Natalie Franke
Hey everyone, this is your host, Natalie Franke, and you’re listening to the independent business podcast, more people than ever are working for themselves and building profitable businesses in the process. So, on this show, I sit down with some of the most influential authors, entrepreneurs and creators to break down the science of self made success. So that you mentioned
Natalie Franke
over the past couple of days, there has been one subject that has filled every social media feed every conversation and distracted nearly every employee and or business owner that I know if my boss is listening to this. I’m sorry. And I’m talking about threads the constant scrolling the conversation, the new app launched by meta last week that has completely taken over the internet, we’re talking about one of the most successful launches that I have ever witnessed. And in today’s episode of The Independent Business Podcast, we are talking specifically about the lessons that every independent business needs to be taking away from this launch. Akua is joining me, I’m so excited to dive in. How are you doing today? Akua? How’d you sleep last night? Did you get any sleep are really scrolling on threads?
Akua Konadu
I mean, I’m tired. But I’m excited to be here about this conversation. Because there’s just so much to unpack in such a short amount of time. It is wild. So I’m excited for us to just hop in and talk about it.
Natalie Franke
I think all business owners feel a little bit like we’re drinking from a firehose, on any given day, right? And then you add threads on top of it. And I jokingly said we went from you know what another app to this is my whole personality. Now in all of 30 seconds in our in many, many aspects of our community. We witnessed this unfold. And so yes, we’re getting into it. We’re talking about it. For folks who don’t know, let’s just start off there. What is threads? Tell us about it. What is threats?
Akua Konadu
Yeah, so threads is very, it’s meta meta is version of Twitter. It’s a text based social media platform. And it’s just so simple. You know what I mean? I just I love it. It’s amazing. It’s really simple to use. And what’s really crazy about it is that 2 billion people use Instagram every month. And so just even the success for threads is like 15 to 20% of Instagram users move over to use threads. It has the potential to surpass Twitter, roughly 300 million users. And it’s wild to me to think that because it’s such a simple platform, like there’s not even a lot of features right now available, but everybody is just flooding to it 30 million in a few hours.
Natalie Franke
Right. Right. No, I saw that. When when Zuck posted that I visibly gasped and our friend, you know, Don Richardson, who is episode eight on the podcast, she talks about AI and she’s just a tech genius. She jokingly I saw her post on threads, you know, Chad GPT, you know, like, hit this number of users. And meta was like, hold my beer, right? That’s really how it felt. And just to give some context, in terms of adoption, like when we say this was a successful launch, and there are learnings that all of us should be taking away from it. This is what I mean by that. If we look at the amount of time it took for other platforms to reach their first 1 million users, it took Netflix, 3.5 years, Twitter, two years, Facebook, 10 months, Spotify, five months, chat GPT, five days, and threads a couple of hours, to hit their first 1 million users. This is rapid adoption at its finest. And I think that that alone, regardless of whether this apps, you know, six sustains and continues to grow. Regardless of whether this app becomes something you use every day in your business. Regardless of whether this is even a place you can or should market yourself. The truth of the matter remains, this was a wildly successful launch. And there is a lot that we can take away. But before we do that, I also want to talk about what this episode is not going to cover. Because in the prep for this this morning, I quit and I ruined back and forth on voice memo. We were reading all the articles, we were asking our community members what they wanted to know about. And we made a decision very early on that this episode is not going to cover a couple of things. Do you want to share what those things are?
