waste, okay? Something called my area network, which was supposed to get in touch with people in the area. That was a waste of money, crunch fitness, sign up with them, did some marketing through them, that didn’t do anything. Okay, the only place to spend your money now is Facebook. Now next year, I might give you a completely different answer. Okay. But right now that’s where it’s at.

Brett Bittner
Well, you’re speaking my language, you know, I actually have something coming out all the will have come out by the time this airs, but it’s talking about the single most important platform for any small business. And it’s Facebook because that is where the people are. Yep. But I’m looking forward in where we can get some underpriced attention and some of the things that we can be doing from in a digital marketing space. I’m looking at like the swipe up ads on Instagram as a possibility. And one thing that’s really cool is the viral nature. of tic Tock if you’re not if you’re familiar with that video,

Eric Olson
no,

Brett Bittner
that one’s 15 to 60 second videos. But the cool thing about it is you don’t have to have a following. You don’t have to build anything. Because of the way the app is designed to give you the for you page where it serves videos that it thinks you will like. And you don’t have to follow that page. You don’t have to follow that account. So you have the opportunity to go viral from literally nothing from your very first post. So there’s some really cool new kind of underpriced attention things.

Eric Olson
Well, you know, Facebook has it right now. Yeah, just that’s where all the people that are where it’s at. And I will guarantee in five years, that’s not going to be the correct

Brett Bittner
Oh, absolutely! Now, you know, people are going to catch up to the, you know, they’re going to figure out that it’s priced right. And it’s going to be too expensive for a lot of small businesses and they’re going to have moved on. So is there anything that you’re reading, watching or listening to, to help you grow or stave off the plateau?

Eric Olson
No. Okay, I used to read a lot of textbooks, business textbooks, I taught business classes for 15 years. And right now, I’ve watched some videos on how to do your own Facebook marketing, right type of thing. But not not a whole heck of a lot of that. Okay. You know what I do to kind of keep abreast of what’s going on in town. I love St. Louis and St. Pete is really the coolest damn town. Absolutely. And, you know, I go to things like entrepreneur, social club, great people there. There’s another one called ruin a business where, you know, network and drink beer, which is totally that’s right up your alley. Right, you know, and I keep abreast of what’s going on in town. I, I talk to the local business owners here and you know, say NC Hey, who’s moving in? There’s a whiskey distillery that’s going to be moving in down the street here. So I, I stopped there, American Freedom distillery. And I think the girl’s name was Melinda. And it doesn’t matter what her name was, but that’s good. That’s huge. Gonna be Huge, I met a gal that’s working for the, you know, the State Theatre at six seventh and central and but they cleaned it all up and that’s gonna be really nice event space, they’re gonna be remodeling. they’re gonna be hopefully opening in April. Okay, that’s the that’s the goal that’s gutted and they’re working on the insides now. But that’s, that’s going to be popping open soon. And I just keep abreast of things by just being out talking to other business owners and other people around town.

Brett Bittner
So when you aren’t working on pedal pub, and when you aren’t giving tours, where can we find you doing? What in the St. Pete area?

Eric Olson
You could find me at the gym? Okay, and don’t try to go to the gym every day. Sure. You will find me. Well, it’s it’s kind of a weird blend my life because I don’t I don’t think of it as work but I do go to all these local places and bars and restaurants and make sure okay, is this going to be an appropriate stop for my tours? Who are the people that work here? You know, are they nice folks that type of thing? And other than that, you see me? Well, yeah, you probably see me around town a lot. Now think about it.

Brett Bittner
Okay, what is one of your favorite completely unrelated to work activities to do around here?

Eric Olson
unrelated to work activities to do around here? Yeah, festivals. There’s there’s some live music plan, though see the black honkies of those guys. You know, I’ve been to Janice live a couple of times. I think that’s a great venue. Okay. I’ll go over here real close to three daughters, and they’ve got a venue there. And that’s it’s kind of unrelated. It is unrelated to work, but I still I still have always I ended up for Okay, should we stop here? How is the surface? What are the prices like, um, you know, what I, I pretty much never stopped thinking about business. Okay.

Brett Bittner
So how much of your time would you say that you’re working on your business in those kind of activities versus in your business, actually doing tours and doing the day to day operations.

Eric Olson
I don’t do tours anymore. I’ll fill in. I want my people, my employees to do the tours, I certainly swoop in and take one thing I want to do that tour owner that not going to do that. So I’ll fill in on tours, as far as the day to day stuff, you know, I’ve had to make a bunch of copies of some biking tour logs that I’ve just brought down here, working on workers comp, odd and all that fun stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Yeah, employees and nobody here thinks about riding the ride in the bike. So I you know, that’s what I do working whether that you consider honor in I don’t know. But that’s what my days are spent doing is figuring that kind of stuff out.

Brett Bittner
So you said this is the eighth year that you’ve been in business here in St. Louis. Is that about the time that you transitioned from Minneapolis or was there some time where you weren’t pedal pub? In St. Pete, but you were already here?

Eric Olson
was starting to move with you. And that was a very kind of a strange start. There was a gal named Krista who had sent an email to me and my business partner who has since bought out and said, Hey, I’m moving to St. Pete, my husband’s being transferred down here. I think that this pedal pump thing would work down there. Well, that time we’re going okay, fine. We’ll sell you a bike in the businessman a well, we didn’t want to open up any kind of satellite operation. She was very persistent. So we said, well tell you what, if you can get it approved by the city. We’ll send a couple bikes down there for a season to see if it works. And it did. She initially we started efforts, she was showing the the information to to mark Ferguson for and he just said, Okay, I get it. He’s very smart guy, good businessman. And he just said, Okay, fine. I’m gonna clear on a space in the back. You guys will start near tours right there. Because he can figure it out like that. That okay? These people are going to be bringing business to me three or two people. You know With multiple bikes or falls, he did that real quick. So that’s where that’s where we started out. And I had, you know, I came down here and met with her and saw St. Pete and St. Pete was pretty nice. Yeah, at the time. And it wasn’t until about three. I mean, it was here a lot. But it wasn’t till about three years ago that I bought a condo. And I’ve been living there full time for the last year and a half so far. Because turns out that dumb luck, and an email from a gal named Krista and I found a place that I really love. That’s awesome. St. Pete’s fantastic, man.

Brett Bittner
Very cool. What events do you have coming in the second half of 2020 that we know that you’re going to be a part of where people can find out more about you or they’re going to kind of see you guys around town or that they you know, you’re going to be a part of None? None. Sorry. That’s okay. Hey, man. Lots of times. It’s just about the business that you got going on. I wasn’t sure if there was anything In the area that that you guys might show up to, yeah.

Eric Olson
Nothing planned right now. Okay.

Brett Bittner
So where can people find out more about pedal pub, St. Pete website, Facebook, Instagram, all the social media stuff.

Eric Olson
The best places is our website PedalPubStPete.com And same thing abbreviated. Of course. The stuff that I put on on Facebook is just generally fun local funding local stuff. Yeah, I just, you know, I put up stuff on there because it’s funny, and it usually has to do with the weather because what the weather or beer does, that’s we have to deal with. If it’s a thunderstorm, right, go out. Okay. Absolutely. You know, you’re not gonna get hit by lightning and resting in. It’s not anything to worry about. But yeah, we got thunderstorms. Okay. Yeah, I mean, look, if we can’t dress for our weather, who can write we got ponchos if you get wet. You know, there’s a certain time of year round here Where? Yeah, it’s gonna rain pretty much every day. But you’ll see us out on the street On CENTRAL AVENUE. range goes from about 50 to about 31st. Okay, about four or 548 on East and punk east on the west. We stay cut pretty tight within that but, you know, around Central Avenue, Grand Central District, a little bit into the edge district as well.

Brett Bittner
Very cool. Eric, I appreciate you taking the time to talk with Hustleburg and I can’t wait to see what’s next. Alright.

Eric Olson
Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Hustleburg Episode 16.5 – Bonus Episode, Audio from St Pete OPEN for Business Chats 2

In this bonus episode of the Hustleburg podcast, we compiled the audio from 5 Zoom video chats with small businesses here in Saint Petersburg about their creative ways to stay OPEN for business.

You can see these video chats on YouTube.

Donnie and Jackie Minchillo from Joy of Cleaning

Joy of Cleaning Florida 260 1st Avenue South, Suite 200, Saint Petersburg, FL 33701
Mon – Sat 8 am to 6 pm; late night available for commercial

You can find out more at their website, call them directly, connect on Facebook, or engage on Instagram.

Bayboro Brewing’s James Coleman

Bayboro Brewing 2390 5th Ave S, Saint Petersburg, FL 33712
T & R To-Go Hours: 4PM-7PM, Sat: 2PM-6PM Sunday: 2PM-4PM – Take-Out Only

You can find out more at their website, call them directly, connect on Facebook, or engage on Instagram.

Rick Herbert from Ace High Printing

Ace High Printing 3801 16th St N, Saint Petersburg, FL 33703
9AM-4PM – Essential/Business as Usual

You can find out more at his website, call Ace High Printing directly, e-mail Rick, connect on Facebook, engage on Instagram, and keep up on Twitter.

Cycle Brewing’s Doug Dozark

Cycle Brewing 534 Central Avenue St. Petersburg, FL 33701
12-7 Daily – Take-Out & Delivery Only

You can order online at the Cycle Brewing website, connect on Facebook, engage on Instagram, and keep up on Twitter.

Trent A Smith, Realtor

You can find Trent online, connect with him on Facebook, engage on Instagram, find him on YouTube, or give him a call.

Start Marketing Your Business Online With These Three Easy Steps

If you’re just getting started marketing your business online, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers a FREE Getting Started Guide.

Find out more about Beyond Your Side Hustle here:

Website
Hustleburg Listener Community
Facebook
Instagram
Brett’s LinkedIn

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

Transcription below by Otter.ai

Brett Bittner

Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of the Hustleburg podcast. I truly enjoyed chatting with these local business people about how they’re adapting so creatively to the ever changing rules to say open to serve our community. If you’re a small business who’s open for business here in St. Pete, or anywhere in Pinellas County, visit St. Pete open for business comm slash open to be added to the listing. And if you’ve done something creative or made a special offer To remain open during the safer at home orders let me know that by email at Brett at St. Pete open for business comm Don’t worry if you didn’t catch it or won’t remember it, it’s going to be in the show notes. If this is your first episode of Hustleburg I’d really appreciate it if you stuck around and listen to another episode or two and possibly subscribed. The last guest in this bonus episode realtor Trent Smith is making his triumphant return after appearing in a regular Hustleburg interview back in Episode 11. If we add something of value in this episode, let us know by rating and reviewing this episode on your favorite podcast player. Regular episodes come out to arrive in your feed on Thursday morning, and this week you’ll hear from Eric Olson from Pelle pub St. Pete. Unfortunately, his business is one that is closed until the safer at home orders relax. But pedal pub offers however is a fun time for you and about a dozen of your friends. I look forward to having you back to hear him share his entrepreneurial journey on Thursday. onto the episode. Last Monday, I had the pleasure pleasure of talking with Donnie and Jackie montillo. From joy of cleaning. I’m joined today by Donnie and Jackie joy of cleaning. Donnie and Jackie have a cleaning service here in St. Pete. And we’re going to talk a little bit today about how they are saying open for business. Thanks for joining me, guys.

