An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Network with authenticity: it’s a social media platform after all. The platform is getting really popular amongst small business owners and consumers are getting savvier. Hiring a social media manager to engage is great to manage your workload. But be sure to pop in with a voice note every now and then so your audience will feel connected to you rather than feeling wary of talking to strangers. It’s also important to strike a balance between selling and inspiring — nobody likes being sold to every minute of every day!
As a part of our series about How To Leverage Instagram To Grow Your Business, I had the pleasure of interviewing Xindi Soh.
Xindi Soh is the founder and CEO of By Xindi, a studio offering a complete brand identity and messaging transformation. She prides herself on balancing creativity and data in creating a brand and messaging strategy that helps her clients build their brand authority and increase their profit through organic marketing. She’s taken her clients to multiple 5-figures months by helping them create brands that their target audience trusts and resonates with.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Absolutely! Growing up in a tiny town, I was surrounded by entrepreneurs who broke generational poverty and built a business purely out of their own wit. Despite their successful businesses, the majority of the population were not formally educated so going to a reputable university and joining corporate was always seen as ‘the way out’ or a symbol of success in our society. That was exactly the path I took. I was part of the first generation in my family to experience life across the world. I was also fortunate enough to not only attend one of the top universities in the world but also start employment in one of the top financial services companies in the world. I was living the dream life.
Although I learned major lessons in corporate and had great experiences that will stay with me for the rest of my life, I can’t help but feel a certain itch for more. I started learning about copywriting and thought it would be a cool side hustle. From there, my curiosity led me to learn all about brand strategy and digital marketing. Before I know it, I’m deep in this business thing and I’ve not looked back since!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?
I would say the most interesting story is seeing the shift in my mindset from letting external influences dictate my choices to taking responsibility for my own decisions. Being a digital entrepreneur can mean that we’re easily swayed by what is happening in the market — What’s the market price? Who’s my competitor? What is the latest trend? I was consuming as much as I could and forcing myself to mold into what the market ‘wants’. I burnt out in the process because the truth is, no one really knows what the market wants. Sure, we have data and research to guide our decisions. But the consumer spectrum and market complexity is too intricate to nail down. Changes happen so quickly that it’s impossible to take action on everything in a sustainable manner.
Having burnt myself out trying to react to every opinion out there definitely prompted me to change the way I approach my business. I changed my philosophy from being on top of every trend to fully understanding what works for me and my strengths and filtering information with that knowledge in mind. One example would be shifting from pricing and designing my services in accordance with my peers in the market to identifying who I’d love to work with and designing my services in accordance to their needs while pricing my services in a way that reflects my effort and knowledge.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My mistake — which turned out to be funny in hindsight — is my dancing reels. I’m itching to delete everything! When I first started my business, I did not think about my brand strategy and was blindly following all the trends out there promising me more growth and follower. So, I was projecting an image of me that did not feel like me at all, nor was it an image I envisioned for my brand. I was dancing and acting all sassy and goofy because that was what everyone was doing. It’s funny in hindsight and I gained two big lessons from that mistake — going viral is not a strategy and instead of jumping on what everyone is doing, my focus should be on evergreen messaging instead.
Ok. Let’s now move to the main focus of our discussion. For the benefit of our readers, can you explain why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?
Having built a business from scratch offering a service that I have no formal experience in, I know a thing or two about leveraging Instagram to dramatically grow your business. I have helped my clients quadrupled their revenue into 5-fig months and generate stable income that allows them to quit their corporate jobs. All by harnessing the power of Instagram.
Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?
I firmly believe that the most profitable social media platform is the platform that your target audience is active on. If you’re targeting corporate employees, LinkedIn is where you should be. If you’re targeting Gen Zs, you should start thinking about TikTok.
One thing I’ve been guilty of in the past and so many of my clients do as well is the ‘shiny object syndrome’. That is, being distracted by the newest and latest craze that claims to be most profitable, most efficient, most exciting. For me, that was TikTok. I was told that TikTok was the place to be, and that I will be able to expand my reach if I film with trending sounds (more on ‘going viral’ later!). However, the people I love working with are business owners who are passionate about personal development, business and creativity. My dream client are people who are more likely to spend their spare time reading a book or watching snippets of mindset videos on Instagram to further their learning. They might be on TikTok but trending sounds are likely not where they spend a lot of their time on.
Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share five ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.
- Network with authenticity: it’s a social media platform after all. The platform is getting really popular amongst small business owners and consumers are getting savvier. Hiring a social media manager to engage is great to manage your workload. But be sure to pop in with a voice note every now and then so your audience will feel connected to you rather than feeling wary of talking to strangers. It’s also important to strike a balance between selling and inspiring — nobody likes being sold to every minute of every day!
- Engaging post: the goal with Instagram is to share your message and your business. What better way to do that than to have an audience full of engaged people? But building an engaged audience is easier said than done. It requires consistent value-led posts that not only showcase your knowledge, but communicate what you stand for as a brand. Consumers have choices now and they want to buy from people they resonate with. As a result, a successful Instagram account should have two types of message — one to attract their dream audience by empathizing with their struggles and dreams, and another to nurture them into a paying client by being clear on the purpose of your brand beyond making profit.
- Consistency is key: As the old marketing wisdom goes, humans need to be prompted 7 times before they decide to take actions. I’ve seen lots of people getting discouraged because they’re not getting responses after promoting their business twice or thrice. They would blame their lack of business on their tiny following but the truth is, they have just not repeated their message enough times. It truly is a game of quality over quantity. Speaking from experience, a tiny following of 200 engaged followers is enough to land me consistent high ticket sales. As frustrating as it sounds, constant repetition of the right message really is key!
- Build a brand strategy: Brand strategy is often dismissed as a secondary requirement when it comes to building a business because it’s often associated with having a nice logo. But a brand is more than just a logo, it’s about getting clear on what your brand stands for, who you’re service as a brand and how do you differentiate yourself from the competitors. Instagram is undeniably saturated so having a solid brand strategy is now a key requirement to grow your business.
- Going viral is not a strategy: this is my favourite tip to tell my clients. We’re increasingly seeing Instagram creators and coaches pushing for reels because they believe it is the format favoured by Instagram. That may be true but unless you’re an influencer, this may not be the best strategy. After all, Instagram does not push your content to your target audience. By going viral and ‘increasing your reach’, you are more likely to spend more time blocking bots and spammers than you do engaging with like-minded people. Instead, channel that energy into ensuring you have a solid messaging strategy that speaks directly to your target audience.
Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would create a movement that normalises entrepreneurship as a ‘career’ choice. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not for everybody. But I’ve seen way too many people being miserable in different career paths when they’re born to be entrepreneurs. Just because they think being an entrepreneur means you have to have a ground-breaking business idea and loads of capital to back it up. I think the world would be a better place when more people embark on a path that fits their natural strength, and entrepreneurship is one that many people overlooks.
Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I can never say no to Gary Vee. I love how genuine he is and how he’s seriously trying to help others achieve their dreams. He does a great job striking the balance between tough love advice and empathy in the struggles of people he interact with. I truly believe he’s inspiring big changes in the way people think about life and how they actually want to live it. I feel blessed to live in a world where technology gives us access to the wisdom of people like Gary Vee that change the way we approach happiness and fulfillment, and break generational beliefs that might be holding us back.
Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!
Xindi Soh of By Xindi: Five Ways To Leverage Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.