Akua Konadu
Yeah, I think number one is just, you’re not going to be hearing of how to leverage this for your business, right? Like how to go about it. We’re not talking about that this app literally just came out two days ago, they’re still this is supposed to be a really fun time, right when a new app comes out. This is your opportunity to experiment, see what works for you see even how you want to even show up on the app. We’re not here to tell you right now how to leverage that for your business. But we are here to tell you are these core lessons that we think are important for business owners to know from in regards to the launch This app,
Natalie Franke
I know, it’s really sexy for marketers and creators to talk about, like how I went viral and gained a billion followers in five minutes or created, you know, this massive platform and made so much revenue with zero effort. And, you know, I don’t want to say that threads will never be a place where we market ourselves. And we’ll get into that in a second. And I don’t think it’ll ever be a place where, you know, I’m not going to say it won’t ever be a place where you’re going to see that type of content, because realistically, you will, but it’s the wrong place and the wrong time. And I don’t think that’s, you know, a space where we really want to help you and moving your business forward. Because frankly, as it was said, we’re talking about this is hours old, this is brand spankin. New, we have evidence from other platforms on how we might anticipate the algorithm works or how we might think that things will unfold. But what we do know is that there are enough learnings to take away just from those past few hours just from this initial launch, that we want to start here, we want to focus here we will talk a little bit about some some hot takes on marketing yourself on the platform later on in the episode. But I just I felt we felt it was necessary to be like, Look, here’s what we’re not covering. We’re not gonna tell you how to go viral here. We’re not gonna tell you how to scale your business in five minutes. That’s just not virtual. It’s not our vibe, but also, it’s not valuable to you. period right now, especially it’s not. Let’s talk though, about an analysis of meadows incredibly successful launch. Yeah, we’ll kick it off with the first lesson.
Akua Konadu
The first lesson is you don’t need to be first to be successful. And the reason why we wanted to talk about this is because Mark Zuckerberg he has built we all know what he is known for stealing other people’s ideas honey and stealing other as you said, as you said it we all know it right? He was it’s true Instagram Stories from Snapchat, there used to be IG TV way back in the day that was from YouTube that doesn’t even exist anymore. Completely forgot about that, that just like came in, right like so many reels from Tik Tok. And let’s talk about when they first came out with reels tick tock was at the height that was the everybody was on that platform, the amount of users was at its highest. And Instagram just decided to just launch reels with what they had. Because I remember that there were a lot of limitations in reels compared to Tik Tok, but Instagram just launched it. And guess what, we all still used it, no problem. And so now fast forward to also threads. It was the timing was impeccable. Because Twitter has no decorum. It’s chaotic. It’s just everybody is acting out on Twitter. And ever since Elon Musk took over, it’s been a free for all and not in a good way. It’s become an extremely toxic platform. But then, and I think people are still hanging on because that’s all we have. But I think it was another tipping point when literally just last week, Elon Musk Twitter announced consumption limits, where now you will only see a limited amount of tweets per day. And it was a way to encourage people to sign up for that blue checkmark. Because if you signed up for that blue checkmark, then you got to see more tweets. I was like, you’re still not getting me with that, sir. I’ll just take whatever you give me, and I’ll be on my way, I don’t have time, I’m not doing it. So they saw that. And I think they were like, all right, like, let’s just launch this and launch it now. And I think that played such a huge role into why people immediately were just like, Alright, I’m super excited to just hop into it. And I think the lesson that you can learn here is that we feel like, you know, when we’re coming up with this idea, we have to be the first person to do it in order for it to be successful. And that’s just not true. If medica can do it and take these ideas and fill the gaps. They saw the gaps. They listened to what their customers wanted, and took an idea and just innovated it made it easier made it better and leaned into that. Why can’t you do it? You know, so
Natalie Franke
often we hear independent business owners say, well, it’s already been done. It’s already been done. So I can’t do it. It’s already been done, when perhaps we should instead be asking questions like, you know, how can we innovate? How can we differentiate what part of the status quo is not working? What is broken, what needs to be fixed? And I think, you know, going back to that initial point, doing it faster, and being the first does not guarantee success. However, if you never get started, because you also say, well, it’s already been done. You’re essentially guaranteeing failure. Yes, right, of that idea. And so I think this is a really powerful challenge to us as business owners to just, you know, really question some of those those hypotheses that we have about what will make a launch and initiative, a service that we’re now offering successful or not, and these barriers that we essentially build for ourselves in our own minds around well, she He’s already done it. So I can’t. He already said that. So there’s no way I can contribute to the conversation. People prefer to hear it from them. So why should I speak up? Why should I have a voice? Why should I give my opinion, this is one of those moments where we’re yet again uncovering that the status quo can be disrupted, and that there is space in the marketplace for you. And I love that I really love that stagnation in any industry, is just an opportunity waiting for disruption, which leads us to our second lesson that we can take away from the launch of threads. Here we go. Launch and learn as you grow. Failure is a foundation for future success. Yes. Tell us what we mean about this. What are we trying to get out here?
