Emily Merrell  

Welcome to the sixth degree podcast, the podcast where we grill our guests about the things that make them tick and find out how human connection plays a role in their life. I’m your host, Emily Merrell. 

Hello, and welcome back to the sixth degree with Emily Merrell, the podcast where we grill our guests about the things that make them tick, and find out how human connection plays a role in their life. I’m your host, Emily. And today I’m so excited to have my friend Cahner Olson, founder of Cahner’s Digital Media, also a social media strategist as our guest. Cahner, welcome to the show. 

 

Cahner Olson  

Thanks so much Emily, I’m happy to be here. 

 

Emily Merrell  

 I’m so excited to have you here. You’ve been we have had the privilege of doing an Instagram live together. And I feel like our viewers, so I was gonna say listeners, but our viewers got so much value out of that Instagram Live, that I hope that our podcast listeners can have as much value and takeaways as you did, as we did on Instagram.

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, thanks. I yeah, that Instagram Live was really fun. And I’m glad that people got a lot of use out of it.

 

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, it’s definitely Instagram is one of those things. I think social media in general is one of those things that I find comes up as a big resistance for clients. And for people. They’re like, I hate social media, or hate marketing myself. And so actually want to make the the theme of today’s podcast all about some social media and how we can integrate it as a holistic part of our business and inner life. And I just want to first caveat and say, it’s funny, because there’s people in my life, at least that I’m friends with, who are not business owners, and they’re so confused with how I use social media. Because for them, they post a picture of their baby or they post, you know, when they’re at a wedding. And it’s not about the metrics of the likes and engagements. And yet that as a business owner, all we consume ourselves with is like, how did that post do and what did it achieve? And what was the return on investment? So do you see that as well, when you’re normal? And you’re normal as a normal person?

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, yeah definitely. It’s actually really weird to look back at like, like, my posts on Instagram from years ago, when I was just using Instagram for fun and posting like really creative photos and stuff. And now the way I personally use Instagram, and so many other people are just so different. And it really is a whole different ballgame when you’re using it for business versus when you’re just using it to post to your like tight knit group of friends and family.

 

Emily Merrell  

Yeah it’s less of that photo sharing app than they used to be. Which Instagram even said that recently that Instagram is no longer a photo sharing app.

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, so yeah, the head of Instagram, did alive and said that Instagram was no longer just a photo sharing app. So that’s also one thing that people really freaked out about as Oh, my gosh, Instagram isn’t photo sharing anymore. But I think there’s also the distinction to me to be made that he said, it’s not just a photo sharing app. So it very much still is a photo sharing app. They’re just putting just as much emphasis on video these days. And that’s to compete with other apps like TikTok and even YouTube shorts and things like that.

 

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, I think that that just word was very much missed by all of the media outlets who were like, it’s all about video. And that’s it. And I saw so many people spiral. So I think that clarification is super important. So backing up, Cahner, how did you get into the world of social media? How did you take it from posting fun pictures of yourself traveling to actually now working as a social media strategist for other brands?

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, well, so I am a millennial. I’m 27. So I very much grew up in the age of Instagram. I remember when Instagram first came out when I was in high school, and my friends and I were absolutely obsessed with it. We used to run around Omaha, which is where I grew up on the weekends and find the most Instagrammable spots to take photos and stuff. So my journey into this career very much started with photography and started on Instagram, but just being for fun thing that I did with my friends. And then when I got to college, I was kind of exploring majors and actually chose journalism with an emphasis in photojournalism. So I really learned how to you know, tell a story through my journalism classes and how to take photos and use my camera and everything. And so I knew I wanted to go into some kind of like media field just because I really liked photography. And from that, after college actually got a job out in San Francisco working as the marketing manager for a small cookie dough company out there. And so I did a lot of stuff for them primarily their social media and photography and a little bit of web design and basically what They needed done, because I was only the second full time hire that the company had made. So it was a very, very small company. And through that job, I was kind of just networking with a lot of people in the Bay Area and eventually had other people, other businesses approached me and say, Hey, can you run our, our Instagram. And so being a social media manager just kind of fell into my lap, just from the connections that I made and the work that I was already doing. And it just kind of blossomed from there.

