Scaling Up Success Podcast

From Netflix to New Leads: How Lindsay Anderson's Social Media Agency Drives Business Growth

• Ryan Van Ornum • Season 1 • Episode 9

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Lindsay Anderson brings two decades of social media expertise to this energizing conversation about creating authentic digital marketing strategies that truly convert. As the founder of a successful social media agency for service-based businesses, Lindsay shares refreshingly honest insights—starting with the truth that “you are not an influencer.” Her method centers on consistency and clarity: she turns a single monthly interview into 30 strategic posts using AI, encouraging entrepreneurs to focus on one platform where their audience actually is, rather than spreading themselves too thin. Her advice directly tackles the biggest challenge most business owners face—maintaining a consistent presence without burning out.

Lindsay also reframes the role of content in a business’s growth, calling it “frosting” while emphasizing the importance of community-building and authentic connections. With algorithms now prioritizing personalized content over follower counts, she makes the case for quality over vanity metrics. She dives into the power of systems and team-building, especially for visionary founders like herself who aren’t naturally detail-oriented. By hiring the right people and embracing time-blocking, she’s built a thriving business while raising three kids. For those ready to turn social media from a chore into a lead-generating machine, her masterclass at LindseyA.com provides the roadmap to building a social presence that drives real business growth.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/cynergists

https://www.youtube.com/@CynergistsVA

https://www.facebook.com/cynergistsva

https://www.instagram.com/cynergists/

https://www.tiktok.com/@cynergists?lang=en

Speaker 1:

What's up everybody. This is Ryan Van Ornam and you're back at the Scaling Up Success podcast Today. I got a great person here. We have Lindsay Anderson man. She has so many different things going on and I can't wait to dig into just everything that she has her hands in. Lindsay, thank you for being on the podcast today.

Speaker 2:

Ryan, so excited to be on. Thanks for having me Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Well, let's just, let's just jump into it. Like you know, tell us a little bit about what you do, because you've got so many different, different angles that you're working.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, my main bread and butter and the one that I love most of all is my social media agency, where, where we create high quality content for service providers, and so social media is. You know, it can be such a problem for so many people, but it's something that I was on Facebook when it first came out 20 years ago. I've ran this agency for 20 years, so I you know that's my main bread and butter. I'm real passionate about that. Secondarily, I was recently on Netflix on a reality show, so that might be something fun about me as well. So a little bit of both of those is kind of how I roll there, ryan.

Speaker 1:

Man, that's super cool, though, like I mean, you know, it's so interesting how, like industry has changed in the last like decade, you know, because, uh, technology is taking our society in so many different facets that maybe we wouldn't even seen like a decade or two ago. And I mean your business is is that it's thriving in that sector and it, it, it's super cool to be able to see, you know, like, uh, you know, I, I kind of related back to, like you know, around the turn of the century. You know, the mode of communication was, was the printing press, and you look now, you know how quickly modes of communication are changing. It's, it's, it's fascinating. And to be able to build out a social media platform like that to help businesses grow, man, that's phenomenal. So tell us a little bit more, go into a little bit more detail about how you achieve that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you speak about AI. Like I'm obsessed, ryan, like this weekend it's Saturday of all days and I meet, I pay for chat, gpt and I still hit my max because I'm talking to it too much. I think my husband's going to like turn me in. You know, like hey, she has a problem because I love it. It it's a more organized version of me. I can bounce ideas off of that, but it really allows us check this out because of AI and how much I know about um, social media and how to really target that.

Speaker 2:

The number one problem business owners have, ryan, on social, is remaining consistent on social media and it only works with consistency If you post in ebbs and fits and when you feel like it, you'll be on social media. And it only works with consistency If you post in ebbs and fits and when you feel like it, you'll be. Like social media does not work If you come up with a way to post consistently. Talking to that one true client of yours. It's an untapped goldmine. You can meet anybody that you want to Ryan and I met through social media. You can meet anyone.

Speaker 2:

I'm meeting NFL players, I'm meeting people who've been on Forbes and they like talk to you because you acknowledge them as real people on social. So I get real passionate about it because I love it so much. And, ironically, I wouldn't even be on social media if, like, it wasn't my job, like I'm not personally super invested in it. But because of AI, we're able to take that burden off of companies and what we do is I will interview a business owner for an hour a month and we are able to create 30 high quality posts talking to that one true client in a very efficient way, because I know marketing, I know how to get them to talk, and it allows them to post this consistent content and they get amazing results. And it's because of AI, because I'm able to utilize AI and get what I need.

