Michelle Martin Dobbins is a vortex of positive energy, believer in alchemy and the law of attraction, and an advocate of positive thoughts to transform your life into a fun, manifesting adventure. Because that’s what her life is – love, magic, and creation every day – she’s learned a secret, one that she loves to share with her readers every time she writes,
“The way to getting everything you want is to let go and live.”
Remember what it feels like to relax and do the things you love? And then discover, to your delight, that everything you’ve been dreaming of or wanting appears before your eyes?
Michelle enjoys every day and there’s always new creations in the works for her. She knows she has a life to live and she wants to do everything she can to enjoy and experience it all.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
KIMBERLY: You have over 15,000 Facebook followers and so that seems to be your niche. How did you do that? What strategy did you used to gain those followers?
MICHELLE: Well, I will tell you that when I first started out I had like zero, as everybody does. I started calling of my friends and I don’t think Facebook still does that, but you used to have to have 25 likes. So I used to beg like, “Could you please come like my page?” And you know, so I got my little sympathy likes and then I was thinking “how do I do this?” And I remember I linked up with some other authors that were trading likes, and I found out that wasn’t really effective because we weren’t necessarily each other’s target audience, because we all wrote different books and we were just trying to build up likes. And likes for likes does you no good unless you are engaging with your audience. So I did a couple of things and one of them was I set out to do the same thing I do with my blog with my Facebook page, which is uplift other people to be of service to other people.
So I started posting a lot of stuff that I thought I would like to read or I would like to see in my feet. And the other thing, I did start advertising and I followed Sandy Krukowski if you are aware of her. I started taking some classes from her and I liked what she said, which was basically you need to connect with other people and be of service to other people first, and then they’re going to want to buy what you have. If it is something that they need that they don’t have, of course. But don’t sell to people. Sometimes we see people that have a Facebook page that just post their book on there every day or on Twitter feed. Like there is this one guy on my Twitter feed and he cracks me up because no matter what time of day, I pop open my Twitter feed and he is there with his ad. He post every single hour and I am wondering like, one day I just had to laugh and he only has 300 followers or something. I am thinking people are probably leaving in drones because they’re tired of seeing his ad.
Twitter and Facebook are my main ones, and I do a little bit with the others but I really do seek to be of service to other people. And when I was doing services, I advertised those or I made post about them. But I posted about them like one in every 10 posts and I usually post 10 to 12 times a day. That sounds like crazy lots, but I do schedule a lot of them and then sometimes something just pops up and I will share it on spur of the moment. But most of them I get in the morning, I meditate and I crank it through my computer or I do it on my phone and I will schedule my post for the day. Usually once I have meditated, there is something that’s on my mind that I feel like is going to share with others. And so a lot of my posts for the day will have a common theme. I also share a lot of other people’s blog posts or things that are on the same kind of topic too. I started out with a really small budget on advertising; I started out with three dollars a day and then now all I do is $10 a day.
KIMBERLY: That is still fantastic. That is not that much in the bigger scheme of things, for that number, to gain 
that number of followers it definitely shows that you’re doing something right; that’s really fantastic.
Michelle: I tried to look at that. I have also looked at different people and the following number is good but then the people who are engaged with you is something that you want to focus on too, because you can get ads into a whole bunch of likes but if nobody actually engages on your page… I am sure you are aware that Facebook has changed a lot in their analytics, and if people don’t engage, then nobody sees what you post.
KIMBERLY: Engagement is the new SEO, right? That’s the new word.
MICHELLE: Right, and if people are engaging with you then it means that you are being of service to them somehow. You are giving them something of value because if they are going to like or comment on your post, it is something that somehow touched their interest and so it is kind of showing you that you were on the right track.
KIMBERLY: It’s being authentic. And you had a really good point there that I want to kind of honing on for my listeners, is that you can have a big list but a big list does not do you any good if it is not the right list. People seem to forget that and they are like, “Oh, I have 20,000 followers on Facebook.” But you are right, if you are not engaging it and it is not the right people. You have to create conversions into what your product is, so that is a really good point for people to remember.
MICHELLE: Yeah. I know if I take out an ad on Facebook likes, then you definitely want to target specific audiences and think about people whose message is similar to yours and or products or website or magazines that your target audience for you and target those areas in your ad. Like you can do people who read Yoga magazines. There are so many different ways that you can go in there and play with by typing in things, or people who follow certain people and you know that your message is similar, then that is a great place to start if you’re looking at doing some of that advertising. I have read so many places that I try to keep in my brain to which is “don’t just rely on Facebook, because if something happens to Facebook then you have lost contacts. so I am sure you teach everybody to build their own list but almost everybody that comes to my blog comes through Facebook. 60% of the traffic comes through Facebook. So there you have got to have the opt-in to capture their information so that you are going to talk to them outside of Facebook.
KIMBERLY: Please, tell us a little bit about the book so that we know about the process you created.
MICHELLE: I actually worked within Difference Press and they are a small publishing company and they work mostly with bloggers and coaches and people who have Mind Body Spirit type businesses. So part of their plan is to help drive people back to your website from your book. And basically I really enjoyed actually working with them because I have lots of half written books or fully written books that are not edited and lots of little things that didn’t get to completion. But when I worked with them on this book they did all the hard parts. They edited for me, they did the cover, they put it on Amazon. so if you’re someone not like me someone who really likes to play with that kind of stuff and has the time to, then it’s great. But if you’re someone like me who does not get it done and doesn’t have the time, working with the publisher is a great experience. I got to do the part that I like, which was writing, and I did not have to do any of the other parts.
KIMBERLY: And I think that is so key. Mind Body Spirit people forget that we are entrepreneurs as well. So we think of entrepreneurs as crazy business people, but we are still entrepreneurs too, and we just happen to be doing it in a way that we can service other people and love what we do, which is fantastic. But we can’t do it all ourselves and nor should we and that is a nice reminder. Bring in the professionals when you need it and your life will be so much easier. And you will be able to do your unique ability, which is serving people versus trying to edit something or running your own house or whatever it might be.
MICHELLE: Yes, that’s something I have even put a post on my blog about. If you want to increase your own abundance, hire someone. I don’t 
care what you want them to do, find something you don’t like to do and hire someone else, because you’re blessing yourself and your blessing them.
MICHELLE’S eBOOKS
MARKETING AND BUSINESS RESOURCES
Sandi Krakowski’s Facebook Course
Difference Press – publishing company for authors in transformation writing a book that matters
INTERVIEW TWEETABLE
“When I started offering services, I was able to help more people and connect with more people.” ~ Michelle Martin Dobbins
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