Akua Konadu
Yeah, so when we were researching y’all, we found this article, and I think we’re gonna link it in the show notes. It’s from Digiday. And so they wrote an article all about threads. And in a section of the article, I didn’t even know this, I just learned this. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, I wanted to ask y’all and just think about it for a second, this thread sound familiar to you? Because what we learned was, this is not the first time that Instagram attempted to launch threads. So back in October of 2019, Facebook launch threads from Instagram. And that was supposed to be a companion app for Instagram users who wanted to keep in touch with their closest friends on the app. So back then that iteration of threads was less than of a more like it was less of a Twitter rival and more of an alternative to Snapchat. And so they weren’t trying to own the concept of just being a photo focus, mobile messenger service, but it didn’t gain traction at all. And so it’s like, eventually rolled into the Instagram app as what we know today as closest friends.
Natalie Franke
Oh, well, I mean, I feel like Instagram has a history of launching things at an MVP level, or like a minimum viable product level where it’s just enough that we can sink our teeth in, right? And then they grow and build from there. They don’t wait until something is perfect in order to iterate on it. But then again, building upon that, they’re not afraid to do something. And if it doesn’t work out the way that they expect, you know, pivot, pivot, and then even revisit the idea, like it sounds like they did here with threads at a later date under a different landscape. Right. They see Twitter declining, they’re going, huh. I think there’s an opportunity in the market here for a textbook based platform, which is what Zuckerberg said verbatim, and they did it. Right. They they didn’t allow maybe an initial launch of something and iteration that they first did, and didn’t turn out the way that they expected to keep them from ever revisiting that. And I feel like I even heard and correct me if I’m wrong here that there are some some speculation that they even use some of the initial code, like from that launch to be used for threads. Now,
Akua Konadu
I wouldn’t be surprised would not but I didn’t it didn’t say an article, but would not be surprised at all. I think dig and see, yes, we definitely will. But I think it goes to show that when you were on your entrepreneurial journey, and you’re in certain seasons, and things aren’t making sense. And then when you get to that destination, and every single thing that you walked through every single learning every single piece of failure led you to this specific moment that you were at today. And that is something that this launch showed they had they they decided to take a chance and launch this specific feature, it didn’t go as planned the vision that they had for it. So they evolved, they evolved and made it a different type of feature, but then they took what they learned and created threads.
Natalie Franke
Yes. And sometimes it’s not the wrong thing. It’s just the wrong time. Yeah, that’s, that’s also, you know, something we forget, as business owners, we’ll try something and it doesn’t work, it was out. That’s just never going to work again. Whereas maybe the timing wasn’t right. Maybe it wasn’t what people needed. And especially, you know, the last three years, we’ve been through a lot. And so what we need has changed. How we’re feeling today is not the way we were feeling two years ago, you know, when I say that you’d like how are you feeling in 2020, march 2020, if you tried to launch something, then or even in 2021 2022 was a very different landscape. And so sometimes the idea wasn’t the part of the equation that didn’t add up. Right. Sometimes it ultimately was the timing. And I think that’s, that’s important for us to remember too.
Akua Konadu
So the third lesson, which I thought was really, really good, critical feedback is a gift if we are willing to receive it. And so I want to share your points on that because they weren’t they were good.
