You can use social media to provide a lot of value to your audience, clients + students.
One catch, however, you want to stand out and create dazzling graphics!
That's why I invited Katya Varbanova, the creator of The Viral Content Club, to chat about her journey + process for going viral online!
In today's episode, we talk about:
And here are her products so you can grab what fits best for you!
You can use social media to provide a lot of value to your audience, clients + students.
One catch, however, you want to stand out and create dazzling graphics!
That's why I invited Katya Varbanova, the creator of The Viral Content Club, to chat about her journey + process for going viral online!
In today's episode, we talk about:
And here are her products so you can grab what fits best for you!
Are you ready to get your brand seen worldwide, ready to learn the exact strategies that have made millionaires want to know the secret software's I use to save time, energy and keep things running and profitable with the minimal team. It's all here on my show the visible entrepreneur. I'm your host, Michelle Lewis, founder of visibility vixen. After hitting the top of the charts in France, the UK, Australia, Canada, and Singapore, the visible entrepreneur is back for season four with some of the biggest names in the business. I'm asking them to spill detailed information about what's made them so successful, specifically, their traffic and income generators. That way you can take notes, study the strategy that will work best for you, and see success in your own lead and revenue generation. We're all about honesty here and I'll never stop working to get you the support you need and pushing you to give back to the planet. After all, entrepreneurs are changing the world. Welcome back to the visible entrepreneur. Hey, welcome back to the visible entrepreneur. I'm here with one of my favorite people, someone who has made a big impact on my business the way that I look at value ladders and is just I think a very genuine, incredible person. So I am here to introduce Katya Barba Nova Hello, darling, welcome to the show. So happy to be here with you. Thanks for so much for coming on. I am excited for the audience to get to know you to understand more about what you do. So why don't you give them a little screenshot about yourself and your evolution over the past year. Amazing and no problem. I'll try to keep it short. But basically, a couple years ago, I had zero social media presence. I had no brand, no business, and no practical experience with social media. I had a sales and marketing background over the last decade. But particularly with social media I was I've never made money through social media prior to starting this business. So zero followers zero. And then as we're recording this today, we have over 10,000 paying customers and over 100,000 audience across the board on all platforms, email lists, like email list is now at 20 22,000, something like that. And we have grown really, really fast. And we have done it with integrity. We've done it with a mixture of organic and paid ads, profitable paid ads, very important. And over the last five to six years, I have been sharing my journey as I go along. The first year when I grew my first 30,000 followers, I was sharing how I did that. And then from there, it just continued and continued. But like I said, I started from absolutely no brand awareness, no business nothing. And back in 2015, I stumbled across periscope when it was really trendy. And I grew a following really really quickly and moved it onto Facebook and then started a membership on the back of that, which is today 20k nation. And you're a part of that. So you have seen 20k nation in the last two years, but 20 minutes you started in 2015, which is nuts, man. And yeah, that's how it all started. And over the years after generating millions of impressions, millions of dollars for myself for clients, just with the power of Instagram and Facebook. The number one question I get is how do I reach my ideal clients? And I have done a lot of viral pieces for myself for clients. And people often come to me and say, Katya, I want to go viral, help me out. And that's what we do. We help people go viral and get paid with Instagram and Facebook. And we do it on a really massive scale. And I'm really in the business of helping those people who they have knowledge and they have a message that they really care about. And they're just like so frustrated that nobody knows about it's like, oh, I have this competitor who's like, like a total total, like total, like asshole that I would never pay money to and they're more successful and everybody knows about them their fraud, they stole, they stole content and they became successful. I need to I need to it's my obligation to Share my message into built the brand and do it the right way. Those are my people. I love that and I think everyone I know I can I can relate to that feeling I can relate to that frustration. You know, I came from Hollywood into this business thinking I'd never deal with lying and cheating and stealing