We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katie Brinkley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katie below.

Katie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

Of course! Well, to start, I never expected to be an entrepreneur.

I was fortunate to land my “dream job” right out of college where I was the post-game radio reporter for the Colorado Rockies, Denver Broncos, and Denver Nuggets. While I had my share of writing and journalism classes, the amount of business classes I had equalled… zero.

I moved on from radio and found my next passion in marketing. I had a wonderful boss, great perks, and loved every aspect of my job. Leaving never crossed my mind.

As things often go in the corporate world, my company experienced a merger. And after about four months, I was told that my position was being eliminated. And, I had just found out I was pregnant.

Panic set in. I hadn’t planned on looking for a new job, much less learning a new job and then taking maternity leave. As I sat in my boss’s office explaining this to her, she said to me “Katie you are SO GOOD at social media, I would love to have you find a job where that’s all you do.”

As I got up and left her office that day, I thought to myself “Why not?”.

This was back in November of 2016. I went from sitting on my couch late at night figuring out how to build a website and posting to job boards to now owning a 5 person agency.

The key was delegation. The biggest mistake I made with my business was not delegating and hiring sooner. Of course I could do much of the work on my own, but it wasn’t until I was willing to give up some of the tasks I was doing that my business started scaling. I was able to go from four clients to eight. I know as an entrepreneur letting go of tasks can seem daunting (“but they won’t be able to do it as good as me!”) but that was entirely what moved the needle for me. And I wish I would have done it sooner.

My assistant was my first hire and I couldn’t believe the amount of work she took off my plate. Things that would take me just a minute to do really added up tremendously over the course of a day, week, or month.

So, learn from my mistake. If you have something you are passionate about, GO FOR IT. Seriously, just give it a shot. And once you have that first client, bring along a team that can grow with you.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?

I’ve been leveraging social media to grow audiences and income for over 18 years. As I said before, started I started my social media agency, Next Step Social Communications, in 2016 after my boss encouraged me to do something I was passionate about. Helping my clients by teaching them the best social media strategies and taking away the overwhelm of social media has brought me so much joy. Since the time of MySpace, I have helped my clients build a strategy to attract the right followers and generate consistent inbound leads in as little as an hour a week.

As I said before, I was building corporate-level growth strategies for AT&T and DirecTV to now implementing done-for-you social media for solopreneurs and local businesses. I have been at the forefront to the changes in how buyers engage on social media. Utilizing my platform-agnostic strategies, my clients have been able to see bottom-line results at every stage of the sales process.

I definetly think that my history of radio journalism mixed with her social aptitude allows her to bring a unique insight and leverage her client stories to the forefront of their social strategy.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Podcasting and Social Audio. There is something powerful behind hearing someone speak and you can do business at lightning speed. I started my podcast back in Apri 2020 and soon started joining rooms on the social audio app, Clubhouse. Clubhouse is a great way for me to network with other entrepreneurs, do market research, and find new clients. You don’t need to be on social audio all day every day, maximize your time on the app to get in and share some value or meet someone new. You never know what could come from that new connection.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Posting consistently and not worrying about trying to “go viral”.

Going viral is not a business strategy. Consistency really is the best social media strategy. Notice I said posting CONSISTENTLY, not CONTSTANTLY. You can get quality leads and build a community when you show up on social media consistently. Whether it’s three times a week or daily, you need to pick a posting schedule that you can remain consistent with.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nextstepsocialcommunications.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/iamkatiebrinkley
• Facebook: facebook.com/nextstepsocialcommunications
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/katiebrinkley
• Twitter: twitter.com/_katiebrinkley
• Other: www.katiebrinkley.com/socialsales

Image Credits
Art of Her Photography