Jackie Minchillo

Thanks for having us.

Donnie Minchillo

Thank you for having us. Appreciate it.

Brett Bittner

So, so tell me a little bit about joy of cleaning. What is it that you do? Are you guys primarily residential, commercial vacation rental? What’s your normal non pandemic business like?

Donnie Minchillo

Primarily, we are a residential cleaning company, but we do have some commercial as well. And we have office spaces and a couple of retail spaces. So and we are trying to move more into the commercial as well. So we have done some post construction cleaning, but we do focus on residential and office cleaning.

Brett Bittner

Awesome. Now, obviously, we don’t have many businesses open. We don’t have many office buildings open. There’s not a whole lot of construction that’s continuing. So you guys have probably had to be a little bit more creative in how it is that you’re staying open. What are some of the new things that you’re doing or adaptations that you’ve made?

Donnie Minchillo

I’ll let you

Jackie Minchillo

well, several things. Obviously this is a, this is a unknown situation for everyone. So there’s been a lot of adaptations made on the fly as announcements are made as guidelines have changed, etc, etc. We’re obviously trying to do as much as humanly possible in the way of just personal protection. So our team is wearing a lot of personal protection gear in terms of face masks gloves, over don’t know the technical term for the little booties that go over this. But so they’re wearing all of that and we have had pretty extensive discussions with our team as well just about their own personal health and monitoring not only for themselves, but for our clients as well. So our team members are taking their temperatures daily in the morning just to make sure that they’re not running a fever. We’re having daily check ins make sure everyone’s feeling good, nothing has changed. And so we’re monitoring that very closely.

Donnie Minchillo

And we’re also asking our clients, if they do choose to be in their house, let’s say because they are most of them are working from home. And if they still have a job, right, that they stay in a room while we cleaned the rest of the house, and then while that’s gone, they go outside, they go in a different room, and then we can go in and clean that particular room, or if they are able to just stay outside the house while we do the entire cleaning. That’s preferable and we have a lot of clients that are that are totally okay with that.

Brett Bittner

So you guys are in the fortunate situation of just having to change a little bit in the way that you operate normally, the protective gear and maybe asking clients that may be home when they wouldn’t normally be just to kind of isolate one room while you’re cleaning. So you haven’t had to do a whole lot to change your business model so at least that’s good. So how is it that people can get in touch with you guys when they find that they are ready for residential vacation, commercial cleaning, this is your opportunity to share where they can you know where you can plug whether it’s a phone number website, social media handles in the light

Donnie Minchillo

bar, the easiest way would be our website. So joy of cleaning FL com that we have all the information about our business to services or employees. And if they would like to get a quote, there is a big bright pink button right on the homepage. So you can just click there and putting all the information about your property, your office or your your your residence, and then we’ll be able to provide you with a quote and also social media. Jackie is the one that does all of it.

Jackie Minchillo

Yeah, we’re joy of cleaning on Facebook, the hot pink logo and joy of cleaning with underscores in between each word on Instagram

or you can give us a call

Donnie Minchillo

us 72768727 100 am reposting a lot of information about are all the things that we’ve been doing on our social media. So make sure to follow.

Jackie Minchillo

Yeah, we are also we’re doing a lot of things like trying to share daily tips for disinfection and annotation. So obviously we have some people that are saying, you know, we’re just keeping to ourselves and our family right now. And in that way, we’re just trying to provide information. Obviously, cleaning and sanitation is a factor in disease prevention. So we want to make sure that we’re also being a helpful resource for people right now. And we did add a disinfection service. So we’ve we we did a lot of research right away in terms of CDC guidelines for cleaning solutions that are approved to kill the corona virus and similar virus influenza viruses. So we’ve got those products on hand and we are able to add an add on disinfectant service. If they want to do things like door handles faucet handles remote controls, all of the sort of most highly trafficked highly touched surfaces in your house or office.

Donnie Minchillo

And one last thing that I wanted to mention that I didn’t mention earlier was that we do cover the entire point Pinellas County, so anywhere from South St. Pete all the way Palm Harbor.

Brett Bittner

Perfect. Thank you guys so much. And glad to see that you guys are staying open for business. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, appreciate it. Here’s the conversation I had with James Coleman from Baber brewing, a brewery that opened right before the safer at home orders were issued. Today I’m joined by James Coleman of Bay borough brewing. Want to let you guys know that they’re awesome brewery here in town. And they are open for business. James, thanks for joining me today.

James Coleman

Thanks for having me, Brett. Appreciate it. And so interesting times,

Brett Bittner

indeed. Well, when times are not so interesting. What’s it like for you with Baber brewing? What is your normal non pandemic business like serving the community?

James Coleman

Yeah So unfortunately we decided we were going to open the day that the safer at home water was released. So we really haven’t had a a normal functioning day with consumers. So basically we just been broke putting a little brew on hold back and things up a little bit and kind of readjusting to Growler in take out as well. Okay right now so I guess that would be our norm for now.

Brett Bittner

So you got your part of the takeout delivery and that’s pretty much anything we can do right now.

James Coleman

Yeah, take out sorry and not delivery yet. We’re still not with the state the state Congress. But yeah, we’re doing we’re doing to go we’re doing a buy one get one half off on the weekends. So trying to help out a little bit trying to move some product and you know, keep keep are my biggest concern is obviously keep in mind my few employees I have here employed through through this

Brett Bittner

Absolutely, that’s a time or tough time for a lot of business owners as they try to make sure that they’re able to keep their team, their team.

James Coleman

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Brett Bittner

So is there

anything away from the normal business plan that you had, that you’ve done to adapt to what we’re currently seeing in our current state of business with the ever changing rules here in the state and county for Bay borough?

James Coleman

Yeah, I mean, obviously, we’re, we’re just heavily focused on you know, the CDC requirements on on the six foot rule and so forth, ensuring that we have our own personal sanitation regulations whether that’s gloves, mass, I would never ask somebody to come into the brewery if they were if they felt uncomfortable. So we also have you know, handheld tablets and things that we can approach a car with keeping social distancing obviously is important there take in order process in order to convenience of someone’s vehicle. So that’s kind of new to us. You know, as we’re learning the business, we’re also kind of adapting in that in that fashion. So

Brett Bittner

So you guys have kind of introduced a an unexpected curbside?

James Coleman

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I never I never knew I’d be taking delivery orders from the vehicle. So

Brett Bittner

no kidding. Yeah, I think that the times that we’re in, we certainly see a lot of people adapting. And I like to see that we’re able to utilize some of the go options. And I say, alcohol these days.

James Coleman

Absolutely. Sorry. I didn’t mean to talk over. Yeah. And you know, Billy, I think even ourselves or personal goals will be to kind of up our sanitation afterwards. I believe that the health department will probably come out with some sort of stipulation, but we’ll probably build or set up a sanitation station for people well after the virus because, you know, we’re gonna get ready to hit hurricane season. And then you know act is, you know, flu season again so this isn’t going away so it’s important for us to begin you know doing our own stuff kind of sanitation policies and requirements in house for sure.

Brett Bittner

Awesome, James. I know that as a new brewery here in town, you’ve got you got a lot to try to drive in getting your name ID out there getting your brand. Let people know how they can get in touch with you websites, social media handles and the like and how they can patron vapor brewing.

James Coleman

Yeah, I mean, obviously being new you know, brand recognition is important. We’re always trying to stay upbeat and up and fresh on our Facebook page neighbor growing as well as neighbor brewing.com is where we’re putting rolling out a lot of new content. Obviously being new, we’re still updating even the brick and mortar as well as our you know, staying fresh on the website, I G and so forth, but you know, Mainly I would say Facebook right now is where we’re trying to keep our paper of family. We’re calling it up to date on on the newest and latest of what we’re releasing.

Brett Bittner

Awesome. James, I want to thank you so much for talking with me today. And I look forward to stopping in as soon as I can.

James Coleman

Yeah, Brad, I appreciate it. Come come in and see us. We’d love to have you.

Brett Bittner

Sounds good. All right, sir.

Now you’ll hear my conversation with ace high printings, Rick Herbert. So joining me on St. Pete open for business today is Rick harbor of ACI printing. How’s it going, man? Oh, very well, sir. So tell everybody what ace high protein is all about? What is it that you guys do when we’re not in the middle of a global pandemic?

Rick Herbert

The same thing we’re doing now actually, we print we know we have stickers, banners, t shirts and apparel, business cards, postcards, labels, you name it, we print it. If I don’t print it myself, I can find it. I mean, I’ve been here for 16 years since 2002.

Brett Bittner

Apart down Are you in

Rick Herbert

a close to downtown? We are just a little north of downtown like the 13th Avenue on 16th Street area. Awesome. Yeah.

Brett Bittner

So what is it that you’re doing special now to make sure that people know that you’re open? And how is it that you’re serving the community is we kind of face

Rick Herbert

quite the crisis here. It’s something isn’t it?

You know what we’re doing now, we’ve kind of shifted our business model into helping the locals normally print nationally. You know, we print international ship anything anywhere to you. Right now our business is just to keep other businesses open. That’s really what we’re all about. Do we always print stickers and banners and stuff like that? Of course we do. But it’s more important now. You know, we’re members of local business Coalition’s like keep saying the logo, local shops, one, we do a bunch of nonprofit work, we’re gonna do some brain work for the city, you know, for the city of St. Louis for the police department, things like that. But what we’ve shifted into doing is a whole lot of to go package container label blush tea and coffee and the curious cat bakery and room 901. People like that they’re trying to stay open and get their products out there, whether it’s through delivery or shipping or whatever. We’ve been doing a whole lot of, we’re still open or to go pick up curbside banners and stuff like that.

Brett Bittner

I’ve probably seen tons of those banners.

Rick Herbert

Oh, man, they are everywhere. So as far as you know what we do, it’s still the same things we’re doing. But we’ve also switched gears and we’re basically putting everything in a rush without a rush fee. We’re trying to get things to you as quickly as possible. You know, like I said, we’ve been here 16 years, I went through the 2008 crash, you know, and it was all these local businesses that kept us sustained. Well, now it’s kind of my turn to pay it back a little bit and make sure everybody else stays open through this time. So, you know, in addition to rushing things, we’re also giving out crazy stupid discounts. Like I’m cutting things almost down to cost, just to try to keep everybody afloat.