again. Joke's on me, it's hysterical. But I love that you're covering this and just for people who are listening to this and are curious, like, okay, Michelle, how did you connect with Katya? How did all this happen? I've actually watched her for years, I ran into her at a party in San Diego. And I thought, you know, I'm going to look more into what she does, because I wasn't super familiar with it yet. I had seen some of her viral videos. So I started watching her. And so when she had the opportunity to join 20 he nation open, I was like, You know what, I'm gonna give it a shot, like, let's see, because I've you know, I've been through so many memberships programs mentorships Oh, my goodness. And the reason why I joined and the reason why I stayed is because she's very transparent. She's very kind, but she's very firm, which I really appreciate where she's like, okay, here's what we need to diagnose. Here's what you need to work on. And you need clarity, clarity, clarity, clarity. So I have pretty much followed everything she's done, I'm going to link everything she offers below, because I think you'll really, at least at the very least, enjoy her viral content templates. And she also has a membership. So if you want to, if you're on your phone, just exit out while you're still listening to the podcast, open up Instagram, go to visibility vixen. And I want you to scroll through the feed. Because for the past six months, I've been using her membership in my feed. And I just love the way it looks. I love how it educates my audience. So you can check out those templates. And if you're interested, grab those via the link below that so that you can customize them to your brand and start releasing it. So let's talk about that. kodjia, let's talk about how this idea for these templates came to you and how you were able to over the past year, totally revamp your own value ladder. And what does that look like now? What is that customer journey look like? Yeah, so it was December of 2019. where I was, I was obsessed with studying Instagram. It was the first time I really thought about taking Instagram. Seriously. Before that I was more obsessed with Facebook. I've always been on Instagram and I have 1000s 1000 followers, but it wasn't really my platform number one. And I studied it obsessively. And I noticed the pattern of what was going viral. In other words, what was going on the Explore page, what was getting 10s of 1000s of likes, which then was resulting in 10s of 1000s of followers overnight. And I've always been interested in what what is trending and I noticed this pattern of these infographic style templates that were popping up. And they were really spreading out. And I looked around on Creative market Etsy Google to find if there was any templates out there, and I couldn't find anything. What I found were on Canva there were advertising templates, like you know, those ones that say, oh, sell 50% off. Okay, that doesn't help. So there were a lot of these fashion and sale and ad and like Happy Birthday templates, those like short quote ones, though, there were a abundance of those that I was like, No, that's not what I'm looking for. What I'm looking for is I'm looking for something that can provide value for my audience that doesn't need a caption, like, you know, usually you provide value in the caption and you just put a photo, I was like, No, I want something that can provide a value in the photo. Because Because most people don't read captions, if they can see the photo, and they can get value, they'll share it. And if they share it, I will go viral, and I will grow and etc. So I figured, you know, I'm just gonna create some for myself, I'll just write some for myself. And then I thought, Wait, if I make this for myself, I bet some of my audience might like this. Let me try. So I went out and put a post and said, I'm thinking of doing is would you buy it? So I put a checkout page to pre sell it. And this is one of the strategies that I teach in 20 Nation, which is always pre sell before you sell. And I pre sold a 1300 of them and we made $36,000 before the product was even finalized. Amazing. Yeah, I love that. You were Yeah, right. So you are one of the original people. Let me ask you this when I was offering it Then did you think all catches on to something cool? Or did you or did you just think looks fine? Who knows? I thought you were onto something because it was something different that I hadn't seen before. And when I saw how many comments you got, I was like this is interesting. I'm sensing a pair that I got to be at the front row, and I got to watch it. And then after you sold the templates, when you came up with the idea for the membership, I got really excited because I thought, I'm all of I'm not really someone who loves to be out in the public constantly, it tends to drain my energy a little bit more, I'm really a pre planner. So if I can, like with these episodes, and with the graphic templates, like I release new content weekly, but I also store it so that when I need a break, I have content rolling out for as many weeks or months as I