 

Emily Merrell  

I love that you took your I love that your story actually starts in high school and Instagram came to be but then also to college and your major. And no, photo journalism is a perfect kind of transition into social media strategy, because you’re strategically, and you have a planet where you’re strategically telling a story with a certain point of view. And that’s what Instagram allows you to do it live kind of allows everyone to be their own version of a photo journalist.

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, and especially for small businesses, like I think of each of the Instagram captions that I’m writing as telling like a little story of that business. So that storytelling aspect and the the ability to like communicate the products of a brand, or the people behind the brand. Like I definitely use all of my journalistic skills in that sense.

 

Emily Merrell  

Yeah. And you have to be a good writer. I think the worst thing is when you see kind of a crappy writer on Instagram, you’re like, oh, grammar police is coming. After you. I’ve had that my uncle I posted something recently, he was like, just love You Hope you’re having a great day, by the way, it’s you. You are not you’re like, oh my gosh, epic fail, which happens a lot more often than not. Also, I cannot believe that you had Instagram in high school and college. I got an Instagram came out. I think it goes about two years after I graduated high school, I graduated college. And part of me thinks like how grateful we were we Facebook just barely had like Facebook pictures as one of the things, but just the FOMO. And like, as a teenager, having Instagram must have been really hard.

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, I remember those days, like, I would post a photo when I was in high school. And you would sit there and see if it got like 11 likes within 11 minutes, because then it had like the little number even back then we’re like obsessed with metrics in a very unhealthy way. Because we weren’t. Social media for business back then. So now it’s definitely really different when we’re looking at metrics. But yeah, if anybody’s interested, they can scroll way back in my Instagram and see all my high school posts that I made.

 

Emily Merrell  

Right? I mean, what a what an experience to have, have gone through high school, like documenting your life on a public platform like Instagram. Yeah, it will be interesting to see like how that that generation evolves and grows, and you know, what their kids will look like? So stay tuned for a reunion in 30 years. will hear more about it? But you know, okay, so a lot of as I mentioned earlier, a lot of, you know, individuals I work with, and businesses I work with really struggle with social media, I think it’s the number one thing people either actively dislike, or choose to avoid, from, you know, showing their face on camera, to Oh, I hate posting or it seems like a waste of time, or I’ve seen so many people get hung up on their numbers. And like, oh, I only have 200 followers. So what does it matter? What advice do you have for people like that, who are really just ready to throw in the towel and not give social media a try?

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, I think that a big thing that those business owners struggle with is just first and foremost, being overwhelmed by social media, like Instagram itself is like its own whole like ballgame to try and navigate and understand. And then when you add Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn and Tik Tok and clubhouse, like, all of the different things, it’s very overwhelming, especially when you’re starting from scratch. As far as like the number of followers and stuff, I think it’s just important to remember that every single person out there started at zero, and then got to 100, and then 200, and then 10 10k and, and eventually grew from there. So even if you’re just starting out, like literally the biggest creators on the app, the Kardashians at one point had only 200 followers. So you have to…

 

Emily Merrell  

For a few minutes, but yeah.

 

Cahner Olson  

So you have to start somewhere. And, you know, it’s it’s kind of like the saying, Just fake it till you make it like just because you only have 200 followers. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be trying to put out really great content and really valuable content and trying to really connect with those 200 people because Imagine giving a speech to 200 people sitting in a room like you would think that was a lot of people, if 200 People wanted to come and hear you talk. And so just because, you know, in the grand scheme of things, 200 followers on social media doesn’t seem like that much, it’s still a lot of people, that’s a lot of impact. That’s 200 people who could be buying your product or your course or you know, whatever your goals on social media are.