Brett Bittner

Got it? Well, I certainly going to be helping local business community and earning users Some goodwill with your your local business friends. So that’s, that’s fantastic. Now where is it that people can find out about a site printing, online phone number, specials, all that stuff.

Rick Herbert

We’re on all the socials at a Thai printing website is Bayside printing calm, perfect phone number is 727-542-3897. And as far as the specials, just shoot me an email, get on the website, go to the contact, go to the socials and tell me what you need. I’m willing to work with anybody about anything and everything’s case by case I get that because not everybody needs the same thing. So if you need it, let me know I’m here. I’m open. I’m ready.

Brett Bittner

Awesome. Rick, I want to thank you so much for serving the local business community here. And I’m sure that all of that goodwill that you’re creating now will come back in spades when things bounce back.

Rick Herbert

Sounds like a plan to me.

Brett Bittner

Next up is my conversation with Doug Dozark from cycle brewing. So I’m joined today by Doug does From cycle brewing, Doug, thanks for joining me today.

Doug Dozark

Thanks for having me.

Brett Bittner

Oh, Doug, tell us a little bit about what cycle brewing does on a normal everyday, pre pandemic kind of a day.

Doug Dozark

I well, pre pandemic, it’s a small taproom with, you know, seating where bar, we have outside seating so you can enjoy the sidewalk and besides Central Avenue and for brewing operations, we brew pretty regularly we’re processing beer, we’re, you know, busy keeping the taps flowing.

Brett Bittner

How many beers do you have on tap at one time? Normally?

Doug Dozark

We have anywhere from at least 12 I think we actually have about 20 for the day we have to close.

Brett Bittner

Sure. So with all of the things that you do normally with the taproom a lot of it is centered around the community and in person consumption. What were some of the creative things you had to undertake as a We face the pandemic and some of the safer at home orders and stay at home orders.

Doug Dozark

Well, the the biggest challenge was the uncertainty. So we were trying to stay on pace with the changes. So it was initially it was okay, we need to keep more distance have fewer people limit capacity than that I think lasted for about four hours and then it was okay now you can’t be open at all. And then there was some rules regarding essential business and alcohol and all bars were supposed to close. But that did that apply to breweries? We didn’t know the mayor’s office couldn’t give us an answer. So it was just for two weeks. It was constant, calling, checking, adapting. And finally we got to the point where as it was this what we’re doing, we don’t feel like we’re creating a risk so we were no longer allowing people in the tap room you couldn’t consume on premise that ended pretty early. But then to go sales limiting hours so we were open later and now we’ve cut back the hours even farther because I guess with everything being closed downtown after dark is not as pleasant as it used to be. Okay, so we’ve we’ve had to continue to adapt but now we were to the point where if they come and tell us to close, we’ll close. But that’s the last step is to do no business.

Brett Bittner

Sure, sure. So you guys are doing takeout. Are you offering delivery through anything, any of the services

Doug Dozark

or through yours how we we have not done delivery yet we are in the process of getting signed up with Uber Eats, which is something we were probably going to put into place back in January. But with everybody going into that, that process is very slow. We’re signed up licenses approved, that could happen anytime. But now we’ve been just doing pickups we do. We have our website, which we used to do beer sales with a shipping company which was a courier service, little Legal loopholes that’s changed a little bit but we put the website back up we started selling beer online so people can order online and then just come pick up shorter interaction time less standing around so we don’t have we try not to have people hanging out on the sidewalk, which there’s sort of allowed to do but it doesn’t look good. And it’s certainly not as safe as it could be. So we’re doing everything we can to speed up processes and make it easy for people to get there and get back home.

Brett Bittner

Well, speaking of making it easy to get beer How is the easiest way for people to pick up some of the brews that you guys are putting out upcycle brewing.

Doug Dozark

ordering online and picking up is pretty darn easy. You can you can if you’re just out and you think of it we are still able to take orders at the tap room. We have a space that is set up where there’s a very wide table between the customer and our staff so you six feet is very easy to maintain. Our staff is doing everything Any packages they’re handing over, we actually use ice propyl alcohol in the brewery for sanitizing regularly anyway, so we’re spreading down package wiping things down before we hand them off. We’re doing I think, everything we can do everything that’s reasonable to ensure people’s safety. I’m sure people are taking it home and washing it themselves anyway, which, please, you know, take all the steps.

Brett Bittner

Yeah, for sure. Well, Doug, where can people find out more about you online websites, social media, the news that you guys are putting out about any changes that you might have and things you might find out from the city or the county.

Doug Dozark

We are posting on Instagram and Facebook. Instagram probably has the largest following so any updates any releases? Since we didn’t have normally this time of year, we would have a lot of barrel aged beer on draft so that people could come and try them. Obviously, we can’t sell it to class right now. So we’ve been hand bottling some of those limited beers. Those are putting those up on the website on usually on Friday for Saturday pickup brings in more people which has some concerns but we’ve kept it limited they have a whole day to pick up and we haven’t had issues with crowding or anything like that and the only way to get it is online so people are staying home ordering this nobody lining up to we’re keeping that very very remote and removed I guess you could say but yeah so the Instagram Facebook our website will be updated but the website is mostly just for ordering we’re not putting a blog post there anything so if you’re looking to order cycle brewing calm or shop dot cycle brewing calm will take you directly to the store. guys to go we have growlers on there. We have the bottles we have all the other bottles, the normal bottle release bottles that we have all available, including some some limited stuff.

Brett Bittner

What are some of the limited things that you have? For this weekend upcoming that’ll be on the website tomorrow.

Doug Dozark

Yeah, we have. So we did a festival beer. So we have a festival in March for barrel aged De Beers. We just call it festival only or fo. That one we always have draft and we look forward to sharing the draft with the local community after the event. Now we have it in these little bottles so there’s new, smaller bottles, that beer will go up this weekend. Some more of one of the days of the week set that is sold out Wednesday was very popular. That’s vanilla coca damia. We want to add some more cakes of that. That will go up this weekend and then a couple more of the did a collab with angry chair over in Tampa for the confection affection event. A couple of those beers we have very limited quantities of a couple leftovers from that will go up as well.

Brett Bittner

Awesome, Doug, I really appreciate you taking the time with me and letting st Pete know that you are open for business.

Doug Dozark

We are and I appreciate Everybody who’s been coming out so far, it’s, it’s been enough. It’s been good. Great. Thank you so much.

Brett Bittner

Thank you. And here’s Trent Smith, a realtor at exp realty who regular Hustleburg. listeners will recall from Episode Number 11. Hey, I’m joined by Trent Smith. For those of you who have listened to the hustler podcast, you’ll actually remember him from Episode Number 11. He had a lot of really valuable information when he talked about his entrepreneurial journey. And I knew that he would be one of the best people to talk about the creative things that he’s doing to adapt, Trent. Thanks for coming on, man.

Trent Smith

Hey, Brad, thanks for having me. I’m ready for this. It’s gonna be a fun one.

Brett Bittner

Awesome. Well, I know that you’re a realtor, but not everybody else does tell everybody kind of what your normal business is like.

Trent Smith

Well, my normal business is about prospecting and setting appointments, trying to find people who want to buy and sell a house or if they know anybody. buy and sell a house. But of course with the whole Coronavirus thing. The my normal methods of prospecting are a little rattled. So I had to start getting creative with it a little bit.

Brett Bittner

So normally you’re doing a lot of that stuff face to face, right?

Trent Smith

Yeah, so a lot of is face to face going out meeting people. One of the reasons I got into this business is because I like just talking to people. And I’m really good at striking up conversations with strangers, as well as knocking on doors and just going into neighborhoods and seeing if anybody wants to sell their house. So obviously, I can’t do that right now. So I have to do other things.

Brett Bittner

What are some of the creative things that you’ve done to adapt the way you’re doing business here in St. Louis?

Trent Smith

Well, first of all, the first thing I did after everything started shutting down was I just started calling everybody I know friends, relatives, people who live out of state, people who I met last week, reaching out to them just you know, telling them That I’m here for them anything they need, any way I could help them. I don’t even talk about real estate. The purpose of this call is just to keep that relationship established, letting them know I’m thinking about them. And fortunately, a lot of the people I talk to that I know, are they still have jobs and are still in good situations. Some people, unfortunately, are not able to work right now. So I see if they need anything, you know, if I could do anything for them.

Brett Bittner

So you’re working on building those long term relationships, anything specifically that you’re doing, and it’s exceptionally creative right now?

Trent Smith

The second thing I’m doing is doing my normal for sale by owner calls where people list their house for sale like they own the house and then they want to sell it themselves. And so I reach out to them, and I see if they need any help with anything and to let them know that I would like to help them them out and get their house sold faster for them. Okay,

Brett Bittner

and so a lot of this you’re having to do virtually or over the phone, anything that you are particularly proud of that you’ve done to help generate some leads.

Trent Smith

I’ve just been doing a lot of the same old but one of the things I wanted to share with people that I have been doing that I am kind of proud of was when everything started shutting down. Obviously a lot of us have a lot more time. So what I started doing was going through my house and taking everything that I possibly can and selling it through Facebook marketplace mostly. So like shelves old, like musical equipment that I’m not playing with anymore, and anything I can get that’s worth anything $5 $10 or even like I sold my kayak for $350. But what I’m doing with this process is the people that I talk to that come over and buy the things that I’m selling, you know, I think give them my business card. I asked them if they know anybody looking to buy or sell. And also in this process, you get a lot of messages people just asking if this is for sale and whatnot. So I would have like 4050 people that asked if they could, you know, the item is for sale. And then after I sell it, I go back to them like Sorry, I didn’t get this, but I’m also a realtor. Do you know anybody looking to buy or sell right now?

Brett Bittner

So it looks like you’ve done some creative lead generation then through the sales of stuff that you have just kind of lying around.

Trent Smith

Yeah, and actually, this did work. One time, I had a couple of VCRs that I sold for, like 10 bucks apiece, and this guy came to buy a VCR from me. And I was like, by the way, Here’s my card. Do you know anybody selling a house or buying a house? And then he said, I really, I have a rental property that I want to sell. So I ended up selling him the $10 VCR and then I sold his house It was a low end it was a lower price. We’re in a property. So I made an extra thousand bucks, which I know I’m sure a lot of people would like an extra thousand bucks, but he’s also got his primary residence that he’s going to be selling soon too. So just for selling a $10 VCR he came over I gave him my card and I might get two deals out of it.

Brett Bittner

That’s awesome. Well let the folks that are watching know how they can get in touch with you where they can find you online.

Trent Smith

I yeah, you can search you can google Trent a Smith or you can find me on Facebook Trent a Smith realtor. Or you can just add me as a friend on Facebook, Trey Smith, I’m also on Instagram. Or if you want to just give me a call 727273418 anytime I’d love to help anybody out.