Speaker 1:

So, when you talk consistency, it's uh, you know, like, I know a little bit about this stuff and I you're, you are the, you are the guru, you're the expert. But, like, with consistency, is that cause I'll, I'll play, I'll play devil, devil a little bit? Do you? Do you mean that they have to post every day, or is it like a certain voice set or tonality? Do they have certain platforms? Like I, you know, like, think of me as, like the, the small business owner that doesn't know how to utilize. Yeah, I got. I got the answer for you, ryan.

Speaker 2:

I love devil's advocate. Like I got my, I got my fists up here, okay. So, number one this is what you guys need to know. You got to pick one platform. You are not an influencer.

Speaker 2:

Okay, when I was on Netflix, I was surrounded by influencers people who had three, four, five times the following is me, but I was making more money than they were like hand over fist. And it's because you are not an influencer. You're not paying for brand deals. What you need is high quality customers and a place to connect with them. So get out of your head that you need to be on every single freaking platform, because then you're just spreading out all the people that you need to see in your community. So, number one find out where your customers are and like that's the only platform you care about. So, whether that be LinkedIn, which is up and coming for B2B, it's like so legit Instagram, those sort of things. Pick one because it's not about the content on the platform. That's frosting.

Speaker 2:

What really driving business from social media is is is reaching out to people, getting to know people, building a community, which means, as I'm scrolling through my feed, I'm supporting people too, and then they're like oh, who's Lindsay? And then we get to know each other, and so you pick one and only one place. So that's to answer that question. And then just your other question and you're probably gonna throw something at me which is how often do we need to post? Okay, my answer is five days a week.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay, that's very helpful for this audience because a lot of times you know small business owners, it it's overwhelming. You know how do I? You know and you guys aren't pros at social media.

Speaker 2:

You guys don't care about what a good camera looks like, you have other problems, you know.

Speaker 1:

Right, and it you know. Light, you know. Does lighting affect it?

Speaker 2:

You know like there's so many different you gotta be a pro on this thing, you know, otherwise they're going to be like they're not a pro.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, do the captions. You know, like all of this stuff, it's. It's incredible, the, the, I guess, whether you call it minutia or the details, how it changes the way that people look at your product.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you have to be very aware of that, and it is detailed, and the reason why it's so freaking detailed is because it's so competitive, right? Even my kids all three of my kids want to be on freaking YouTube, which is wild, so like everybody's on. So you have to compete. So then you have to get into the details, which means you can't be like a social media expert and run your business. I'm sorry, like, if you want it to be a real life lead source, somebody who knows more than you and can like walk you through it, like, otherwise it's going to take you the 20 years it took me to figure it out.

Speaker 1:

And, and each platform has a different algorithm.

Speaker 2:

It's crazy Cause like we're talking about.

Speaker 1:

Linkedin is on the come up again because it's it's it's business to business connections, you know. But if you look at like TikTok, it is all you know, 60 second high energy, you know that may be may not be a good fit for business to business. It may be better fit for someone who has a e-commerce type of thing. You know something like that.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, I mean, I have insurance agents and those sort of things doing stuff on TikTok and get like leads. I think the real key is, as you said, understanding the platform but making sure that, hey, I'm not just making content and then hoping that people will throw their money at me. It will not happen. You need, like, a conversion event and a sales system If you're real serious about it.

Speaker 1:

I mean I guess you're you're talking funnels and everything behind the scenes, right?

Speaker 2:

I mean funnels with today's day and age, with as many AI bots and those sort of things like gone. Gone are the funnels of just sending to a fancy landing page and all this Like. It has to be more intimate. It has to be more personal, but also you have to be able to do that within your business, in a system, so that you're not trying to come up with something new all the time and having to recreate the will and you also have to save time, so it has to be systemized. Intimacy is what we have to go for here.

Speaker 1:

And automated, so you don't have to touch it.