Natalie Franke
Yeah, look, there is always going to be critical feedback and meta has had its fair share. Over the years, I have been incredibly vocal about a lot of my issues with Instagram in particular, and just mainly as it impacts independent business owners. But one thing in particular, that’s that’s important note about threads is that, you know, well a lot of creators loved the shift towards more visual assets. likes of Instagram, it’s always been a photo based, you know, originated, I should say as a photo sharing app and then has moved into an entertainment app. People did love some the shift to video, but a lot didn’t. There was a lot of complaint about the overemphasis on the algorithm when it came to video. And that was a very, very loud, disruptive part of the conversation for quite a while. And what’s interesting is that, you know, whenever we receive critical feedback, it can be so easy for us to just immediately dismiss it be like, I don’t want to hear it. Don’t tell me what you don’t like, I don’t have the emotional capacity to navigate that right now. Like just, it’s it’s easy to get defensive, and to not listen and write and to like, just go in a different direction, or keep pursuing the direction that we want to pursue without the input of our clients or customers, in this case, users. But what’s what’s important to note here is that threads in a lot of ways, whether intentional or not, is a solution to that very vocal complaint. In a world where Instagram became, you know, such a heavy lift for creators to navigate, meaning they had to create the video, the photo, there was so much work that went into simply hitting publish with threads, you barely have to lift your fingers, right, you hit a couple keys, and you can put your ideas out into the world similar to how obviously what has made Twitter so successful. And so in doing this, and in kind of deviating from the way that Instagram operates in terms of content creation and consumption, by creating something that is more simple, that is easier to execute upon. They took that feedback again, I don’t know if that was very much an intentional part of the strategy here. Or if behind the scenes, they were more like, oh, Twitter’s having a vulnerable moment. Let’s get them. Right. I don’t know. But what I am seeing is that it filled a void, it filled a void for so many people on Instagram, who were saying, I just don’t have time to create these videos or people that didn’t want to go on Tik Tok, I saw a post on threads that were like, finally, I don’t have to dance to get my point across. I don’t have to point and find viral audio, it illuminated, I think an opportunity to kind of step into that criticism and fill the void rather than just doubling down. And that’s a very, very intentional potential route that we can we can take away as independence, especially as it relates to how we navigate our client relationships or client flow.
Akua Konadu
Oh, 1,000%. Like just asking yourself, when you receive that feedback, again, just coming instead of getting defensive is just how can I best serve and help the people that I’m working with. And again, like every single time that you are providing a good client experience, it just ups the chances of word of mouth is the best form of marketing, right? So you want people talking about the experiences that you’re providing, when you’re not in the room to get you more clients. And so I think, again, it’s just so important when you get that critical feedback, just instead of getting defensive, just ask yourself the questions coming from, again, a place of curiosity as to how you can improve. So I think that’s just so important. This fourth point, I think is really important to highlight that experience is everything. And friction is failure. And we wanted to highlight this point, because let’s just take a second to think about it when threads launched, right, the process to sign up for the account was seamless, so seamless, and you can start using it right away, right? You had all you had to have as an Instagram account, your username was the same as your Instagram, the immediate feed of just existing followers, right, your bio transferred over, you can have your links transferred over your headshot was transferred over all of that it felt it was very intuitive and felt very familiar when seeing it for the first time to where like you had no problem hopping in. Not only that, let’s talk about how easy it is to share content between the two platforms, I don’t have to go into camp anymore on quite these Twitter posts. Because a lot of us I never use Twitter, I’m only on Twitter just to see what’s trending. I don’t ever post content on there. I didn’t it just wasn’t serving me. So the fact that I would have to go into Canva and create this whole tweet post, make it look like I’m on Twitter, and then you know, share it on Instagram, we don’t have to do that anymore. I can literally just share my content and then click to share it on Instagram. And I’m Gucci is we’re good. Like that is seamless. And it makes it so much more easier to post on Instagram and show up in a way that feels good to you. So I absolutely love that. And so it’s just it just bears the question of are we entering into an era where any bit of inconvenience or resistance is unacceptable? What do you think?