Brett Bittner

Awesome. Well, thanks so much for talking with me today. And I know like I said, I knew you were going to be somebody who had something creative in the way you’ve been adapting.

Trent Smith

Yeah, this is the time to be creative. And also I’d like to add anybody who is in kind of kind of a Self Employed type industry videos is really the way to go. One thing I do is I try to post at least one video every day. And what I do is I’ll post on Instagram and Facebook. And I really just try to keep it under a minute. So like 59 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, because I don’t think people really want to sit there for that long and listen to me. But one of the things this does is it makes it makes you like it makes you front of mind with people. They’ll scroll through Instagram or Facebook and they’ll see your video they might not watch it, but they will see you doing videos and that gives you a little credibility, because you’re doing something that 90% especially in my industry, only 10% of realtors do videos. So they’ll at least see the video and then I’ll be front of mind on even better if they watch it. They might like it so

Brett Bittner

awesome. Well thanks again for and I appreciate you hanging out with me today and telling folks that you are open for business.

Trent Smith

I’m open for business In the real estate industry prices have gone down a little bit in some areas. Of course there are a lot of people who are holding off to this whole Coronavirus thing and, but there are still plenty of business out there for me. And I even have a couple deals in the works so I’m doing it.

Brett Bittner

Awesome, man. Thanks again.

Trent Smith

You’re welcome. See you later.

Create a Facebook Group When You Have a Facebook Page?

Adapted from Hustleburg Episode 12.

What Are the Benefits of Creating a Facebook Group in Addition to Your Business Page?

When it comes to Facebook, you have a lot of options when it comes to creating a community around your business and communicating about your brand. Obviously, with the noted distinction between a personal profile and a business page, you should have a Facebook page for your business in 2020. We know that the page is a communication tool to share with those outside the community you’ve already built. It’s essentially a digital storefront on the largest social media platform. It has the basic information about your businesses, about your hours, your location, any special deals you might have. It rivals your website in terms of importance, and it ranks higher in the search results than many business websites.

Your Facebook Page is a great tool for people that are looking for you already. It’s the social media version of your website that allows you to have a touch of your personality on display. We’ve previously shared the strategy about utilizing your page to share the five focus items:

The main thrust of your business or brand
One thing related to the main thrust
Another thing related to the main thrust
Something personal that shows your brand has a personality (not necessarily business-related)
Another something personal that shows your brand isn’t an emotionless robot (again, not necessarily business-related)

Sounds Great! Why a Facebook Group Then?

Facebook groups present you with a unique way to build deeper relationships with your community. These are the true fans you’ve created around your business, not just passersby. Your group is where you’re going to engage in in-depth discussions, generate and foster engagement with the people that are already associated with you, and build the relationships necessary to have evangelists of your brand or your business. While publicly visible, your page is only an opportunity to build many shallow connections, like the depth of a bathtub, but a group gives you the ability to build ocean-deep connections with people who are committed to you and your business. The people that you engage with in these groups are your raving fans, or they’re going to become your raving fans.

Additionally, groups offer a place for you to really let your personality shine online. In addition to the five focus topics outlined above, you can share more of your personality here, as you’re building relationships, not seeking transactions. You will be able to get to know your customers and you can truly connect with them in the environment of a group. In a group, the interaction of real conversation goes deeper just a post on your page and maybe a comment here and there. These relationships turn into a tribe of people who will evangelize for you online as well as in the real world. They are your best marketers, and their efforts are going to be way better than yours, because they are a real-world example of how your business solved their problem and can solve others’ problems. They will enthusiastically recommend you to others and devote themselves to you and your brand, because you have made these ocean-deep connections. It doesn’t take very many of these connections to earn these fantastic marketers and their valuable word of mouth buzz for your business.

Hustleburg Episode 16 – Answering Your Instagram Questions 1st of 2

In this Q&A episode of the Hustleburg podcast, Brett answers listener questions about Instagram in the first of two parts. This is the third episode of a platform-specific series on the Q&A episodes about the varying social media platforms. Episode 12 and Episode 14 made up a two-part series on Facebook, and in two weeks, Episode 18 will answer more of your questions about Instagram.

What are some tips for showcasing my business right now on Instagram?

The most important thing to remember about Instagram is that it’s an amazing opportunity to share with your audience stories that are interesting about what you do through a visual medium. When it comes to how you should be using Instagram for your brand, sharing photos and videos of how something in your business works, people, and other things that make up your brand should be the focus. While Instagram offers multitudes of filters for your images and videos, you shouldn’t over-process or overuse these filters. I certainly suggest you use the most important hashtags to your content and your brand to help others find your content that they may appreciate, your commentary on posts shouldn’t just be hashtag this, hashtag that. A more important use for hashtags on Instagram is for YOU to find content and accounts relevant to you and your business. Like many posts that show up in your feed.

Is Instagram a lower priority than Facebook? I am a photographer, so should I start with Facebook or Instagram?

As with many of my responses to questions posed here in the Q&A episodes, it depends. In 2020, the most important platform for you to have a presence is Facebook. As a photographer, I think that you should prioritize creating for a platform that best showcases what you do and the stories you tell with your business. Obviously, Instagram is a better place to create and share visual content like your photos. You offer something that is uniquely suited to an almost solely visual medium. Utilize that advantage to tell stories about what you do. Focus on telling the stories of the people you work with, and avoid being one-dimensional with your content.

What sort of content best highlights a business on Instagram?

The same kind of engaging content that adds value to others on all social media platforms. Your Instagram game needs to be a mix of your 5 main topics… The ones we’ve discussed before when developing your content strategy. The content you should share to highlight your brand, regardless of the main feed or Instagram stories, are the visually interesting things about it.

Believe it or not, something that seems so mundane to you that you use every day will be found fascinating by someone else. The people you encounter at work, whether your team or your customers, are pretty fascinating themselves. Share successes. It isn’t about broadcasting what you want out there to your followers. Engage with their posts more than you post yourself.

Start Marketing Your Business Online With These Three Easy Steps

If you’re just getting started marketing your business online, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers a FREE Getting Started Guide.

Find out more about Beyond Your Side Hustle here:

Website
Hustleburg Listener Community
Facebook
Instagram
Brett’s LinkedIn

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

Hustleburg Episode 15.5 – Bonus Episode, Audio from St. Pete OPEN for Business Chats

In this bonus episode of the Hustleburg podcast, we compiled the audio from 5 Zoom video chats with small businesses here in Saint Petersburg about their creative ways to stay OPEN for business.

You can see these video chats on YouTube.

Mark James from Bear Creek Custom Timber

Bear Creek Custom Timber 6511 3rd Ave South, Saint Petersburg, FL 33707
OPEN 9-5 Monday thru Sunday – Delivery Only

You can also find his store online, on Facebook, and on Instagram.

Practically Pikasso’s Lynn Webb

Practically Pikasso 1912 4th St. N, Saint Petersburg, FL 33704
M-W 10-4; R-F 11-6 – Delivery Only

You can order your pottery to go from Practically Pikasso online, connect on Facebook, and engage on Instagram.

Anthony Carrera from Detail Specialist, LLC

The Detail Specialist, LLC 8596 Seminole Blvd. Seminole, FL 33772
9AM-5PM M-F – Essential/Business as Usual

You can schedule your appointment by phone (direct to Anthony’s cell phone for right now), find out more about their work online, connect on Facebook, check out their work on Instagram.

The Pesky Pelican Brewpub’s Dan Pemberton

Pesky Pelican Brew Pub 923 72nd St N, Saint Petersburg, FL 33710
S-R 11AM-9PM & Fri-Sat 11AM-10:30PM – Take-Out & Delivery Only
**Also operating essential marketplace to sell meats & supplies that are hard to come by**

You can find their menu on their website
Order delivery on Uber Eats (currently no delivery fee)
Call
Connect on Facebook
Engage on Instagram

Burg Fitness and Cycling Studios

Burg Fitness & Personal Training 227 14th Street North, Saint Petersburg, FL 33705
By Appointment – We’ve Moved All Online

You can find out more at her website, Call Vicky directly, connect on Facebook, check out their workouts on Instagram, or keep up with Vicky on Twitter.

Start Marketing Your Business Online With These Three Easy Steps

If you’re just getting started marketing your business online, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers a FREE Getting Started Guide.

Find out more about Beyond Your Side Hustle here:

Website
Hustleburg Listener Community
Facebook
Instagram
Brett’s LinkedIn

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

Transcription by Otter AI:

Brett Bittner

Hi Hustleburg listeners! As you’ve likely heard in response the state and county voters here in St. Pete, businesses are having to be quite creative to remain open, to help those that have adapted and working to let our community know who is open for business with a listing of businesses who are open at St. Pete open for business calm. As a part of that effort. Every weekday, I’m hosting a brief video call with the businesses adapting how they do things to meet the ever changing rules and Ciao of staying open in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. For Hustleburg listeners, I’ll package the audio and a compilation of those conversations with some pretty creative local business people in a bonus episode like this. And if you’re a small business here in St. Pete or anywhere in Pinellas County, and you want the community to know that you’re open for business, visit St. Pete open for business comm slash open, and I’ll get you on listing as soon as possible. And if you’ve done something particularly creative to adapt, I want to share your creativity. Send me an email at Brett at St. Pete open for business com. Thanks.

To kick things off on this bonus episode of Hustleburg. We’re going to hear from Mark James of Bear Creek custom timber. I’d like to thank Mark James from Bear Creek custom timber for joining me today for St. Pete open for business. Mark, thanks so much for being here.

Mark James

Thank you, Brett. I really appreciate it.

Brett Bittner

Oh, absolutely. Tell the people of St. Pete what it is that Bear Creek custom timber does and how it is that you serve the community.

Mark James

Well, I’m a, I’ll say a logger/sawyer/woodshop. By that, I mean, I’m not an arborist I don’t go down and cut down trees for people and, and dispose of them. But what I do do is take down trees solely for the purpose of using them to recreate them into something else, furniture, that type of thing. So I’ll take some really high end trees and and I’ll slap them from the logs into slab so I’ve turned them into usable lumber. And I do a lot of work with live edge furniture, live edges with the the bark in the edges still on the sides of the slab to try and give it an organic look rather than dimensioned wonder which is square and that type of thing. I also build musical instruments as well. I’ve done five string banjos and I build acoustic guitars.

Brett Bittner

Wow. So I imagine that you get quite quite the variety of projects that are there. What are some of your favorites that you’ve made?

