Maggie Colette of Think Like A Boss: Five Ways To Leverage Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business
Really get to know and connect with your audience — people buy from people and if you want to cultivate a community of raving fans who buy from you, putting the work in from the beginning (to really get to know who is following you and what their biggest struggles are) will pay off in the long run.
As a part of our series about How To Leverage Instagram To Grow Your Business, I had the pleasure of interviewing Maggie Colette.
Maggie Colette is one of the world’s leading, self-taught Instagram® strategists and coaches, counting Khloe Kardashian as a superfan. Her mission is to empower women everywhere to follow their dreams and develop out of this world self-belief through her business Think Like A Boss.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
It was July 2015 and I’d just boarded a flight from London Heathrow to Mexico City. Midway through the flight, I started to feel unwell. I got up to go to the bathroom and passed out in the galley. The next thing I know, my legs are in the air and the air stewards are peering down at me trying to bring me round.
This incident was a stark warning of what can happen when you work in a highly pressurised role and combine it with working long hours and continuous long haul travel.
This was burnout at its worst and it was also the starting point that got me questioning what on earth I was doing with my life.
I’d accidentally fallen into my role in banking, but I didn’t question it until 10 years later, when I wondered, why on earth I was still here when I didn’t even like my job?!
This carried on for another 12 months until I received one final warning from the doctor. Carry on with this lifestyle and be at risk of a heart attack at the age of 35 OR quit now and do something entirely different with my life.
I chose the latter.
So, in 2016 I hired my first ever business coach, made a plan and a few months later I quit to travel the world for 6 months, before starting my online business.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?
Great question! There’s one experience that really stands out to me from when I was in LA in September 2019. I and was sitting at the hotel bar waiting for my dinner to arrive when a guy came over. The first thing he did was to ask the barman for an ice bucket (because his girlfriend had just had a panic attack and he wanted ice to help calm her down), then he turned to me and thanked me.
His exact words were “I hope you don’t mind and I know you don’t know me, but I just want to say thank you for your service to the world. I’m an energy healer and I could feel your positive and magical energy from the other side of the bar when I was having dinner with my girlfriend earlier. You are impacting more lives than you could possibly imagine and I really wanted to tell you that. Would you mind if I gave you a hug?”
Not knowing what to do or say, I somehow found myself nodding along and before I knew it, we were hugging it out! I think the barman thought we were mad, although it was LA and in LA anything goes!
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?
The first time I ever did a Facebook LIVE as a business owner I wore a suit. Working in banking for 10 years apparently took its toll on my wardrobe ?.
On a more serious note, I had it in my head that I wouldn’t be taken seriously if I wasn’t wearing a suit. Thankfully that thought process was short lived. After I came off that LIVE I cringed. Not only was I sweating profusely from the nerves, but I came across as ridiculous!
Everytime, I look back on that story, it leaves me in fits of giggles.
I did however, learn a very important lesson, which is that it’s okay to be me. In fact it’s necessary to be you. Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not otherwise people will see right through you.
I used to hate wearing suits in my corporate role. There were times where I was told to dull down my sparkle and because of that, I’ll admit to losing myself for a few years and blending into the background.
The beauty of business however, is that you get to create your rules and you get to do things your way. Be who you are, not who the world wants you to be!
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?
Until 18 months ago I found social media frustrating. Sure, it was fun to post and to go live, but I couldn’t for the life of me, make social media work for me. I felt like the algorithm was against me and I also really struggled to find clients.
I knew that social media could be incredible for your business (if used the right way).
I’d also heard people talk about the positive impact that creating viral content could have for your brand, but I didn’t know anyone in my network who was really nailing social media, so I decided to teach myself.
I then spent a good 12 months teaching myself, through independent testing and trial and error, understanding what makes platforms like Instagram® tick, what it takes to create viral content and how this can then grow your brand.
Fast forward to today and I’ve grown my community from 6k to 60K in 12 months. I’ve 10x the size of my mailing list, I’ve 4x my revenue, I’ve helped clients bring in in excess of $750k in revenue (during a global pandemic!) and I’m also regularly regrammed by global celebrities like Khloe Kardashian.
I now use what I’ve learned to teach other entrepreneurs how to grow their businesses through social media.
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?
Instagram® is my go-to and preferred platform. It’s fun. It’s educational and you can be as creative as you like.
My favourite story is having a new found fan in the form of Khloe Kardashian. She first came across my account in November 2020 and has been regularly sharing my content ever since.
One thing I love to highlight to my community through this experience, is that there is no limit to what you can do on this platform OR who you can impact, if you know what you’re doing.
If the Kardashians can find me through creating epic content, then your idols can sure as heck find you too.
Plus there are so many benefits to growing an online business through social media. Instagram® is an incredible platform for increasing brand awareness, building your confidence through getting visible, growing your audience and building your authority and credibility.
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.
- Really get to know and connect with your audience — people buy from people and if you want to cultivate a community of raving fans who buy from you, putting the work in from the beginning (to really get to know who is following you and what their biggest struggles are) will pay off in the long run.
- Show up on Instagram® Stories daily. These are a little bit like Big Brother watching you, the only difference being that you get to see who is watching your content and you can get super strategic about what you share! People who watch your stories are emotionally invested in you. They watch you because they feel a connection with you. Also the more consistently you show up, the more you will be remembered, and the more powerful the bond your community will feel with you.
- Get curious and ask your audience questions every single day. Remember, people want to feel special. When you ask your community what their struggles are or how they are feeling today. It makes them feel like you care. Also, the more you invite conversation, the more engaged and connected your audience will feel to you.
- If you’re not already using Instagram® Reels, you are really missing out. I’ve lost count of the number of times clients have messaged me to say their reels have gone viral and they’ve hit the Instagram® Explore page. Instagram® is really boosting reels right now and everyone loves video marketing. If you’re looking to go viral quickly, using Reels is the quickest and easiest way to capture people’s attention.
- Leave five new Instagram® voice notes each day, Monday to Friday. If you do that every day for a month that’s at least 100 new connections a month. Imagine if between 1% — 10% of your new connections bought from you each month, what would that do to your revenue? Instagram® DMs is where it’s at if you’re serious about monetizing your Instagram® account. Also, it takes people on average 21 touch points before they buy from you. The sooner you start having real conversations, the sooner you’ll make sales
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. 🙂
One movement I would love to inspire is making mindset and self-belief a subject that is taught at school from a very young age. In the same way that kids are taught maths and english as mandatory subjects, mindset and self-belief should be taught as mandatory subjects too.
It saddens me to see, so many incredible women and men doubt themselves as adults. I see it every day online. This is largely why I created Think Like a Boss — to empower entrepreneurs to believe in themselves.
If mindset was a subject that was taught as part of our education and taught at schools from an early age, the world would be a happier, confident and more empowering place to be.
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 would have to say Oprah Winfrey.
She is real, raw, committed to making a difference and is as inspirational as they get.
Everything she’s been through and everything she’s achieved thus far in her life is simply mind blowing.
I also love how she’s done it all — talk show host, actress, philanthropist, author… there is nothing this lady has not done and she continues to pursue what sets her soul on fire. Oprah, if you’re reading this…call me 🙂
Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!
Maggie Colette of Think Like A Boss: Five Ways To Leverage Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.