need. So I loved with your templates. I have a bank on social B of I think 100 and something. So I, I've used it incredibly in my business, it's been absolutely wonderful. That's so good. And the story of how the club was born actually is interesting, because we sold about 3000s of maybe 5000. I can't remember the exact number. But it was the summer of 2020. And I have been thinking about creating a membership really, really thinking about it purely because I just was getting customers that were saying I love your templates, I want new ones every I want more, I want more. That was the biggest feedback that I got. So I decided okay, I might play with it. But I kind of put it aside just tinkering in my head. And then one day, I wake up and one of my customers to mirror text me on a on an Instagram post and messaged me says, You see this girl ripping your your bring your product off. And I was like, there was this woman with over 50,000 followers, so who knows if they were real, but anyway, she was a social media marketer with a ton of mutual friends who bought my product, and literally just like change the colors and and literally just go what goes and resells them as our own and sell a ton of it. I got so mad. And here's the kicker Michelle, I saw her that she was gonna offer a membership off the back of them to the people that bought my templates. And I was like, and she was like, I'm gonna not and she was like, I'm going to launch this next week. I'm like, there is no way this woman is launching this membership before me. So me and my other half Jamie, we sat down and within 48 hours, we had the checkout ready, I had a mini sales page explaining the whole thing, the idea, I didn't really have the time to think so I just made it up. And I was just like, this is the offer, what's gonna be this is how much and we ended up raising over $45,000 in two days for the club as pre sales. And that's how the club started. And today we have over 1000 members in nine months, which is missing. Same, right? Well, it all started because of because of someone stealing your stuff. And that has not been the first person I know. I've seen the stories. It's not but and you know, side note, protect your intellectual property. Katia is very good at that. But yeah, I think that's fascinating, though. And just so you guys know, the way that she did this. At first, she offered a lifetime membership, which I thought was really smart, because, and correct me if I'm wrong, Kathy but you used it as seed money to get everything built and get the T Exactly. Nice. Right? Exactly. I used it as the seed money to hire the best branding team. I use it as seed money to hire a full time designer because we were going to need to obviously pay the entire team to spend the time doing it. And we eventually ended up raising 84,000 total in lifetime membership fees before we ever launched it properly. So yeah, at 4000 it kind of gives you when you when you can launch something and make money from day one, it really kind of keeps you motivated to keep going and and it kind of it's not because oh I'm paid nicely for it. But it's because it kind of tells you there's a market for this and this is something that is definitely the right direction. And that's what I was most excited about that I saw the potential of it. And I figured I'm going for the moon with this let's get 1000 5000 10,000 members let's see what we can get. Let's not even put a cap on it. And you know that's that's not the business model for many people. Many people sell you know 510 5000 $500,000 programs and to five people or 10 people and I just get excited by the possibility of reaching 1000s globally just that excites me and you know, that's why memberships are my jam. Love it. So with a lot of people when I asked them about their traffic and income generators, they are separate things, yours or not. So I would love for you to cover why how you came up with that new strategy, what that looks like and what your current value ladder is. Yeah, absolutely. So my current value ladder looks like this. You I drive traffic to a paid offer, the viral content templates, the price varies, but if you grab it at a good spot, you might be able to get it for 30 bucks if you hurry up. And but it varies between 30 to $130, the whole offer that it starts with, and that's the initial purchase, and I just drive traffic straight to that I drive ads, I drive organic social media traffic, I think I get some organic search as well to it, but I also do affiliate traffic to it as well. And then from there, we have great people into the membership, which is we've made it super accessible for any entrepreneurs even starting out. So the price is always very affordable. I'm sure, if you check out the links Michelle shares with you, you'll be able to see how much it is at the time while you're watching it. And then after that, there is a another level membership, which is 20k Nation, which is where Michelle came in first. And 20k nation is all about selling and launching digital products profitably from day one, kind of like I have done. So that's kind of