Speaker 2:

That's right, or at least part of it. I like a big part of it, yeah, but I mean I would recommend always a live component, because is that a video? Is that like an AI bot on a video or is that like a real person? And so we have found that the big shift, starting in the end of 24, was that you got to have some sort of live component. So I always recommend a live masterclass that you give on, rinse and repeat. Mine's called an invite only event. This is what I teach invite only event. All those high quality connections. You invite them to a zoom masterclass that you give on, rinse and repeat, and that's how you can really like transfer those social media interests into real customers.

Speaker 1:

And, ladies and gentlemen, that is a $99 conversation right there. That's a $499 conversation right there. Yeah, $900 conversation right there. Guys, it doesn't matter who, who it is, that she's speaking the truth, and it's amazing to just, you know, see the passion that's coming coming from Lindsay. So appreciate you sharing so much of that stuff. How did you be able to take this? I mean, you've been in this for a little bit, but how did you scale this thing? Because I mean, it gets overwhelming, doesn't it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean we manage lots and lots of clients' accounts and all these sort of things. So it comes down to systems and I know business owners hear about this all the time but it really does. Those repetitive tasks that you get down to the minutia of it, that you can sign off to somebody else Uh, it's the only way to scale.

Speaker 1:

And the thing is that I've I've found with that as well is like understanding that you don't have to be good at everything. You just have to be good at hiring the right person that's good at that role and then giving the responsibility and leveraging that person to. To take your business to another level, you have to be able to let go a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and my experience and Ryan, I don't know what it's like for you I'd love to hear which is which is like I kind of feel like in my experience there's two kinds of people. You got your leaders who are I want to speak and I just want to share and I have so much to say and they don't have like this systematic. What does that look like? One, two, three, four, five, teeny tiny steps Like? For me it's. It was dizzying until I hired someone and she taught me how to think that way, but I had to like learn how to think systematically and it was painful. But, um, I feel like people are born in one of those two ways. What, what do you see?

Speaker 1:

I'm very similar to that. I'm a doer. I just go out and just like, take massive action, but I leave a wake of like little minutia behind me that people have to clean up. And and what I found is, until I got to having people that are so detail oriented to be able to pick up the pieces and understand the what we call an SOP, a standing operating procedure, kpis, to be able to track those things, it really changed, like my business operations after that. You know, like a lot of small business owners, they, they, they feel like they're doing everything they can, but what they're doing is leaving business on the table.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. And like all like the new ideas are going to kill you every time Like you need somebody who's like no, this is the plan.

Speaker 1:

We're like sticking with the plan for like six months and getting the information we need, instead of your new, latest, greatest idea, because now you're like sick of the old one. That's also another quality that's not serving a lot of business owners, because that entrepreneurial spirit pushes us that way, but it really ends up because we hate the boring, we hate the systems, we hate the details, we hate being bogged down, but it's keeping you stuck. Phenomenal, phenomenal. I love it. One thing I mean in your industry, it is changing, whether it's the algorithms, whether it's the technology. How do you stay ahead of these things? How do you keep? I mean, it could be like you said you're, you're waking up on the weekends, you're doing research yourself, you're talking to chat GBT and chat GBT is upgrading every couple of months. How do you stay? How do you stay ahead of these trends so you can continue to be the best business partner with your clients that you are?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, first of all, I'm really niched down, so like I help people who want to build and make money from like a personality brand, like you want to be making those talking head videos and driving leads that way, that is my personality. I was just on a call with like a restaurant. I'm like I can't help you, like that's not my thing, so I'm obsessed with it. It's also what I do for my personal brand, so like it, what I do for myself also helps my customers. I do for my personal brand, so like it, what I do for myself also helps my customers. And then, and like I'm able to test a bunch of stuff on myself and then pass it on to my customers, and the fact that I'm just like like I eat digital marketing for breakfast. I always have. I love it, I'm obsessed with it. I have the tech skills to like implement all the stuff and test it all out. I have the team, so it's my, my interest in. I mean you've seen my passion here.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. It's oozing out of every one of your pores. It's amazing. I love it. Um, one of the things that, like cause I'm very passionate too and I I I struggle with this Is this like I call it, like a pendulum swing of work-life balance no-transcript.