 

Emily Merrell  

I love that reframe of, you know, the idea of sitting in front of 200 people. Now, I also see that a lot of the smaller followings have more engagement, my best friend was visiting, and she said, I never see your posts. And that’s kind of that’s kind of sad, but I feel like sometimes we’ve been so we follow so many people, or we have so big of a following that we can get lost in the mix. But I do find that the smaller ones, have that passion behind them or like that excitement still to like and engage. That’s a great, great piece of advice.

 

Cahner Olson  

And I think also, if you have a smaller following, it gives you a better opportunity to not only have better engagement on your own account, but engage with more of your followers on their accounts, possibly, you know, if you have 10 or 20,000 followers, you’re not going to be able to follow back every single one of those people or like their photos or actually learn about their lives. But when you have a smaller following that allows you, you know, you have the time to engage with with a handful of those people.

 

Emily Merrell  

Do you have any advice for people who are hoping to, like slow and steady grow their following?

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, um, a lot, I think that the biggest thing is just being consistent. You know, I’ve heard a lot of people say that is not necessarily like who’s the best at something, it’s who’s the most consistent at it. So you can’t start, you know, your business, Instagram or Tiktok or anything, and expect to just, you know, grow super super fast, it takes time, it takes years. And so you just have your you have to be in it for the long haul is the biggest thing. So just don’t get discouraged would be my biggest advice know that it’s a really, really long term game that you’re going to see results for not necessarily right now, but later down the line. And it’s going to be really worth it to play the long term game.

 

Emily Merrell  

And I completely agree with consistency. But do you think nowadays too, for for individuals just starting out that they need to be posting every single day, or like, what’s the proper cadence in which to post.

 

Cahner Olson  

I would post every single day, but not necessarily just on your feed, like posting every day can be, you know, maybe a post on your feed one day and only post stories for the next two or three days, or you post on Tik Tok or you’re, you know, tweeting every day, but not putting out Instagram posts every day. Like, if we’re talking about social media in a holistic sense, those those people that are going to really be trying to reach are going to be on different platforms. So especially for a business owner to not get super overwhelmed. Don’t try and do everything every single day, just show up somewhere every single day.

 

Emily Merrell  

I think that’s good advice to not to just put your eggs in one basket.

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, and you really have to also look at who your audience is, like. There’s different types of people who are on all the different platforms. So Twitter, for example, is a lot more like academics. And journalists and people who are really up to date on current events, like more that type of group where tick tock is tick tock growing and starting to become more for everybody, but it’s a lot of people who, you know, we’re more or less tired of Instagram, it’s a lot of the younger generation who’s on Tik Tok. So you have to think about who you’re trying to sell to, if you’re using social media for business and like actually, what what platform they’re going to show up on the most.

 

Emily Merrell  

So essentially, if you’re like a CPA, it might not make sense for you to be on Tik Tok.

 

Cahner Olson  

Well, actually, I mean, you guys surprised like, I have seen some really, really unique businesses on Tik Tok who have actually done really well. And if you’re able to spin whatever you’re selling in a creative way, then, you know, I think Tik Tok is a little bit of an anomaly in that sense, because the other social media platforms, you know, what you just said would be the case, but I think Tik Tok kind of stands out, in that sense a little bit.

 

Emily Merrell  

That’s a good point you share shared with me earlier, I think there’s a virtual assistant who grew her practice all on Tik Tok, and yeah, went viral that way, and she teaches people how to become a virtual assistant.

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah. Her name is Jessica Hawkes. And she was Within like, I think six months or so, during the pandemic got like 500,000 followers on Tiktok and now has like over 100,000 on Instagram and was able to grow so fast, just talking about being a VA and her journey tiktoks very personal. So you have to be comfortable showing up in front of the camera and kind of putting yourself behind your business. So another really unique Tik Tok accounts that I’ve seen is this guy who cleans carpets and he shows like really creative videos of carpet cleaning and has like a million followers, which is just like so random. I’ve seen a guy who he professionally cuts grass for golf courses, and he also gets millions of views on Tik Tok. So the very mundane things that you wouldn’t necessarily think would thrive on Tik Tok, you can make thrive. 