Mark James

Why I like making tables? That’s kind of my big thing because no table is ever the same. And they’ve recently there’s this advent of what they call river tables, which is, are they utilizing epoxy, and they pour colored epoxy into the table to try and give it a different look. I’m not a huge, huge fan of it, but it’s very popular with my customers. And so I do do it, it’s, it’s fun, you never really know what you’re gonna end up with. And that’s the same with cutting open along. You never know. It’s like opening Pandora’s box. Once you cut it open and lay it open. You don’t know what’s going to be inside and you see some amazing things. And we have some amazing trees growing in depth area.

Brett Bittner

That’s awesome, Mark. Now we’ve seen with the recent changes for a lot of businesses, they’re going takeout and delivery only if they’re a restaurant. What are some of the creative ways that you’re keeping the doors open?

Mark James

Well, it was a bit of a hurdle and kind of confusing because we were getting mixed messages from Both from the state and from the county. Right, we can do what we can’t do. And the county put forth some more stringent, I would say more stringent rules. So you know, I’m a single guy shop, it’s just me in here. And that’s it. I do it all. More. Typically, my business comes, I would say 90% of my income comes from Saturday morning markets in the market, evening brewery markets that you would have during the week and that kind of thing. Of course, I haven’t done any of those in over a month now. It was, I mean, obviously offered shipping, but a lot of the stuff that I create doesn’t necessarily lend itself to ship just by the terms of it. So I just kind of said, Look, I don’t care what you buy, and I don’t care how big or how small, how expensive or how cheap it is. I’ll deliver it to you for free. I don’t care where you live. I mean, if you’re in Sarasota, or if you’re in you know Hudson, I’ll drive up there and bring it to you. That’s the only way that I can offer anything. Okay, they were fine. There were times when I would

say, you know, there’s a minimum dollar figure on it, you know, in order to make it. Wow. But not anymore does matter if you need it, I’ll bring it to you. If it’s small enough, I’ll ship it. But, you know, they, some people will say, well, we’ll come to your shop and obviously I can’t do that. So, in fact, I, about a week ago, I delivered a table to the lady OCP beach and it was very simple. I mean, social distancing. I knocked on her door, I set the table by the door, you know, I stood back six feet, she came out, looked at it loved it, you know.

Brett Bittner

Awesome. Mark, how is it that now that you don’t have the fairs and markets? How is it that people are able to get in touch with you? Where can they find you on the web, social media and the like?

Mark James

I have a website, Bear Creek, custom timber calm, and all the information is on there, including, I don’t typically put items up there for sale. But since the advent of the COVID-19 all of the items that I have available that I make in advance are up there with the listing of the prices. And that we can work out, you know, delivery and shipping. I’m also on Instagram at Bear Creek custom timber. And on Facebook, I have a very active Facebook page is probably more active than any of them. And that’s Bear Creek custom timber LLC. So it’s Facebook, slash Bear Creek custom timber LLC.

Brett Bittner

And we’ll make sure that all of those are linked in the video description. Mark, I want to thank you very much. Are there any of those things that you currently have their pre made ready to go right out the door that aren’t custom, but are on the website that you’d like to give a shout out to?

Mark James

I mean, there’s a lot of different things that I’m the odd part about what I do is making it on spec is very difficult, you know, right. Where am I going to store an eight foot dining room table, you know, I’m sure somebody will buy it. But I mean, I haven’t table that’s under construction right now that I’m working on a small one. I have a guitar action on the other side of me that’s in the midst of being built. So those things will be, you know, available pretty quickly. And like I said, if you go to my Facebook page, you kind of follow along and I post a lot of stuff of where I’m at in the process of constructing and people can see what’s there.

Brett Bittner

Awesome, Mark, I want to thank you very much for sharing people, sharing with people how it is that you are open for business here in St. Louis.

Mark James

Thank you for everything you’re doing, Brett, we appreciate it.

Brett Bittner

And now we hear from practically Picasso’s Lynn Webb.

So I’m here today talking with St. Pete, business owner, Lynn Webb of Practically Pikasso. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. They’ve been open for business. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Awesome. Lynn will tell the folks who are watching what it is that you do serving the community here in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Lynn Webb

I will. Practically Pikasso has been a part of St. Petersburg for 20 years. November we celebrated our 20th anniversary. We are a Patreon pottery studio. We do art camps and classes and workshops and birthday parties. And people can walk in and paint and create with us. Well normally, people can walk in and paint and create with us and create memories and just have a great time with their family.

Brett Bittner

So that sounds like a great in person experience we’re seeing as a result of COVID-19 Coronavirus. Stay at home orders safer at home orders from the county and state that’s kind of made you have to be a little more creative. What are some of the things that you’re doing to make sure that you’re able to stay open as best you can to let people in St. Petersburg know that you are open for business.

Lynn Webb

It has had quite a huge impact on us for sure. We’ve had to kind of pivot and we’ve created an online store so that people can kind of shop the pottery options that we have available. We’ve offered curbside pickup, so we can you can pull up pop up in your trunk, we can put it in touch lists, and you can take that Pieces home with you to paint and create with your family. You can also up for delivery, we’ll deliver it to your doorstep. So you don’t even have to see any of our beautiful faces. And I say our because I’m so used to having my amazing team with me and I miss having them around. Definitely our family here, but it’s kind of down to me just to kind of keep that safer at home restrictions. I do have my team staying at home. So it’s kind of a one man show right now, but we’ll deliver that stuff to your doorstep or you can come pick up curbside. We have two restaurants in the plaza so you can support them and pick up your your dinner and pick up some painting and have a nice family experience.

Brett Bittner

It sounds like a nice family dinner date.

Lynn Webb
Yes, absolutely.

Brett Bittner
Awesome. Now are you guys doing anything live streaming wise to help guide some of the painting and the pottery?

Lynn Webb

Yeah, we’re doing free workshops, free classes on our Facebook Live where people can join in and we’ve done a lot of clay workshops where people can learn how to handle things with clay, we have some wet clay that you can Pick up to go and build at home. But if you don’t have what clay, we talked to you about how you can do it with salt dough, or Plato or anything that you have at home so that you can learn how to do those things. We’re also doing some workshops where they include step by step instructions, and I show kind of on our Facebook Lives, how you can do those. And then you can pick up those workshops and do those at home as well.

Brett Bittner

Often when that’s fantastic. Let’s let the people of St. Petersburg know where they can participate, how they can go ahead and order online and where they can connect with you on social media.

Lynn Webb

Absolutely, it’s practically picasso.com it’s Picasso with a K, not actually Picasso, we’re just practically You don’t have to be a perfect artist to participate. And facebook.com slash practically Picasso and we’re also on Instagram as well.

Brett Bittner

Awesome. Lynn, thank you so very much.

Lynn Webb

Thank you Have a great day.

Brett Bittner

Here’s my conversation with detail specialist LLCs Anthony Carrera.

So I’m joined today by Anthony Carrera, of the Detail Specialist LLC in Seminole. Anthony is joining us to share with us how he serves his community here in the St. Pete area. Anthony, thank you for coming on and talking with me today.

Anthony Carrera

Thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely thank you for having me. On a premiere on YouTube detail studio here in Seminole called the detail specialist league global consultant for a company called car candy I do sell and resell their products out of my storefront attached to my shop. With all this you know COVID-19 taken place businesses definitely slowed down I’d be lying if I said it didn’t, as it’s not only slowed down for me it’s slow down for multiple small businesses across the spectrum. Um, we have limited to doing prior to any interior cleaning, we do ozone treatment, the interior, I can’t guarantee ozone kills 100% bacteria but it does kill a lot of virus and bacteria that could be built up in your ducts or throughout your interior. I do our run on that more, if needed. Follow that we always wear rpp gloves, masks goggles, you know the whole nine. We are still offering full detailing services. There are a lot of companies out there right now broadcasting they’re killing this virus. It’s not true CDC releases. steam is only effective held in one spot for three to four minutes. Now, a steamer I use steam on all details as well, which does kill bacteria and viruses, but it’s not guaranteed because you don’t have time to hold it in a two inch square for three minutes over a whole vehicle. But we are taking you know, precautions as far as cleaning goes. We’re doing hot water extractions. Our hot water machine gets up to 230 degrees Fahrenheit. Bacteria is killed around 170 degrees. We’re still doing full fino full cleanings, interior exterior, what’s really been keeping us busy has been our paint correction and ceramic coatings. It’s one of our number one sellers. A little bit about myself. I have roughly 1212 or 13 certifications in this industry. So I’m not just out there to wash a car. I mean, I take this job. This is my livelihood. This is what raises my family. Um, you know, I take my job very seriously, I’m not here just to make a quick dollar and spray something in your car. I’m here to do the full job, you know, start to finish make sure I give you 110% I’ve been in Pinellas County since 2018. I’ve been in business. And I’m sorry 2017. I’ve been in business since 2017 here in Pinellas County as well. Started mobile. In 2017. April 15 of this year, we’ll make a year to date I’ve been in my shop. I’m located at 596 seminal Boulevard. I’m a one man show like I said we offer offer a spectrum from basic interiors to full in depth shampooing, steam cleanings, engine bays, paint correction ceramic coatings. We do we are minimizing right now the amount of people allowed in the shop No, CDC says 10 I’ve dropped it down to five, just just for precautions. I have my floors taped off six feet, you know, because I do have a lot of people stopping through. So a lot of water to a lot of detailers. Right now they’ve been paying me, you know, via cash app Venmo. PayPal just kind of eliminate some of that hand to hand. Absolutely what we’ve been doing.

Brett Bittner

Now, what are some of the creative things that you’ve had to do, aside from just protecting yourself and your customers, just to make sure that you’re able to keep the doors open and keep serving the community?

Anthony Carrera

Like I said, we’ve dropped down the amount of people that were allowed to have in the shop, I honestly have opened my shop to other detailers. I’m allowing one detailer today. I’m not cutthroat in this industry. I’m down to help everybody. So what I’ve done is I’ve offered a detailer to use my shop. Normally I would rent my shop for $100 a day for them to do coatings. During this time. I’m not trying to capitalize off other detailers. I have opened my shop to them as well to be able to use my shop one detail at a time. Car day they can do so they’re not bringing in three or four cars cutting other people out. I have a big shop have almost 3000 square foot. So there’s plenty of room for us to work safely apart from one another clients that I usually allow them to wait if they need to right now I’m not allowing any waiting. You drop off in the dropbox out front, or if I’m here, you can drop your keys with me and go but there’s no hanging out of that, you know, hand sanitizers, you know, wait, clients think it’s funny, I’ll I’ll use hand sanitizer offered to him, you know, as soon as they walk in. Sure, just keeping social distance. And you know, I’m not over promising something as far as killing bacteria that there’s really no cure for right now. So it’s there, they’re there. There’s companies out there that are saying they are not local, but just just across the industry in general, and they’re getting a lot of backlash right now. I’m not promising I can do something that’s not even known of how to be done.