Natalie Franke
Yes, yes, we are. We absolutely are. I mean, we can look at other platforms, you know, like clubhouse that have kind of gated access at their their launch moment, in order in again to leverage the psychological strategy of FOMO fear of missing out what’s happening behind the gate. I can’t see it. I need an invite. Seeing everybody asked for invites creating that viral momentum that’s been for the past couple of platforms that have launched in the social media space. That’s been the rinse and repeat strategy, like gait create invitations limit initial, you know, user onboarding, what threads did differently and this is really something We have to hone in on because what it’s what it’s demonstrating here, I believe is a shift in user slash consumer slash customer slash client desire. Where are we? Are we entering an arena? This is the question where FOMO is no longer as powerful as frictionless experience where if there is a hurdle, I’m not doing it. I don’t have time, you know, and I and that that’s a really important thing for us to consider. Because we haven’t seen platforms like clubhouse, maintain, sustain, or even have any type of explosive growth, like what we’ve seen with threads. But when men have made it so simple, when they made it so easy when it was a click of a couple of buttons, and suddenly, I didn’t even have to go looking for my bio, I didn’t have to look for a photo, I didn’t have to remember what link I had, in my profile, everything was seamless. I didn’t have to start my feed from scratch. If I didn’t want to, I had the option to follow folks I was already following on Instagram. So now you’re giving me immediate dopamine hits of content from the very first second, that I open it by removing all that friction and making it so simple. I think it’s illuminating that we have become a society that deeply desires, convenience, and consistent, seamless experience. And, you know, I’m curious to know, from you to like, is this something that you are seeing as a business owner, right? I mean, we talk about client flow all the time, we talk about the importance of it all the time. I want to know, like, is it something you see echoed
Akua Konadu
1,000%? I think you know, I don’t mean this in a mean way off when I’m saying this, but we like to have our handheld, okay, like when I get my services, certain things, I want my handheld, like, you’re gonna walk with me through it all, honey. And so I tried to do that I feel like and now again, like, as Fang, just the innovation and evolution of all of these apps, especially check that everything just making it so much more easier to do things I definitely seen in business, I feel like we have to be asking these questions of how can we make things as easy as possible for our clients. We like we talked about in a previous episode that hasn’t been released yet, like coming out. It’s amazing fire with Lashonda. But just like even simpler as a scheduler instead of going back and forth trying to schedule a meeting, send your scheduler like like any an event, how can we make it even easier from that? You know what I mean? Like, we have to be asking yourself these conversations, because even when you talked about just some of these certain platforms, we talked about this briefly, I shared a lot of you have not heard of it. But like I said, I hang out on Twitter a lot just to see like current events and what’s happening. But there is an app right now called spill and it is very POC people of color focused. And that was a new platform that has just now been created because of 2x Twitter employees that were fired, laid off. So they created this app, again, to try to fill a void with all the misinformation out on Twitter, just it not being a safe space for people of color. And I didn’t join it because it told me I had to have a code. I was like, I’m good. Right, I was tight because I started immediately clubhouse. And I was like, I don’t want to have to like, be a part of the cool kids club just to get in, I just wanted to get into a space where I can just be carefree and build connection. And let’s see if it’s gonna be relevant to me and my business. And it didn’t. So I was like, I didn’t even have a chance to even see it. Because I have to have a code and I don’t want a code, I don’t have the time, I’m not gonna go seek it. So I’m gonna go into a space where like, it’s very easy for me to get what I need, and not have to have those barriers and threads totally just did that with no problem. So I think it just goes to show like, all of these newer apps, let’s just cut the, let’s just cut the barriers, like, Let’s just remove them, well, ding,
Natalie Franke
ding, ding, ding, ding, every business owner should be hearing what Akua just said and have light bulbs going off. Because as a client, you have to remember the clients that are coming to your website that are discovering you on social media, they are having those exact same thoughts that Akua had about the code when it comes to areas of friction that you might not even know you’ve put in place. I’m talking about how much do you charge? Can they find out by looking at your website even a small bit of price transparency? Or are you still kind of living in that era of price secrecy where you’re not gonna put a single number out there? Because again, what is the client potentially going to think and I shared this recently on social media and so many clients? Didn’t book independent business owners were in my comment saying this exact same thing. So it’s very, it’s very much validated, but they’ll they’ll go, oh, gosh, I don’t know what they charge next. I don’t have time, I’m not going to reach out to you to find out, I can’t afford you. I don’t want to feel bad if my budget isn’t up to this incredible desired outcome that I’m looking for. I want you to tell me what you charge. I want you to make it seamless. So I have the information I need to hire to kind of understand whether or not I’m going to book you then we go to contact form. Like is it easy for them to reach out to you?