 

Emily Merrell  

Wow, I think I need to dive in a little bit more, I get so overwhelmed. And then I feel like it’s a time suck in a positive and negative way. But there’ll be moments I’m like, Oh, my God, three hours just went by? What just happened? How did that happen? I just lost a part of my time and my day. You know, speaking of Tik Tok, and there’s reels. Are there any tools and tips for getting organized on how to manage all of these platforms? And is there a way also to repurpose content across the different platforms?

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, definitely. So I think they will, I’ll talk about the tools that I like first. So some things that I use every day when I’m managing my clients, social media, later is by far my favorite scheduling platform. You can schedule Instagram, Facebook, I think they recently released a tic toc scheduling. They did. Yeah, I haven’t used that one yet. But I did see that they they released that and they have Pinterest on there as well. One thing I love about it is you can actually keep all of your content in later. And like organize it. So you know, a business might organize it based on like their different content buckets. And you can, you know, just batch create all of your content uploaded until later. And then whenever you want to post like Monday motivation quote, or something, you just like filter your content, to find those posts that you’ve already uploaded and easily be able to schedule it from that. So that’s one of my favorite parts about later is just the way it keeps you so organized with your content. Also your hashtags, you can create like different hashtag groups. And later that way, you don’t have to go and do hashtag research every single time you’re posting something new. So I love that I also love notion. Emily has heard me talk about notion a lot I am obsessed with notion. It I mean, it has a lot of different features that you can use, I love it to make content calendar, so I just use their calendar template and can easily go in and, you know, decide what my story is going to be about that day and what my post is going to be about what my tiktok is going to be about or if when applicable. So usually what I do is I’ll plan out the whole month and notion and then when it comes time to actually scheduling then scheduling later. So those are my top two organizational things. And the other thing you asked me about is repurposing content. Absolutely yes. For all of for myself and for all of my clients that I manage. I usually have the same caption and photo going Instagram and Facebook. If that client is on Twitter, then it’s usually a much shorter caption but also the same photo or graphic on Twitter. Tiktok you can actually download your tiktok videos and you find a website that will remove the tiktok watermark and then upload that directly into reels so that’s a super easy way to repurpose tiktok and reels content that I would definitely recommend

 

Emily Merrell  

would you recommend the opposite could you create things in reels and then upload it into Tik Tok? 

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, you could definitely um I would just choose a different well, you’re going to have to choose a different audio because if you save a reel Instagram is going to remove the audio so you just have to put the song on it again when you upload it into tiktok which the opposite is not true tiktok will keep the audio when you download it from tiktok so you can just keep that tiktok audio when you upload it to reels but yeah, you can go both ways. It’s crazy.

 

Emily Merrell  

It’s so funny that we have two platforms that are essentially the same exact thing on completely unique platforms. Well done Facebook for stealing another another thing from another.

 

Cahner Olson  

Well apparently I haven’t looked into this a whole lot but tiktok just announced tiktok stories start up a little. I’m not joking. Oh, my God, like, literally just, they’re all the same, essentially. So, yeah, that I would 100% percent recommend repurposing in any way you can.

 

Emily Merrell  

And LinkedIn stories, too, is another thing.

 

Cahner Olson  

But there’s just a very, it’s all the same. Like,

 

Emily Merrell  

what we’ve what we’ve done for LinkedIn before, you know, we’ll take our social media content, and then we’ll expand on it and like link to the blog in it or be able to add a little bit more, but you know, still jump off from her Instagram feed posts into something for LinkedIn. But yeah, it can feel overwhelming sometimes that there’s so much but I I’ve so agree with you later is a game saver and a tool like notion or Asana or Trello, whatever, whatever you enjoy the most, for organizational purposes is a game changer. And it’s less overwhelming. Um, can we talk about business profiles versus creative profiles?