Brett Bittner

Now I had the opportunity today to visit your Facebook page, it looks like you guys do quite a bit of a variety of work. I saw some high end sports cars, some very nice imports, luxury imports, and even some motorcycles. What are some of the coolest cars that you’ve had the opportunity to work on?

Anthony Carrera

Man, you know, going into this back in the day, you know, I was always excited to do these higher end cars, you know, but now I mean, to be honest, I treat them just like any other car because that’s all they are at the end of the day to me now. I mean, I’ve driven them McLaren’s. I’ve done, you know, I’ve had Ferraris in here. Bentley’s Mazda rotties Rolls Royce at the end of the day, and they pay the bills the same way that any other person does. So I don’t I don’t favoritism to anyone. motorcycles. I have a contract. Burke’s Barracuda on 49th. Okay, all I do all their motorcycle detailing as well. I probably average I don’t know. 100 to 125 bikes a month. Wow. motorcycle tech as well. So that kind of you know gives them a comfort you know, guys when guys and gals on motorcycles it’s hard to leave something with somebody you know but them knowing my background in the industry is even as far back as working on the bikes they know I’ll take care of what they have. I’m also specialized on older cars as well I have a 1954 Lead Sled that’s my personal car so a lot of the guys know me for having that so they’ll bring me old cars because they know that I have a care and passion for the older vehicles as well as I do newer vehicles or motorcycles

Brett Bittner

Awesome. Anthony This is the opportunity for you to share with how people can get in touch with you websites social media, how they can connect what is the best way for them to get in touch with you and some of the other ways that they can as well.

Anthony Carrera

Um You can find me on a Facebook the details specialist LLC, my shop number comes straight to my cell phone so I don’t miss any calls right now during this area code 727-350-3639 if I don’t answer leave me a message. I’ve never been in extremely busy right now as I’m a one man shop trying to keep people out, but also still bringing work in to make sure things stay afloat.

Brett Bittner

Awesome, and anywhere else they can find you besides Facebook,

Anthony Carrera

um, I have an Instagram. It’s the underscore detail underscore specialist. And then I also have a website detail specialists with an S on the end calm.

Brett Bittner

Alright. Anthony, It’s been a pleasure. I appreciate all the work that you’re doing to stay open to serve the community here in St. Pete.

Anthony Carrera

Absolutely, man, I thank you and stay safe.

Brett Bittner

Absolutely

I had the opportunity to chase down a very busy Dan Pemberton of the Pesky Pelican Brew Pub. So today we’re with Dan Pemberton of Pesky Pelican Brew Pub, which is actually really near to my house. It’s actually across the street from the neighborhood in which I live. Dan, thanks so much for joining me today.

Dan Pemberton

Hey, you’re welcome.

Brett Bittner

So Dan told everybody what it is that the pesky Pelican is if they haven’t been there, now. Everything Yesterday, so I know and I’ve been there several times before, so I normally do. But what is your regular everyday business? You advertises a brew pub, but there’s so much more.

Dan Pemberton

Right? Yeah. So we actually, were a brew pub. So we’re a restaurant and we actually make our own beer here. And typically, we have four or five of our own beers on tap. Currently, we have none of our beers on tap. But you know, that’s, that’s another story for another day, right? But um, yeah, the reason I even bought this restaurant so I could actually brew beer and sell it professionally.

Brett Bittner

So you guys classify as a nanobrewery that right?

Dan Pemberton

That is correct. Yep. We do 20 gallon batches at a time. So that is like, you know, that’s, it’s a little bit over homebrew is very much more than homebrew right now. But, but I do that just so we can keep everything fresh and we keep it. We can be spontaneous and what we’re trying to brew and put out to the public.

Brett Bittner

Now you guys are open For takeout and delivery, but you’ve done something that’s very unique that I don’t think many people know about, I actually was able to participate yesterday. Tell everybody here in St. Pete, what it is that you’re doing now, to help keep some of the foot traffic as well as serving the community.

Dan Pemberton

Yeah, so what happened does, somebody came to me one day and asked me if they could buy chicken breast because there was no chicken breast available to them. And I was confused at that because I my food vendors are telling me they have too much food down there. And they were trying to give me some special prices to buy stuff. And so when I started checking into this, I was like, well, this is crazy. They have food to people need food. They couldn’t sell apparently, to the to the big box stores because they don’t have business agreements with them. So I said, Well, here’s what I’ll do. I’ll buy the food and sell it to you. So we bought a bunch of the chicken and we bagged it up, and we started selling it and then we found out that there was not just chicken that was missing in the public, but ground beef some other essentials like bleach A few other eggs and butter and milk. And I was like, well, that’s crazy because I have access to all this and it’s not missing. It’s just apparently can’t get to where it needs to be. So what we did is we put up pull out on the I love St. Pete Facebook page to what people were really looking forward to purchase and we wanted to stocking those items in the pesky Pelican and we opened up our little Farmers Market inside of here. So what we’ve done is uh, provided fresh meat and vegetables and and, and dairy products, along with other dry goods that people are looking for flour and central items that they just couldn’t find on the market. You can get them right here at the pesky Pelican.

Brett Bittner

Yeah, I actually for those of you who may have seen my tik tok yesterday from outside the pesky Pelican, that was right before I went in, picked up some beer, some steak and some potatoes to support Dan and what he’s got going on as well as to stop by and say hello. So Dan, how is it that People can get in touch with you. How can they connect with the pesky publican? This is your opportunity to plug your website, your business, your phone number, whatever it is, however people can connect with you.

Dan Pemberton

Right? The best way right now is we’re trying to actually update our Facebook page, which is facebook.com. pesky pelicans. St. Pete. We are we are going posting every day what we have available. We also are posting in a couple of the other larger Facebook audience pages like I love st P. What we do have available every day, but we’re located at 923 72nd Street North in St. Petersburg, it’s ninth Avenue where it meets the Pinellas trail. So you can actually come down here on your bicycles, grab yourself some beer to go and some chicken and maybe a steak or two and, and pedal on back home so we can be reached if you need to reach us by phone 77 3029600 we also have Uber Eats delivery, if you want to get that delivered right now Uber is waiving all delivery fees. So you can grab some delivery as well, or just come on in and pick it up. If you decide to pick it up, you can get some beers to go, maybe sit out back while you’re waiting for your food to the to be made. And then take all your stuff and go home.

Brett Bittner

Awesome. Dan, I want to thank you for making the time. And I look forward to seeing the most creative things that you’re able to do to stay open here in St. Pete.

Dan Pemberton

Thanks a lot, Brett. We appreciate your time today.

Brett Bittner

And finally, in this audio recap of St. Pete open for business comm I have the opportunity to talk with Vicki LeMay of Berg fitness and cycling studios. So today we’re talking with Vicki LeMay from Berg, fitness and cycling. Vicki, thank you for coming to talk about how you are still open here in St. Pete.

Vicki LeMay

Thanks for having me. It’s awesome that you’re doing this. I appreciate you.

Brett Bittner

Oh, thank you so much. Vikki, what is it that Berg fitness in cycling does when we are in the middle of a pandemic.

Vicki LeMay

So normally, we are a group fitness and cycling gym and also personal training. So we have a variety of classes. It’s from every skill level. So we have, you know, extreme athletes in our gym, have beginners in our gym, our coaches adapts to everyone. We have hit classes, we have boot camps, of course, we have indoor cycling, we have kickboxing, pure strength classes, if people are more interested in just lift dates, we have a little bit of everything for everyone. All times of the day, we have from 6am to 6pm. So all over the place immune classes.

Brett Bittner

And now with the safer home orders that we’re seeing both from the county and the state, you’ve had to adapt your business a little bit, what are some of the creative things that you’re doing to make sure that you’re open for the community here in St. Pete?

Vicki LeMay

I’m glad you actually post the question that way. Because it is about community. And if you see anyone that talks about the gym, we pride ourselves and really having an awesome community. And we missed our members and they miss us and they miss each other. So we weren’t connecting them via like zoom. But so it’s beyond the workout. It’s super important to be active during this time. It’s very easy to sit on the couch. So what we’ve done is we’ve created weekly programs, and that’s actually posted on my Instagram today. So we schedule so Monday through Sunday, there’s something to do every single day. Sometimes it’s a live zoom, sometimes it’s an Instagram post with videos. I’m just like how to do a certain movement and you do it whenever you can. So that’s one way that we’ve adapted we put everything on Instagram and Facebook. Again, some of our videos Some are live so you can go back and do it on your own. And for personal training. Some people aren’t comfortable group and that’s completely fine. So we’ve we’ve been We’ve created a virtual training session. So it’s mission coaching, which is really important right now. So personal customized workouts, and that will zoom one on one, you know, I’ll demonstrate they’ll do they’ll do the weight. Some people have rented equipment for me because not sure if you know, but dumbbells are a rare commodity like toilet paper,

Brett Bittner

I’ve actually seen that they’re pretty, pretty hard to come by right now. And when you don’t have things like play it again, even open, and people aren’t wanting to meet with Facebook marketplace and the like, it’s pretty tough to find them. And that certainly isn’t something you want to have shipped.

Vicki LeMay

Right, right. Exactly. Yeah. So we’ve for the personal training clients, you know, we’ve also given them something to work with. So you know, bigger picture again, it’s you know, weekly workouts for people. We’ve some people are still members, right, which is true. And so I guess that’s it weekly workouts, Instagram, One on one for personal training. So we’ve adapted to basically be completely online. And then even beyond the workouts, we have some zoom and just members know we’ve had our you know, it’s

Brett Bittner

That’s awesome. I’d love to see some of the virtual happy hours among groups that have traditionally met in person. That’s a pretty cool way to kind of keep the community vibe together. Vicki, how is it that people can find bird fitness and cycling and connect with you? Whether we’re talking website, phone number, social media, go ahead and hit them with all go ahead and hit everybody with all of those because this is your opportunity to plug yourself.

Vicki LeMay

Okay, sure. So me personally, I’m the owner with my husband. He’s also part owner up it’s really my baby I kind of run the deal. So my email is Vicky vi ck I ever fitness calm. Like personal phone number is my Boston number still it’s okay. 508353 2599 so you can hit me up on one of those if you were searched in the personal training aspect. And also, there’s just a ton of content on Instagram. So that’s at the handles Berg fitness, no limits. And then the enough to find us on Facebook group fitness and cycling. And then the last thing is what we what we are offering, because a lot of people know, they’re not getting the paychecks. And so we’re actually offering personal training for people who are not not comfortable with doing their own workouts, maybe they don’t have the background, they think they’re going to hurt themselves. So for $99 for a full month, you get one on one training, and that’s gonna help. People only need that for the month just to get their form down. We don’t want people hurting themselves. Right. That’s just something we’re offering out to the community.