the value that are at once. And then on the back end, sometimes I do consulting, sometimes I do done for you branding, design services, you know, from $10,000, plus projects and stuff like that. And sometimes I do speaking and get paid for that sometimes I get to make money from affiliates, like promoting other people's offers that I really love and believe in, I've made quite good, quite good money promoting Michelle's publicity pitch kit actually, just from just from my network. So you know, thanks, Michelle, and everybody for creating awesome products we can share with others. And then yeah, that's pretty much a very simple value ladder, three core products between 30 to $2,000 a year. And it makes it super simple. But 95% of our revenue comes from products that don't require one on one attention from me, they are all passive, semi passive or group activities, basically 5% comes from one on one done for you, etc, etc. And then the reason you said that I don't diverge, I don't separate traffic generator from income generator is because I actually don't have lead magnets, I don't really do freebies, I used to do freebies years ago. And I built this email list of 5000 people. And anytime i'd launched my membership, I'd get like 50 people to join my membership. And I was like, this list sucks. Very hard. There were very targeted people, the lead magnets I always picked were super targeted. And I got amazing feedback about them. But the truth is, people download PDFs and don't read them. people sign up for videos, and don't watch them. It's just, there's just so much information, people don't want that anymore. So I stopped doing I just thought, you know, I'm not gonna stop doing freebies, and I'm just gonna do a paid offer two reasons. One, there is word chance that they would use that. And to even if they don't use it, I have a credit card on file and a customer who is looking for a solution to their problem. And they will they're willing to buy. And that's a huge difference from the first batch of list members that I had that were just like downloaders. And my friend Shaw always says get buyers, not browsers, buyers, not browsers. That's how she says that. And yeah, that's why I don't do freebies, I like buyers, not browsers, browsers, feel free to browse on Instagram. Like if you don't want to buy, go follow me on Instagram browse, do whatever you want there. But I'm not interested in building a whole funnel to get more browsers. I already have browsers here. And that's how I think people can look at their business model. And I think it's very freeing to look at a different way of running your business. And I think it's important that we keep pivoting and what I've seen at least since you've changed to this model, is explosive growth. So I think that that's pretty amazing. And I would love for you to just have a little brag I know you celebrated a huge milestone a couple weeks ago. So I would love for you to share that with the audience. If you feel comfortable. Oh, of course. So we have, I mean, I mentioned we've done over 10,000 customers now, and our list is 22,000 people. But our kajabi platform, I think that's what you're referring to, we crossed a million dollars on kajabi with low ticket offers. And that doesn't even include, like, so much of our revenue that's just through PayPal through wire transfers, thrive card, we our entire 20 kenisha. Membership is on thrive card. So that doesn't even include that. I, I'd have to look at the total number that we've generated so far. But it's definitely close to if not more than even 2 million so far. So I'm finger I'm Fingers crossed, that it's more I have to look at one of these peoples that I don't I try not to get too obsessed about the numbers, which is great. That's super healthy. But what I wanted to see was how exciting it can be and how well it can be. If you're thinking about doing something similar, like this is how the podcast pitch kit was born that upsold into podcast weekly, and then the land like that all comes from this system. So if it's something that's been on your mind, you may want to think about taking those steps and trying it out. If you've been frustrated and burned out with freebies, try something else and see how it works for you. Or if you've been burned out and frustrated by high end high maintenance client. Yes, that's actually what burns me out that I was selling high ticket, and I am naturally an over giver, and over givers and high ticket is a no, no, it is a recipe for disaster unless you do it really well. Unless you have really good gatekeepers and like, Yeah, you got to, let's just say that over givers and high ticket and get your boundaries to a whole other level. So yeah, with my low ticket items, there's no problem in that sense. People don't expect the moon people definitely don't message me expecting me to do to do it for them, I can tell you that. Absolutely. The last thing I'd like to share with you a little bit about his personality types, because that's what really interested me when I first came into 20k nation is that you were like, on it with every single