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, definitely. Um, so my biggest recommendation is go with the one that is actually true to who you are. So if it’s literally just your personal profile, stay a personal profile, because you’re going to have honestly better benefits being in a personal profile. It, there’s no preference, as far as the Instagram algorithm on which type of profile you are. So just because your business versus personal, you’re not going to rank higher in the algorithm on that factor. So nobody needs to worry about that. The biggest difference is, there’s going to be you know, it’s going to show you different analytics, if you want to see analytics, you’re going to have to be a creator, or a business profile, when you’re uploading reels or just doing anything with music, if you’re a business profile, you’re going to be a lot more restricted on that. Because you have to have the rights to certain songs to most of the songs in order to use them for business purposes. So that’s definitely the biggest downside of being a business profile. If you are a creator actually saw somebody else recently give this tip that if you’re a creator, that’s not necessarily trying to like promote a product. If you list yourself as I don’t remember, if it was a blogger or an entrepreneur, like in your where you can like choose your category, you’ll be you’ll have access to the full library of songs. So if you are creating a profile, try changing your category on Instagram. And that’s kind of a workaround that you can get all the songs.

 

Emily Merrell  

And only business profiles are able to be auto published, though, right? 

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, correct. 

 

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, that’s the only frustration is if you want to auto publish on tools like later, or plan only, they have to be hooked up to a business account.

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah. So there’s pros and cons of all of them, to access to different tools, different restrictions and stuff. But again, the biggest advice is to go with whatever one you actually are in is actually true.

 

Emily Merrell  

Don’t don’t just because you have kids, like all of a sudden want to be a business or something like that makes sense. And so Cahner, switching gears a little bit, what’s the best part of your job? And what excites you the most about it? I actually have a follow up question to that. Also, can you share? Are there any successes that you want to share with us from clients?

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah. Okay. So the best part of my job is, I think, just working with really small businesses, you know, all the companies that I work for, I think the largest company has maybe 20 people in their office. So very, very small company. So I work really hands on with my clients, you know, talking to them every day, they all have my personal phone number, that kind of stuff. So just being really involved and really feeling like I’m making a difference in these small businesses I think is the most rewarding. I also work with a lot of food businesses. And so the food perks are always really fun trying out new restaurants and stuff for my clients. So, yeah, I think that’s my favorite part of the business, or of my work, and then some accomplishments of my clients. You know, I have had clients that verified while I’ve worked with them. In the past, I’ve had clients hit that 10k Mark, where they can now have swipe up stories. I’ve guided clients through you know, really big Fourth of July sales and Black Friday sales and you know, just holiday sells in general where they’ve just blown sales out of the water and a lot of that has to do with, you know, social media and the drive that we did on social media. So that’s been really, really rewarding to See that and see my clients get those results.

 

Emily Merrell  

I love that. And you get to be a part of it in that with your clients or for your clients.

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, exactly. It’s really fun. 

 

Emily Merrell  

That’s amazing. So what’s the next? Next Big Thing for you? What’s happening at Cahners’ Digital Media?

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, so I’m actually, starting in October, I am taking my business fully remote. So I’m actually going to be heading over to Europe for a little while, starting in London and traveling around for a few months. So I’ve been lucky. So in the three years, I’ve been running my business that I have, you know, gotten to kind of come and go and travel a lot, you know, pre COVID, and have that flexibility. But I’ve always kind of still had a home base, because I’ve been working with clients, you know, in person. But I’m at the point where I can take my business full time remote. So that’s really exciting and kind of a dream that I’ve always had. So that’s the next big thing. And also, I recently launched a couple new services. So one is called the Social solution. It’s basically it’s one on one coaching with entrepreneurs or business owners to teach them how to run their own social media. So I’m giving them all of my knowledge that I use when I’m managing my clients accounts. And then I also have another new service called the real deal. And it’s kind of a done for you tiktok and real service. So I’m telling you exactly what you should be taking videos and editing the videos for you. So those have been two things, two new services that I’m really, really excited about.

 

Emily Merrell  

That’s amazing. I need that one. So desperately, the reels that I’ve been creating are just complete crap. Service. The best fuel I ever made was with Cahners help, and I’m like, can you live here and just follow me around like that. I guess that was fun. Well, Cahner, I I love wrapping up our podcasts with six fast questions of our guests. And getting to know you a little bit even more and a little deeper. So my first question for you is, tell us an unknown fun fact.