Akua Konadu
I just want to say that that is my pet peeve. That is my pet peeve if I go to your contact form, because sometimes I don’t like to fill out the contact form. I like to live on the edge. And I’m like, Okay, I just want to email you. I want to go to this contact form. And if you don’t have your email at the top, I’m not doing it. And that’s just me. But I think it’s like, because also too sometimes you have issues with the contact form, sometimes you do, or if you’re not sure it’s gonna go through or whatever. So like, I have mine on my website, or you can email me at hello at Akua canady.com. Just again, it’s just removing, I want to give multiple options.
Natalie Franke
Right? Right, make it even once. Well, once someone reaches out once, let’s say somebody does actually go through, they complete the contact form and they hit submit, how long is it taking you to get back to them, these are points of friction that are so important. I mean, we just as again, platforms like clubhouse have been doing the rinse and repeat, blue sky Megalodon refill. They’ve been doing the rinse and repeat of let’s create a little bit of friction to establish FOMO, rinse, repeat do again, again, again again. And we saw threads do the complete opposite it challenged, you know, kind of a procedural way that we’ve been operating. And that is something yet again, we have to think about as business owners. When we look at our client flow. A lot of us have been saying, Well, if I don’t craft the personalized email that I write from scratch with a blank cursor each time uniquely, when someone inquires, then it’s not a great response. But, you know, that is not the world we live in today. Clients don’t want, you know, a an email that comes five days later, but was hand crafted. And you know, written from scratch. They want an email quickly. We did a survey we saw 86% of clients booked the business that got back to them first. What? Right like I don’t know that that stat I repeated all the time, because it hit me it really challenged me it challenged me because, you know, yes, I want this personalized experience at every touchpoint. But I need to be more discerning about where I’m enabling things to be frictionless and seamless and fast to serve with the customer of 2023 needs and expects, versus where I want to put that personal touch where I want to infuse my uniqueness into my brand in my business. And I think that we’re seeing a shift, I think we’re fundamentally seeing a shift and a change in what people want. And maybe even more importantly, what they expect. And if you put friction, you’re going to fail. You’re gonna friction equals failure first and
Akua Konadu
equals eight friction equals money out the door, honey. That’s what it does when 1,000%
Natalie Franke
final lesson, final lesson,
Akua Konadu
but oh my gosh, okay, you’re gonna do this one, I’m gonna have you do Yeah.