Brett Bittner

Vicki, thank you so much for joining me today. And I look forward to hearing from you soon. It sounds like you’re a prime candidate to show up on the podcasts that I do Hustleburg and so I can’t wait until we’re in To meet face to face, and I certainly like to stop by the gym and see how everything works over there.

Vicki LeMay

Fantastic. Thank you so much and I look forward to meeting you in person.

Brett Bittner

Awesome. Thanks so much, Vicki.

Hustleburg Episode 15 – Interview with Sit Means Sit’s Elena Elwart

“[Dogs] have to learn the motion first. Then, apply the word to it.”

Do you have a new four-legged addition to your family? In this episode of Hustleburg, Brett sits down with Sit Means Sit – Saint Petersburg‘s Elena Elwart and her dog, Junior.

Hustleburg Sit Means Sit St. Pete - Junior — Junior is listening with you!

Brett and Elena discuss different types of dog training, red flags when it comes to picking your trainer, and what to expect when you embark on a training program for your dog.

The SPCA Pet Walk mentioned in this episode is now a virtual event in response to COVID-19 and the health of participants, being held April 18th.

Sit… Stay… Visit Sit Means Sit

Start training with Elena here:

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Hear Your Question, Answered, on Hustleburg

The below transcript created automatically by Otter.ai

Brett Bittner
In this episode, I have the opportunity to speak with Elena Elwart from Sit Means Sit in St. Petersburg.

Elena Elwart
Thank you so much for having me.

Brett Bittner
Oh, glad to have you. And we have a special guest Jr. who if you saw some of the stuff that we did, prior to the episode, you’re going to see him featured as well. So Elena, why dog behavior?

Elena Elwart
It’s actually a very personal story for me. So I started out owning my first ever dog as a gift to myself coming back from deployments. I’m a veteran, and it was my, hey, you’re doing great, you’re making some good money. Now you’re gonna have to occupy your time with something else. So I got grace and I tried two different training programs that didn’t work. She’s a very Alpha Dog, okay. Which I did not understand at all.

Brett Bittner
Some people have no idea what you’re talking about when you say something like alpha.

Elena Elwart
Yes. So alpha dogs, just to give you an idea, they want what they want when they want it, and they will find every loophole possible to get their way. And when you have a tiny little dog that’s about six pounds on half an acre of land trying to get them to go inside it gets very frustrating. So I found sit means sit, and they had actually been a successful Business prior to joining second set, which is a franchise, and when I was a client, my trainer was also a veteran. So he was able to kind of see some of the behaviors that grace was doing that is not typical of dogs. And she ended up becoming my service dog. Totally unplanned. But because of that, I kind of dove into the whole realm of how dogs help people how people’s psyche as well as physical body can be benefited from just touching a dog. And then I saw the difference between myself in when I interact with my dog and when I interact with people, and it was totally different. So grace really kind of started the path for me and three months in my trainer said, Hey, why don’t you open a franchise since you’re getting medically chapter out of the army? And I said, Don’t know a thing about training. So I spent eight months internship with him. So while I was still full time I did part time with them. Then I became a trainer with them because I was taking longer to get out of the army than anticipated. And then after working with them, I finally moved to St. Petersburg and got my certificate as a franchise owner in a color trainer and then opened up my business come April of 2012.

Brett Bittner
So a lot of the folks that we’ve talked to haven’t been franchise owners. Tell me what that looks like in the sit means sit world when we spoke with Peter Yeager, I believe that was Episode Seven of Tampa tread connection. He was our first franchisee. What does that mean? In the sit means sit world.

Elena Elwart
So with that being said, it means that we get a brand. We also have continuing education. So a lot of trainers once they graduate from a class they think they know everything. And that really makes them stagnant in the dog world because dogs evolve, training evolves, everything needs to be continued to keep updated. So with set means set, we have both, like the business owner aspect of it for continuing education as well as the training aspect of it as continuing education. So we both opportunities each year for us to go to and attend. They also have the branding, they help us with non competes and contracts with clients. We’re also able to reach out to other franchise owners and trainers and if we don’t know how to fix something, we can ask for their opinion what worked for them and different strategies that we haven’t tried yet or haven’t thought of trying yet.

Brett Bittner
So here in St. Petersburg, who is it that you’re working with the most what kind of dog what kind of people come to Sit Means Sit generally?

Elena Elwart
I actually train just about any dog out there. My biggest clients right now is dogs that are struggling with behavioral issues that people call aggression, but it’s really just a reactivity out of fear. And then I also have people that want their dog to become a therapy dog. And I had started the Florida chapter of the Go Team therapy airport and crisis dogs. So I trained a lot of dogs to be able to go through that as well.

Brett Bittner
Okay, so who’s your ideal client?

Elena Elwart
My ideal client is somebody that wants to take their dog anywhere in everywhere in St. Pete. Okay. St. Pete is trying to become the most dog friendly city in America. That’s great. And we are getting there. We have so many dog friendly restaurants and breweries, and we even have a dog bar and we have a another dog that or another bar that has dog park in it. So there’s all kinds of different places that you can take your dog. So I want to build a relationship between the handler, the owner, the parents of the dog, and get them to a point where they feel like they can literally do anything with their dog.

Brett Bittner
Awesome. What should a puppy parents be looking for when they’re actually out there looking to find a trainer for their dog.

Elena Elwart
My biggest advice to everybody when I talk to them is asked to view training. If a trainer won’t show you how they train or they won’t invite you to group classes to view or come view a private lesson. That’s usually a red flag. Everything I do is out in public. I do group classes in public. I do a lot of private lessons at public parks or at people’s homes. I like to train as we live, not in a bubble. So I do all the time. Training out in public. So I am visible everybody. I have nothing to hide. And so if a trainer has something that they feel like they have to hide, big, huge red flag. So now what kind what types of training do you do? Obviously, you said you work with every kind of dog. Are we talking obedience for the very beginners all the way through? You mentioned something called e collar training. I know what that is, but I don’t know that everybody else does. But that’s certainly a more advanced off-leash training than what you’re seeing in the group classes, private lessons, obedience stuff.

Brett Bittner
So tell us a little bit about each of the types of training that you do.

Elena Elwart
So I actually have a unique training system. So for I have a puppy class that uses treats so it helps new puppy owners learn how to be with their puppy and get them on a leash and get them started and proper introductions with other dogs etc. And then once they’re past 16 weeks old, they can go straight into the E collar training. So I use e collar training as a template. So that way they can learn to focus on their handler, no matter where they’re at and what the distractions are. Even though the dogs are young, we still want them to know proper boundaries, what’s expected of them in different situations. So we actually teach the dog how to act in each situation, instead of just teaching them sit, stay, walk in a circle and then become buddies with everybody in class, right? Our group classes actually our maintenance program. So it is not your typical class. We do very advanced things. We do lots of food refusal, advanced distraction work, distance work, off-leash work, hand signals, directionals, whistle commands and fun games as well.

Brett Bittner
Wow, that’s a lot. Yes. So when somebody finally has secured training for their dog, what should they expect? What what are they going to encounter when they show up the first day with their dog.

Elena Elwart
So the first day, we actually are able to start teaching the dog how to focus, how to sit with attention, do something called a place command, as well as come command, and that is your foundation of training. And if they don’t have that foundation, you’re not going to progress. So we really make sure that our clients understand the importance of those commands. And then we use that as our building blocks. And each client is very individual, I do a free consultation because I don’t train each dog being exactly the same as other dogs, because each dog has their own personality, their own way of communicating their own needs. And so it has to be very individualized especially when different families want different things from their dogs like one family may want to go camping with their dog, whereas another family just wants a great dog to go running with.

Brett Bittner
Have you ever encountered an untrainable dog?

Elena Elwart
Twice. and they had medical conditions. Usually it’s not a behavioral thing. Yeah, it’s usually medical.

Brett Bittner
So, what was it that made them untrainable?

Elena Elwart
One had cancer and one had a brain tumor.

Brett Bittner
Okay, that would definitely do it. Yes.

Elena Elwart
Usually when a dog becomes, quote, unquote untrainable it’s because of some sort of medical issue. Okay. I actually have a friend who was a trainer whose dog she rescue was this great demo dog. She’s cute, spunky, very friendly, and then all of a sudden, she started to become aggressive towards people. She couldn’t understand that she did lots of training. She’s a trainer so she knows what she’s doing. She reached out to everyone took her dog into the vet, the dog had brain cancer. So it’s always a reason why a dog is behaving a certain way. And behaviors are always manageable, but you can’t change a dog’s DNA. So I always tell people like if your dog does not like other dogs, it’s Okay, I don’t like other people all the time, right? And that’s okay.

Brett Bittner
What’s something that most families don’t know about their dog?

Elena Elwart
Oh, that’s a good one. Usually they don’t know about the proper form of communication. So everybody thinks that dogs just automatically understand when you tell them sit that it means put their butt on the ground, right. And that’s not true. They have to learn the motion first, and then apply the word to it. So I tell clients, you could use Google OSH as their sick command and it would mean the exact same thing. I actually have a client who says that her next dog in a few years, she wants to teach the sit as a down and a down as a sit and come as a stay. Oh, wow. And she has two other dogs. It will be confusing but it just shows that you can use any word for the The motion that the dog does, it’s just being consistent with the exact same word and having it small. Not a huge, long sentence like why are you barking so much? I just don’t understand.

Brett Bittner
They don’t understand English. No, they they’re getting maybe 60 words if they’re really, really smart, so I totally get that. So what is it that you’re doing now switching a little more to the business side of things to keep a full calendar?

Elena Elwart
Well, I’ve actually for two years, I didn’t do any advertising because I’ve had so many referrals. It’s just me. I’m on the business owner and the trainer. So my calendar has always stayed very busy or solopreneur. I love that. But now I have added in some Google AdWords, right. I used to do a lot of events, but I just don’t have the time for it anymore. It’s very time consuming, but from new business owners best way ever To make networks, get involved in the community, get your name out into the community. I did a lot of rescue events, I did home shows, races, all kinds of festivals, anything and everything that could get my name out there.

Brett Bittner
Awesome. What is it right now that you would like to do better or more of in that same realm that you think that could really bring you some business?

Elena Elwart
I actually think I found the sweet spot. Okay, I’m almost eight years into my business. Yeah. So I have dabbled in just about everything in terms of advertising. I don’t want to be one of those people that work 60 hours a week, right? Because I love my dogs and I want to do stuff with them. No, of course. So I i limit how many clients I actually take in and right now with the influx from the Google AdWords, I can’t do anything more, or I’m going to be too overwhelmed.

Brett Bittner
I understand. What is it that you’re watching or reading or listening to? that’s helping you keep up with the latest in dog behavior and or helping you grow to grow your business so that you’re not necessarily always working in it. But you’re working on it.