 

Cahner Olson  

I have been to 41 countries.

 

Emily Merrell  

Wow. That’s amazing. That’s a lot of countries. How many countries are there in the world? 

 

Cahner Olson  

100. And like 96 to 93 or 96? Depending on who you ask.

 

Emily Merrell  

Oh my gosh, she so yeah, you’re almost Well, third of the way. fourth of the way there.

 

Cahner Olson  

Something like that. Yeah,

 

Emily Merrell  

this is not a time for math people. Love it. Who would be a dream person to be connected with?

 

Cahner Olson  

Michelle Obama is just like an obvious one. And also, I’m obsessed with Oprah. I think she’s so cool.

 

Emily Merrell  

I love both of them. And I feel like Michelle Obama I’ve been having. I was just looking at her Instagram. I think it was Obama’s birthday the other day or something. And I was just like, you just seem such like such a cool woman. All the things that you did. Reading becoming really was a helpful book that made me fall more in love with her and admire her that much more. Yeah, um, what TV show are you currently watching?

 

Cahner Olson  

So I recently got rid of my Netflix account. So I’ve been watching YouTube, but I’ve never been a big YouTube person. But now that I don’t have anything else to watch. I’ve been watching YouTube and I started following this new girl. Her name’s Alison, and she does a bunch of solo traveling and I’ve been watching all of her videos.

 

Emily Merrell  

That’s amazing. I always wonder what people watch on YouTube. So you just answered that question. I love it. What book are you currently reading or have you recently read?

 

Cahner Olson  

I’m reading the lost apothecary. It is a book that I got through book of the month which is like a book subscription service another like a non fact as I read so much my goal this year is to read 100 books. So if anybody ever needs book recommendations, send me a message

 

Emily Merrell  

that okay, I’m gonna be messaging you right after this. There’s so many questions. What is your favorite emoji and/or most used emoji?

 

Cahner Olson  

I always use the smiley face that is like the very soft smile like not the one that has the rosy cheeks and everything but like it’s just kind of like a soft smile is the only way I know how to describe it so I hope people know what I’m talking about and it’s just like it’s happy but not like too in your face happy. 

 

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, it’s so funny how different the answers have been for this question you know rained a lot of hearts but hearts of different color. A lot of smiley faces ranging from like the hugs to not the hugs. So that’s so find exactly what you’re talking about. And I feel like I could see that coming from you like a soft smile. That’s perfect. My last question for you is Who gave you permission or inspired you to do the thing you wanted to do with your life?

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, definitely. My mom, um, you know, I was raised as a single mom. So she, I don’t know how but managed to provide me with everything that I needed. And she has also always been self employed when I was younger, she was a hair and makeup artist when we lived out in Chicago. And now she for the past, like 15 years or so she’s worked in real estate. So she has always had her own schedule, flexible schedule, been able to work as much or as little as she wants. And so I think I definitely get my entrepreneurial ventures from her and just seeing the way that she has structured her life.

 

 

Emily Merrell  

I love that. Yeah, it definitely sounds like an inspiration and someone that, you know, you are able to take a page out of her book and live the life according to the way that you wanted to live it. So well Cahner, thank you so much for joining us on today’s episode of the sixth degree. It was awesome to learn more about social media and really appreciated all of the facts and tips and tricks definitely also going to be messaging you for book recommendations moving forward. Can you tell us how we can best keep in touch with you and learn more about your services and offerings?

 

Cahner Olson  

Yeah, so Instagram is a great place. I’m at Cahner Olson on Instagram. As far as services, all of those are on my website, which there’s a link in my Instagram bio. I’m also on Tik Tok, so you can follow me there. And yeah, that’s how you can find me.

 

Emily Merrell  

Amazing. Well, thank you for joining us and listeners. Thank you so much for listening. If you liked today’s episode with Cahner, give us a like, subscribe to our channel and leave us a five star review and we will see you the next time on the sixth degree. Have a wonderful day.