Natalie Franke
People are drawn to people, not perfection, and not curation. We want something real, it has become so evident to all of us that the social media status quo is broken. Yes, it is completely broken. I know it, you know it, Zuckerberg clearly knows it, even as a manager of some of the most successful social media platforms that have ever existed, arguably, most of them. And so when you evaluate what people really want and desire, and then you see an opportunity for them to have that it was, it was absolutely explosive, the way that people poured onto threads, felt that freedom of being able to quickly share what they were thinking about. And take that curated experience out of the equation, we saw people getting unhinged, like completely, just sharing what was on their mind and other people responding to that in kind. And it was really refreshing. I mean, it’s part of the reason we don’t want to talk about how you’re going to market yourself on here, how you’re going to monetize it, because it is not the vibe, it’s not what people want. And if anything, it will do more damage to your brand, and damage to your business to approach threads in that way than it will to simply show up and take your mask off and be your authentic self.
Akua Konadu
People are tired, how many people are tired, I am tired. I think we are all just so tired. And it just seeing threads and the conversations of just pure joy, the energy, the authenticity, the realness, transparency, and fun, people laughing at the most light hearted, fun things. But even if it was a little bit more serious, like people were so supportive, like just the amount of kindness that was going throughout the app. It was very nostalgic, a very like when Twitter first launched back in the day. And I think people just want to hold on to that as long as possible. Because let’s be real here, we know that they are going to monetize this app. We already know that. And so a lot of people are just like, let me just enjoy it for what it is right now and just build focusing on building meaningful relationships because, again, we have been through a lot in the past three years and I think again, the way we gather has changed we are no longer the same Then when we were three years ago, our needs for cute, like, even our needs of what we need within a community has changed. And so I think threads gives people the opportunity to explore, and figure out that for themselves, and just again, that curiosity, space and experimentation space where you get to play, and be fun. And I think like, again, creativity and playing just fuels creativity. And I think this is such a great space to get that inspiration. If you’ve been feeling stuck in your business or, you know, lost in your business, really, just having a good time with no expectations, and just seeing how it goes and what figuring out what works and what doesn’t work for you. i It’s a beautiful thing. And I love that people are doing the best that they can to protect it. But also people are ripping each other’s heads off with that I’m like, okay, yeah, let’s be kind. I just wanna slide that in there behind y’all now,
Natalie Franke
which is why I say like, it could do more damage to your brand to go on and immediately start regurgitating the way that we’ve been trained to market ourselves on every other platform on two threads. I want to share something that destiny Brown at CETA with does noted here because I think this really highlights it. We asked on threads, hey, we’re doing this podcast episode. What do you what do you think in business owners? What do you feel? And here’s what she had to say. She said, highlighting a move towards authenticity in regards to threads, coaches preach about it, but on other social sites, super polished seems to be the hidden message. And that right there is what we are experiencing. And it led me you know, to ask the question, do we as business owners need to reevaluate how we are marketing all together? Does the distaste that we are seeing right now and the desperation for something real on threads, signal a truth that we have been long? Ignoring? Yes, right.
Akua Konadu
Hands down, we are tired, because also too, I didn’t point this out. But there’s another app that also came out that has laminate I think it came from Tik Tok. Right. I think it was made by tick tock that has not taken off at all. I mean, I use it for like a day. But I left because I was like, It’s too curated for me. I wanted something that was more raw and and real. And I think again, we were just trained as marketers, as entrepreneurs, we are just so accustomed to what we have seen with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. And so this is your opportunity to innovate. That’s why I’m like, this is a fun space where you just innovate whatever you’re thinking, and it may be considered out the box, give it a shot, because what I love about this platform is that it’s so simple, but so impactful, like you can make such a big impact by just being just simple simplicity. And so I’m like, Just wheat innovation into that. And I feel like people can have like, find so much new things about themselves and about their business and about others. Because I feel like again, like the way that we market the way that we sell, it’s changing.
