This week’s Misfit Entrepreneurs are Sania Khiljee. Sania is a serial entrepreneur as well as social media expert. Sania has businesses in everything from children’s private pre-schools to subscription box services.
She is the founder of Losers to Legends, a social media consulting and education company that started out as a motivational movement on social media and has grown to over 1.5 million followers.
The thing that stuck me most about Sania when we met is how humble, down to earth, and willing to help others she is. I knew I had to have her on to share not just her incredible wisdom and advice with you, but her entrepreneurial spirit as well.
www.SaniaKhiljee.com
@SaniaKhiljee on social
@LoserstoLegends on social
Sania grew up in an entrepreneurial family. But, 10 years ago, Sania was not allowed to be on social media. She had a very possessive ex-fiance that was very dominant over her and would not allow her to be on social media. It took several years to find out why – he was cheating on her using the platforms.
After she got out of that terrible circumstance, she fell in love with social media and its possibilities. She built several brick and mortar businesses alongside her family, but wanted to do something her family had never done before. So, she branched out and created subscription box service using social media and sold it. Since then, she has been teaching others on how to grow their business using social media.
What’s the best advice on entrepreneurship that you got from your father?
- Sania’s dad is very practical
- His philosophy is not “follow your passion,” but “Do what makes you money. Do what drives cashflow. It is the lifeblood of any business. Get that right and then follow your passions from there.”
- Don’t be afraid to be money-minded.
- Another lesson is that he never let work-life balance get in the way. He made time for family each day. It was a priority. P
- rioritize money, but not at the expense of the quality of your life.
At the 11 min mark, Sania talks about work-life balance in a 24/7 world…
- Structure is very important.
- The more you plan, the better you will do, even with the fires that come up.
- You have to always be ready for the unexpected demands of business day to day.
- Ask yourself, “What does a productive day really look like?
What was like going out on your own away from the family business?
- Sania is not a rags to riches story, but a prove your own worth story.
- She had beat imposter syndrome by building a business and selling it herself.
- Creating businesses that make money that were aligned with dreams she had were very validating for her.
- The lessons learned and what it took to be successful are very integral to who she is as a person today.
What did you do to actually create the conviction you now have as an entrepreneur?
- You don’t have to be so polar or a binary decision between one thing or another. You can do multiple things at once.
- Sania still worked in the family business but built her other businesses outside of it.
- Having a side-hustle that you can build to a point where you can do it full time is a great way to go.
- Gary Vaynerchuk is a great example of this.
What are your best tips on how to grow a worldwide audience through social media?
- Have a focus. Don’t jump around between a bunch of different types of posts.
- As much as you can niche down, you will do better in speaking to a specific audience.
- Get granular. For example, “30 year old entrepreneurs who live in the US and are looking for morning motivation.”
- When someone lands on your page, they should know immediately who it’s for, what it is about, and the content they can count on from it.
- Quality of content is critical as well. 1 piece of viral content can change everything, so every piece you put our should be top quality.
- Consistency. If you are serious about social media – it is 2-3 hours per day minimum across all platforms. Instagram, Youtube, Quora, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- It is not enough to just put up content – you then have to go out and engage and attract people back to your pages and take a real interest in you and what you are doing.
Tell us about the 3 hours a day…
- The 10,000 hour rule. If you spend 3 hours a day on social media, within 10 years, you will become world-class at it.
- Sania chooses not to outsource, but to use the time to hone her skills.
- If you do not want to be an expert. You can put in less time, such as an hour a day, and outsource for the rest.
- No matter what, you are looking a devoting time daily.
What about someone that owns a business and only has 3-5 hours per week? Can they maximize their presence online?
- Yes – you can hire an intern or hire an agency that does done for you solutions.
- If you outsource, you may miss out on some of the engagement. If you can still find some time to engage, that is good.
Talk to us about some of the methods you use to grow your account…
- There are paid and organic growth tactics
- $5 per day in social media marketing, such as Facebook ads or boosting posts, can make a huge difference.
- The more exposure you get coupled with high quality content is a recipe for success.
- You can pay for influencer shoutouts. You can pay a little bit to someone with a million followers or more to promote you.
- Engagement with other users in a genuine way costs nothing. Leaving comments and posts on other pages that you like will drive slower growth, but the best followers.
- There are also software available for growth. Automations are touchy as they can de-personalize, but can and do work.
- LinkedIn has a lot of automation as well.
- You should also research times to post across platforms as well as which hashtags. You can study others you admire in your niche. Copy them.
- Social media is a science – doing the right things in a consistent way.
What is a paid shoutout and what do they cost?
- It is when an influencer promotes you to their audience.
- You can pay anywhere from $10-$300 for a shoutout.
- Sania usually pays $10-$20 or does a trade.
- You have to be very careful when paying for influencer shoutouts to make sure people have real followers, not ones they bought.
- You can go to socialblade.com and type in an influencers name to see their growth.
- You want to see consistent daily growth instead of bursts of growth followed by a loss of followers (this is a sign they buy followers).
- You should also look at the makeup of followers and quality of comments to see if they resonate with your focus.
At the 44 min mark, Sania talks about the types of shoutouts she does and others do…
It is generally best to give something free to potential followers or new subscribers
If you could pick only one social media platform to be on, which one would it be and why?
- Instagram because it is where she started
- Data shows Instagram is one of the most lucrative platform and better for organic growth vs. Facebook where you have to pay more now.
- Instagram also has better ability for viral content
- But, you should figure out which platform is best for you and for what you like.
What are ways to make money online from your social media presence?
- Once you have an audience, you can promote your services to them.
- Books, video courses, masterminds, affiliate products you promote, etc.
- Referring business to others and taking a cut – so look for partnerships you can do shoutouts for.
Best Quote: “ Do what makes you money. Do what drives cashflow. It is the lifeblood of any business. Get that right and then follow your passions from there.”
Sania's Misfit 3:
- Try meditation. 30 mins to an hour a day can change your life. Search “deep-guided” meditation on Youtube. Guided makes it easy for you.
- Find your focus(es). Find the 1-2 things that deserve your most focus and that are symbiotic to each other and focus on them intently.
- Approach your sales as being a friend or partner first, then your customer. If you try to sell people right at the start without a relationship, it will make it harder.