Elena Elwart
Yeah. Working on it instead of in it is always the hardest. I feel like for business owners Yeah, we’re very particular we want…

Brett Bittner
No one does it as well as we do.

Elena Elwart
our business. So that’s the biggest struggle for me is I have gone through many employees. And I know I’m difficult to work for because I have a very particular way of treating clients treating clients and dogs. I view that every client’s dog should be treated as my own. And a lot of trainers just want the easy Fast Money and not put the work in. And it is work. You’re not just sitting there petting puppies all day. Yeah, you have to walk them and potty them and feed them if they’re staying with you and make sure they’re groomed properly and on top of that work on the obedience that they came to you for. So there’s a whole nother level to it that a lot of people just don’t understand. They think dog training, get to hang out with dogs all day, right? while you’re on your feet a lot. You’re at parks a lot. So you’re outdoors, a lot, all kinds of weather. And so you have to keep an eye on the weather things that you normally wouldn’t have to worry about worrying about. Is it too hot? Is it now too cold because with our fluctuations and winter, the dogs sometimes they aren’t able to handle it as well as some other dogs. So just being able to find someone that does it the way that I do it, okay is always gonna be a struggle for me.

Brett Bittner
All right. So what are you doing to keep up with what’s happening in dog behavior then?

Elena Elwart
I actually part of I don’t know how many groups on Facebook I am part of therapy dog group pages, a service dog group pages, because the service dog world is rapidly changing for the better, good. And then I’m also on a whole bunch of different Florida dog trainer groups, Florida dog business groups, Florida marketing groups, dog training marketing groups. So basically I spend at least a half an hour every day going through different posts, seeing what other people are struggling with. Because sometimes you don’t realize you’re struggling with something when you’re in the middle. Right? Yes. So I kind of learned from other people as well as put my own input in there as well. There’s so much information out there on dogs that it can be hard to keep on top of things. So I always try to make sure that what I’m reading is the most up to date and current, okay, because there’s still things out there. floating around from research back in 2001 or 2020.

Brett Bittner
So when you’re not training dogs, what is your favorite thing to do in or around St. Pete?

Elena Elwart
Go somewhere with my dog. Okay. I love to go to dog beaches. I like to go to the dog bar. I like to go to breweries that are dog friendly. restaurants have patios for dogs. Everywhere I go, pretty much I bring a dog with me.

Brett Bittner
So looking forward through the rest of 2020. Are there any big events that you know that you will be going to? I know you’re cutting back on some of those because you got all of the value you needed out of them? Is there anything where we can run where we’re gonna run into you?

Elena Elwart
I actually have my group class come to the ASPCA walk the 3k walk that they have. I use that as a really big distraction. There’s hundreds if not thousands of dogs that come to those walks and then There’s also the service dog group in Sarasota. Okay. And yeah, dogs Yes. Then they also put a walk on Okay, that I do as a group class as well. So you could if there’s a dog Walk of some sort, you can most likely find me there with a group of people.

Brett Bittner
Alright Elena, we’re at the end. Where can people find out more about sit means sit here in St. Pete. websites, social media, phone number, whatever you want to give where people can connect with you?

Elena Elwart
Sure. I have all of it. My website is StPetersburg.sitmeanssit.com. And on Facebook, I’m sit means sit dog training St. Petersburg. You can also call me at 727-537-9721

Brett Bittner
Anything beyond Facebook, social media wise?

Elena Elwart
I am on a What is it? What’s the new one?

Brett Bittner
Which one? TikTok? Are you talking about Instagram? Snapchat?

Elena Elwart
Instagram. Yes.

Brett Bittner
Awesome.

Elena Elwart
I’m not very tech savvy. Okay. I’m on Instagram. Yeah. I don’t know if everything posts the way it’s supposed to. Yeah, but I am on there as well under Sit Means Sit St. Petersburg.

Brett Bittner
Awesome.
Elena, it was fabulous talking with you. It was great meeting Junior. He did a great job here. We’ve had plenty of distractions as we recorded outside in Abercrombie Park. Thanks so much for coming on.

Elena Elwart
Thank you so much for having me.

What Can You Do to “Unplug” or Change What You See on Facebook?

This is based on an answer offered on Episode 12 of Hustleburg.

Question: With everything that’s going on recently, sometimes I need a little break from seeing the constant news cycle, especially about COVID-19, aka the coronavirus. What do you recommend for when you just want to unplug and think of happy or educational or fun things? I love using Facebook to promote my business, I just need a break. I feel bad, and like I’m not putting my business first by taking that break.

Take a Break

If you find that you need a break from social media’s onslaught of news and posts about COVID-19, the 2020 election, or whatever has you feeling this way, push back your laptop, close the platforms or the apps on your phone that you’re using. Take a literal break, by going for a walk around the block, calling to check in on your mom (she says you don’t do that enough anyway), playing or snuggling with your dog, cat, or whatever pet is in your home (they are also saying that you don’t do that enough).

Then, just turn off notifications on your phone and shut your laptop for a while. Only enable the ones that you absolutely must have on for the phone. If you’re an iPhone user, you can enable Bedtime, which is a feature in your settings to take a break in the clock app. Many Android phones have something called Zen mode, where you can’t do anything on the phone except to receive calls for a specified time so that you can disconnect. Use this “unplugged” opportunity to pick up that book or your Kindle to read for fun for an hour.

Focus on Something Else

Personally, I’ve taken to trying to meditate more, using an app on my phone to do so. By doing so, I get to relax while I ignore the world around me for 5, 10, or 20 minutes, by focusing inward, on happiness, or my relationships with other people.

You likely have some “extra” time right now due to a lack of commute, and you can use it for some self-care or to develop yourself. Think of that time as an opportunity, because no one is expecting that you’re going to be “on” all the time, that you’re going to be online all the time, and that it isn’t going to be something that does kind of drive you away.

Now that you’ve taken that break for yourself, I have some great news for you. When it comes to your online experience, you actually find what you seek online. The platform’s algorithms are designed to give you what they calculate that you want to see. If you interact with political posts, they’ll show you more politics. That also means that if you engage with stories about kindness, you’re going to see more kindness. Who couldn’t use seeing more about kindness and the good in the world?

The Good News – You’re in Control

I recently listened to an interview with the CEO of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, who designed the newsfeed for Facebook before moving over to Instagram. During that interview, he confirmed that they really try to tailor what you see online with the type of things that you engage with. So, the good news is that you truly hold the keys to design your own online experience.

Ready for the even better news?

Your most recent activity holds greater weight for the algorithms than your older activity. That means that the best time to change your online behavior, in an effort to change what you see, is NOW. Start engaging with the people, groups, and pages that bring you joy by making you the happiest. Disengage with those that are dragging you down by blocking them, unfollowing them, and just scrolling by. If you make your focus to comment on, click on, and like the posts that give you something of value, while disengaging with the people, pages, and groups that don’t, you’re going to see a huge change in what’s in your feed. By taking control over what you see online and who you interact with, you’re actually going to see a complete shift in what’s presented to you in your feed, no matter which social media platform that’s got you down.

Here’s How It Will Change

I remember a period of time when I worked in the non-profit political world, where everything in my feed was political stuff. Today, that’s really not the case, because I unfollowed many pages, I left a lot of groups, and I’m no longer connected with many of the people I was. I no longer interact with many of the same people that I did in that world, and it has completely changed the way social media is presented to me. It’s very rare that I see a political post that isn’t just the news of the day. There’s hardly ever political opinion within them, so I know from experience that you really can switch this on and off, almost like a light switch or a really fast dimmer.

If you are discouraged about what you’re seeing, whether it’s the upcoming 2020 elections, coronavirus, or whatever it is that just has you down, know that you can change what’s in your feed just by fine-tuning who you even allow to put things in your feed, and who you engage with among those that do have that permission.

Hustleburg Episode 14 – Answering Listener Questions About Facebook 4-2-20

In this Q&A episode of the Hustleburg podcast, Brett answers listener questions about Facebook in the second of two parts. This is the second episode of a platform-specific series on the Q&A episodes about the varying social media platforms. Episode 12 is the first part of this Facebook-specific Q&A series.

Should I be Using Facebook Stories, Live, or Watch Party? Why?

There is absolutely a benefit to each of these features for the small business owner.

Facebook Stories – Unlike Instagram, Facebook stories allow you to have all the same features, as well as swipe up capability without the need to pay for ad or be a large account. It’s also a great way to connect with younger users on the platform. The addition of stories to Facebook gives you a way of offering your community a glimpse “behind the scenes” of your life, business, or brand. It gives “insider access” to what you do, deepening the connection to your brand.
Facebook Live – If you have a good reason to stream live video content, this is a wonderful tool to do so. I like that you can create an event and hype around your business or brand that gives your community instant connection and interaction with you. It helps to deepen their connection, acting like a souped-up version of Reddit AMAs with real-time interaction.
Facebook Watch Party – I see the same value in offering the instant connection and interaction to your community that Facebook Live offers, in kind of the same way we used to call one another to watch a TV show or movie together, but separately.

What’s the Best Way to Grow My Facebook Likes? Should I Use Ads?

The key is to add value to the ongoing conversation that is social media. Your page should have plenty of content before you publish and even invite your mom or spouse to like it. Create 10 or so posts before you launch, so that visitors will have something to look at when they visit. This gives them an opportunity to decide if they want to give you the “like.” Tactically, invite those on your friends list to like the page slowly, making sure you utilize the tools Facebook has available to you. I’ve found better results when inviting people both through a notification as well as a well-crafted message in messenger from your personal profile. Both of these invitations methods are only possible on the desktop version. I answered a similar question in greater detail on Episode 4 of Hustleburg, where I discussed getting greater reach organically.

When it comes to ads, I’m not a big fan of paying for “likes,” because they are generally superficial, and I’d prefer that they come for something of value that you’ve offered. Using targeted ads based on demographic and psychographic information to drive them to something you offer that will add value to them is a great way to grow your audience. They’re more engaged than someone who just likes your page in a “drive by”

Page Messaging is Mystifying Me. Is This an Important Metric for Customers?

My answer about the importance of this public-facing metric is going to be different for different businesses. If you’re in a fast-paced environment and customers expect that you’ll respond quickly, this is something to make sure you prioritize with your page. For example, if you’re operating an auto repair shop and a potential customer wants to know if they can bring their car in today to have it repaired this afternoon, you’re going to want to make sure you can reply to that person nearly immediately, like fielding incoming phone calls. Facebook calculates this metric by measuring your response rate to private messages… ALL private messages to your page. They measure two things, the percentage of messages you respond to and the speed with which you reply. For the first, you’ll need to reply to 90% or more to have a “Very Responsive” label on your page. For the latter, you’ll need to respond in a very timely manner. An explanation of calculation for both is included in the episode.

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