Natalie Franke
And I think the challenge with curation that a lot of us have come up against on these other platforms is that it puts us into the mindset not of here’s what I want to say, and here’s how I want to serve. But what are other people going to think, is this curated enough? Is this matching my perfect brand? Is this on my brand voice and tone or not? And, you know, in my new book, gutsy I did a lot of research on the behavioral inhibition system, and came upon some research that essentially said, if you spend your time becoming stuck in this, this feedback loop of what are other people going to think if I do this, how does this you know, how is this going to be perceived? What are their opinions going to be? Am I going to be judged? Am I going to be criticized, if that is the train of thought you over sort of over stimulate this behavioral inhibition system in the brain and it means you can’t take action means you’re not going to do anything. You’re going to sit there overthinking about overthinking about other people’s opinions of overthinking and you’re not going to do the darn thing. And why I note that is because curation has become very much restrictive way of operating as a business. And we’re realizing that the business owners don’t like it. And the clients don’t like it, right, the polished fake version that we’ve been trained to, to create for ourselves on the internet. It’s not it like it’s it’s not the future. And what threads is illuminating is that you can step beyond all of that learning that’s been drilled into us, especially those of us who have been business owners for a very long time. And you can play again, you can be yourself again, you can show up and have a little bit of fun. And watch the response as it happens. We’re craving something different. We’re craving something real. And this could be a really pivotal moment. I think in the way that we show up online. We’ll see only time will tell. You know, which is also important to note for anyone out there listening to this, like we don’t know if this platform will sustain we’re doing this bonus episode. We’re recording it on Friday, July 7, that’s gonna go live on Monday. We’re only a couple of days out from the launch 48 hours really from the launch of threads. So much is going to happen even in the next 48 Before we hit publish, and, you know time will only tell whether this continues. And I want to kind of close with that and saying that this is meant to be fun, go have fun, enjoy it. But if you don’t have the emotional bandwidth or capacity right now to leap in and explore this app, your business isn’t gonna crumble and the world isn’t going to end. I don’t care what the marketing gurus have to say about it. Your business is built on relationships, it is built on experience, it is built on how you serve, and whether you can cultivate that joy and service as you grow in scale. That is the backbone of a successful business. Platforms like this can surely help to get the word out about who you are top of funnel, there’s no doubt about it. And I’m sure in the months to come, there’ll be more marketing on on threads, whether we like it or not. But at the end of the day, a platform isn’t going to make or break your business. It’s how you serve people. It’s how you show up. It’s about the experiences that you offer. And I think that’s really the key takeaway after over a decade and a half of doing this and trying out nearly every platform we jokingly mentioned today, right, that I personally have taken away.
Akua Konadu
I don’t even have anything to add from that, because that was just so dang good. Like, it’s so true, right? Like, if you don’t have the bandwidth that is okay, do not allow I know you’re probably seeing all include myself. We’re all threading. I think that’s the correct term now threading, but you know, sharing it, but you know, again, like focus on you, if that’s if you don’t have the capacity, if it’s somebody doesn’t bring you joy, if it’s causing you anxiety, or fear or anything like that, like, you don’t have to do it. You know what I mean? Like, just do what’s best for you and your business. That’s all that matters, because your business certainly isn’t going to crumble like it really isn’t. What matters is the relationships that you’ve built, and how you continue to serve what you said how you continue to serve the people that you work with. So this has been a great episode. I’m excited to see what happens. But again, I will me personally, I will be coming from a very playful and curious space. So looking forward to it.
Natalie Franke
Yeah, this is an exciting moment. Okay. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you all enjoyed it. And be sure to also if you do check out threads hop on over to threads honey books on there. I’m on there at Natalie, Frank Akua. What’s your handle over there
Akua Konadu
at Akua konadu underscore?
Natalie Franke
Yeah, come find us and spark up a conversation. Let us know if you like it if you don’t, what your thoughts are, we are going to be learning how to do this thing together. And we’re really excited to have you as part of the journey. Thank you all for listening.
Natalie Franke
That ends our episode of The Independent Business Podcast. Everything that we’ve discussed today can be [email protected]. Head to our website for access to show notes, relevant links and all of the resources that you need to level up. And if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss our future content. Drop us a review and leave our guests some love on social. Thanks again for listening