type in me figuring out what my type was. So how did that journey start for you? What's your type? And how have you use that information to shape your business model. So I'm personality typing has been huge on my heart and I still use it to this day, I just don't teach it as much because I realized I'm passionate about using it not about teaching it because it's very overwhelming for somebody with a DD ADHD so so it's a lot of 16 different trainings for 16 different times at ABC. So, uh, when it comes to the personality typing, I found that I was really good at using it. So I personally, I mean, I've tried all sorts of stuff I've done so much personality profile on there from union psychology types to MBTI test enneagram test Human Design, astrology, like, if there's a system I have tried it. And the I was using The MBTI for a while to teach The MBTI types because that was the most widely known. And since it's the most widely known, it was easier to say, Hey, are you an INFJ? Here's how you market your business. Hey, are you an estp here's how you market your business. So I did. So I always knew I was an ENFP way before I even started my business, I came across a study that was like this is definitely me 100%. And over the years just studied for personal reasons. And one of the things that I do is I actually build my business in a way that works for me, like my business model doesn't include planning six months ahead. Nf peas are in planners, and if peas or doors we like to do and plan after. Some people cannot do that some people like to plan first and do after right? Because if they don't have the plan in place, they don't feel confident to take the action. I'm the opposite. If I have the plan in place, it actually feels to me keeps me stuck and I feel like I have to stick to the plan or else and it just gives me anxiety. So just making sure that I build a business around who I am rather than trying to fit who I am into a business, which is what most people do what most people do Michelle, they look at like, they like that's it Look at you, Michelle. They look at you. And they're like, wow, Michelle is so inspirational. She has a podcast. Maybe I should do a podcast too, because I want to be like, Michelle, and it's like, Well, wait, do you let Do you even like podcasts? Do you listen to podcasts? I don't. So for me, if if he, you'd have to pay me a lot of money to convince me to start a podcast, like, I'd have to find like a really big sponsor to really motivate me to do it. And then other people, like you were like, Oh, my God, I love talking to people I love featuring stories. I love interviewing. So, but most people look at you, Michelle, and go, Well, I'm gonna do what she does, instead of thinking, instead of thinking does what Michelle do would fit me they think, oh, how do I fit myself to be like, Michelle, and that's the biggest issue. I think that's a huge issue. We see it all the time. And people have these cult followings of these industry leaders, and then they try to form themselves to be that person. Exactly. And then they fail. And they blame themselves and feel frustrated. And I like that person. Yeah, even worse, somebody Mm hmm. So I think that this is such a key point, feel into and study your own strengths and weaknesses and figure out what's going to be naturally lent to your personality, especially if you're working for visibility. So I think that that's an incredible point. So for someone who is feeling a little energetically drained from their current business model, whatever it may be, what would your advice be? delegate whatever drains you ASAP, or remove it completely. Honestly, that's what I do. Whenever I'm stressed my other half who does a lot of my back end and operation, he would be like, cachia, can you write down on a piece of paper, everything that stresses you out right now and everything you don't want to deal with? But you know, you should? So I'm like, okay, so I write this list of things. And then he goes, right, give it to me. And then he starts taking over, right? So that's what, that's what helps you when you're drunk, because I have this philosophy about burnout. And burnout. burnout does not come from how much you work. It comes from what you spend your time working on. If I spend an hour building automations, I would be dead for the week. If I spent an hour teaching, I'm like, let's go another hour and another hour until my voice starts cracking, then it's like, Okay, my body wants me to stop. Right? Or if I did, or if I was to create content, I love creating, I love expressing I love. I love being creative, and coming up with ideas and brainstorming and brainstorming with my clients and all that stuff. And I know that about myself, so I don't delegate that. I don't delegate that even if I can that's like why that's the thing that energizes me. So that's really the secret. Do the things that energize you cut through everything else and, you know, delegate it. That's a really interesting perspective. I have not heard that before. But it is so true. That's amazing. And I think that, you know, there's so