Speaker 2:

this kind of energy does not jive with him. And so us leaving you know, leaving the office at five, like he was not interested in talking more about it. So I learned that for the sanctity of my marriage, I had to create real firm boundaries. And that has paid off since we've had three children. And then for me, right now, it's do I, do I want to obsessively be in my office testing some new digital marketing strategy? Yeah, like that is fun to me, right, but like why am I doing it? For my kids and my freedom? So with my kids, and so me it's just clear boundaries and like time blocking, like I, there will always be stuff to do, always. So today's the like it ends at four and then my brain is going to shut off and I will be present with my children. So to me it's been. It has to be a like, a physical choice.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that and I do the same thing. I'm Uber dad. I drive my kids around to school every day. That is their time, you know like, and then I, we have after school and their, their activities and everything. But you know, time blocking is super important for all of that, I agree. So, um, let me let me ask you this question.

Speaker 1:

Um, I I've I keep up with some of the trends, cause, you know, as business owners, you know you kind of have to to understand a little bit about it, like, I don't, I, I let, I let my, uh, my team handle the, the very detailed pieces of it. But like, the way that, like, I guess algorithms are changing. It used to be that it was like follower count, like if the larger follower count, the more that your videos would get seen. Now, what I've been hearing like through, like, uh, youtube and and Tik TOK and some other platforms are slightly changing that LinkedIn not so much. They're still more on the, the, the, the um follower count, but it's more on the topic and it's it's pushed towards different what each person is looking for. Can you talk to a little bit about how those algorithms are changing a little bit over the last couple of years.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I call that the TikTok effect, because we all know you go into TikTok and it's like how does this thing know how I'm feeling today? Like I'm depressed today and I get the depressed ones and I'm happy today and I get, and it's even by the minute right, like it will change on the day. So because it's a computer program and he's picking up on however you're pausing or whatever. So all of the other social media platforms are picking up on that because that's how they keep you on there. You're addicted to the dopamine hits and so what does that mean for business owners?

Speaker 2:

Well, vanity metrics were never like going to serve you anyway. Okay, so you just need to focus on quality over quantity. But to Ryan's point, yeah, it doesn't matter how many view it. The fact is is it's almost by the day when that business owner has said something to their spouse about I need more sales. Then things are listening. Okay, maybe it's not quite like that clear, but like then you're going to get the, the, the Tik TOK or the LinkedIn about you need more sales and it's more about in the moment. So you again have to throw out the vanity metrics and know that those thousand people I know it's not 10,000, but those thousand people are like the people feeling it right now and just that's where it's going.

Speaker 1:

That and that's truly powerful and it's like it could be, and what I've seen, too, is it could. You could have the same video, say, on LinkedIn, instagram and Tik TOK, and it could just absolutely crush on LinkedIn and fall flat on its face in TikTok.

Speaker 2:

Yep absolutely.

Speaker 1:

It's fascinating and I love seeing you know it's getting definitely more personalized to you know, like you said, to even down to the hour, depending on what you're doing. It's pretty fascinating to me. If somebody is starting their journey into the entrepreneurial side of business, what, what advice would you, would you give them right now?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's certainly. Um, if you're serious like, make a choice, if you're going to be serious about it, so are you going to be like a hobbyist which is great and you can do that on the side Fantastic. Or are you really like going to make a run for this, because business, like it, is a game and so you got to learn the rules and be willing to go with the rules and it's going to take some work to actually get the payoff. Our moms always said you don't get something for nothing and like there is no million dollar dream. There is no easy way to make money this way. You got to put in the work and it will benefit you, or you can just kind of like dabble. So just know that, find somebody who can help you. You will not figure out the marketing and the sales and the and the systems and all of the things. You will never figure all of that out. I'm sorry, you just won't.

Speaker 1:

I've always subscribed to the thought process of if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.

Speaker 2:

I love it, ryan, I love it.

Speaker 1:

Oh man, I wish we could talk forever because I love your passion about what you do and this has gone by so quickly, but thank you for your time. And how can people get ahold of you? Because people need, need you and your services. How can they reach you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, all you need to do is head over to Lindsay acom. L I N D S C Y acom. Um, I'm always given a free masterclass. I'm always given out way more details here, so just go there and sign up for my upcoming masterclass.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Well, thank you again, Lindsay. Really appreciate you being on Scaling Up Success podcast today and if there's anything else, we'll definitely. I'm pushing all the people to you and thank you so much for your time today. Thanks, Ryan, All right, enjoy.

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Ryan Van Ornum

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