much that you can do if you're listening and you're like, well, I don't have a team, I can't outsource get, I totally get it. And there's so many different software's out there that can help you. And maybe if you're saying well, but I'm doing a lot of client calls, and I'm feeling Brown, maybe you can pivot a little bit, maybe you can't, you know, especially your clients. Exactly. And maybe you can start encapsulating that knowledge into this type of value ladder that we're talking about. I know that it's really made a difference for me. And it really helped me when I was thinking about, okay, I think I'm gonna start a PR firm, I had to sit down and go Okay, just because it's a great idea doesn't mean it's a great idea for me. And so I had to reevaluate what does give me energy what exhausts me and figure out a different model. So I think it's a really great idea to sit down look at what energizes you what drains you and act accordingly so grounded wise? Okay, so thing. Go ahead. Yeah, hit me. I was just gonna add, you have to decide what role you want to play in your business. It is very difficult to be the coach and the market here. It really is. I really struggle with both hence why I do memberships and marketing because memberships are group. There's limited time a lot of spending. But if I have to do done for you, coaching consulting work for more than like I can, I can't I don't like having more than three clients and I know people listening to this, some of you listening, have 510 15 clients 20 clients that you have calls with. I'm sorry to say to you, but you have to choose If that's the role you want to continue doing, that's cool, but you're gonna have to hire somebody to take on the sales and marketing. Yep. Yep, absolutely. I think you have to stay in your zone. And you have to figure out what marketing works for you like, what is what doesn't stress you out, I guess is what I'm trying to say. As you know, I've had fears around ads and ads management, that's something that really stresses me out. And so what did I do before I committed to ads, I really worked organically with Pinterest until I was at a point financially where I could hire an organic Pinterest manager, because then I knew I was having a bottom line of 200 leads a month, you know, so you have to do what works for you. And what gives you more energy. So as we wrap this up, darling, any final advice or excitement that you want to share? One thing I'll leave you guys with is the analogy that I love to share about building a brand through social media. There's two ways that you can get clients and build your brand on social media, you can cast a net and catch a fish, so to speak in the ocean. In other words, you can chase clients and dm them and push them and offer them like, Hey, I know you don't know me, but we're in the same Facebook group. And I'm hosting a free webinar that I think you're going to love yet you can be that person if you wish, no shade I will for I will always respect somebody that hustles. But there's a better way. And I want everybody to know that there is a better way. And that other way is what I call build your coral reefs build your coral reef garden. And in other words, create a social media presence and a coral reef garden that's so attractive that all the fishes in the ocean want to come to all the clients in the industry want to work with you. All the people who are interested in your content want to follow you and you don't have to push them. You don't have to convince them you don't even have to ask them. It's just it's your social media presence, your content. Your brand is just so attractive, valuable and different that they can't stop following you. They just they just gravitate. And yeah, I believe in building your coral reef garden. And you can make your message famous when you do that. And it is the more fun way to do it two beautiful, very wise words, my dear. If you're interested in pursuing a career with Katya, if you want to start looking at her templates, or 20k Nation, check the links below, feel free to connect and what I would love for you to do I know it would mean a lot to both of us. Take a screenshot of this episode on your phone, share it on Instagram stories and tag both of us we would love to see what made an impact on you in this episode. In the meantime, we have more incredible guests coming your way. But I just want to take a second and thank Katya for her time. She doesn't do a ton of interviews. So you guys are really special. And I appreciate you coming in and sharing your message with them, Katia. So thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. And thank you all connect with us on Instagram. I hope you loved this episode as much as I did. Now, we're all about building a tribe here as the visible entrepreneur, so be sure to subscribe, leave a five star review and then head on over to the Facebook group. It's a great place where you can practice your video, live stream and really enjoy the community that we have built. In the meantime, I'll see you in the next episode. Now get out there and get more visible.