#39: Leveraging Your Brand for Massive Impact with Rachel Ngom, Pinterest Strategist
You heard it here first: Pinterest is the new Facebook and Instagram.
Many entrepreneurs don’t know that Pinterest is actually a great platform to help grow your business.
My guest on this episode, Rachel Ngom, Pinterest Expert, helps people use Pinterest to grow and scale their businesses.
Rachel shares:
Why Pinterest works because it’s actually a search engine.
How she gives back with her non-profit, Global Mercy Impact.
The importance of niching down.
Don’t miss out on the one thing Rachel says you can do on Pinterest TODAY to start seeing results.
Learn more about Rachel here: https://www.rachelngom.com or follow her on Instagram @shesmakinganimpact.
Listen to the Show:
Laura (00:00):
This is the Multi-Million Dollar Brands podcast, episode number 39 with Rachel Ngom.
(00:09):
Welcome to Multi-Million Dollar Brands , a podcast where we dive deep into the mindset and strategies of scaling your company to the multi-million dollar mark and beyond. Each week, we follow the journeys of innovators, disruptors, experts, and leaders, sharing their stories and behind the scenes of their most challenging moments and greatest lessons learned. So get ready to catapult your business to the next level of revenue and learn how to multiply your income impact and influence by growing your next multi-million dollar brand.
(00:44):
During my conversation with Rachel Ngom, Pinterest strategist, I learned something that I didn't know, which is actually that she's moving to Africa next year. She has such an incredible heart and soul as a purpose-based seven figure entrepreneur who found her niche in Pinterest and shares some of her gems when it comes to actually leveraging Pinterest for growth, but not only that, but she has this incredible heart and when we think about what does it mean for us when we get to the seven figure mark and beyond, how do we transform? What does that inner game look like? I'm going to suggest that we actually become more of who we already are and when you meet Rachel, you'll see exactly what I mean and that she has become more generous, more, heart-centered more connected to God as a Christian as she has grown to that seven figure mark and beyond, and how she has used her own resources to bless other people. And that is the first thing that she did with her blessings when she was reaching, you know, the multi-million dollar mark and achieving a level of success that she never really even saw possible. She never even really saw it coming. So when it came her way, our instinct was just to be generous with it and it really remarkable way.
(02:06):
So she's going to go into all the detail of that in our interview, and hopefully it'll inspire you and it really inspired me to think how I am paying it forward with the blessings that I have received in entrepreneurship , and just to get a sense of her own journey, her own heart, her excitement around something that maybe many of us might think is a little risky, like moving to a new country in a pandemic. She's like, bring it on. So it's really such a fun conversation. And next up next is Rachel Ngom, Pinterest strategist philanthropist, and multi-million dollar brand business owner.
(02:44):
Hey everybody. And welcome back to the multi-million dollar brands podcast. I am here with Rachel Ngom and we had met last year at an event and just clicked. And we clicked for a couple different reasons. First of all, cause it's, you're going to find she's a totally lovely person. And second of all, we're both faith based entrepreneurs. And so that was a really nice way in which we were able to get to know each other and stay in touch and reach. I'm just so grateful for you being here today.
Rachel (03:07):
I'm so grateful to be here. So thanks for having me.
Laura (03:09):
Yeah. And you have really differentiated yourself and you found this white space as a Pinterest expert. How did you stumble upon that expertise?
Rachel (03:18):
Yeah, so my first business I started when I was 23 and that was network marketing and the fitness space. And I had learned how to use Facebook and Instagram to grow that business. And it worked really well. I had like 70,000 followers between the two platforms and it was so easy to post something and then get all these comments and then make the sales. And then the logarithm changed when my son was a baby and I was like, oh, I have to figure something out because this isn't working anymore. So I just started creating content posting on my blog and then putting it on Pinterest. And I noticed my traffic was increasing and my email list was growing. And I looked at my Google analytics and I saw I had over 30,000 people coming to that blog every month from Pinterest. And I was like, what?
Rachel (03:56):
This is crazy. Like, how is this happening? And it was all free organic traffic. So I was actually teaching my network marketing team, how to use Pinterest to grow their business. And that company, the network marketing company has a part of restructured. My income was cut in half and I realized I wanted to be like a real entrepreneur. Like I was like an entrepreneur kind of what that work marketing, but I wasn't in control of my income because I was working harder and harder and harder. So I decided to hire a business coach and started this company and figured out really quickly. My zone of genius was Pinterest. What people really needed was lead generation, but they were just burnt out on Facebook and Instagram. So I was like, you haven't heard of Pinterest and everyone I was talking to was like, no, you could use that for your business. I'm like, hello. Yes. This is what I've been able to do. And I had so many people just jump on board. They teach me how, and that's kind of how we started.
Laura (04:44):
It has been sort of the year of crazy on Facebook too. At the time of recording, this is 2020 we're in October. And a lot of people have like given up on Facebook and Instagram this year, they've just gotten frustrated between algorithm changes and just a lot of junk in the newsfeed. Do you find like more and more people are adopting Pinterest this year?
Rachel (05:03):
Most people don't know about it unless they like run into me and they find me on Pinterest or like they see a Facebook ad for us or something like that. So I would say they don't, they're just frustrated and they don't really know where to turn.
Laura (05:19):
Okay. Well, that's awesome because everybody listening is going to have that insight. What? Pinterest? This is amazing. How did we not know about this before? Like what does make it different than advertising on Facebook and Instagram?
Rachel (05:33):
It's a search engine and it's not a social media platform. And so when you can figure out who your ideal client is and get inside their head and figure out what they're searching for on the platform, and you use those search terms in the content you're putting on Pinterest, that's where you become, your ideal client can find you and you can rank at the top of Pinterest. And the thing that really differentiates it is because it's a search engine, they're actually looking for this specific thing. So you get to actually show up and solve their problem. Rather on Facebook and Instagram, it's like a pattern interrupt. So they're like there to connect with friends and family and to do their thing and you have to stop it, interrupt their pattern with Pinterest. They're searching for something specific. A lot of times they're like in the purchasing process, they're looking to buy something and so you could easily show up and be that person for them.
Laura (06:21):
So cool. Would you say that it works for certain types of services or products better than other types of services and products?
Rachel (06:29):
I've seen so many different businesses take off with it? So I honestly, I think every business can use Pinterest. Like I've seen lactation consultants, like lactation business. I've spoken at a real estate conference, teaching real estate agents, how they could use it. Like I've seen it used for pretty much anything .
Laura (06:48):
Really? So even like B2B, because traditionally in my head it would be B to C, but you know, really seen people with B2B take off with it. That's so, so interesting. Yeah. And so you're the host of She's Making An Impact podcast. And as all of us as entrepreneurs, we want to make an impact, especially women entrepreneurs. We have this deeper reason of why in general, not all the time, but in general, that drives us. And so what is this impact that you are hoping to make just on the world above and beyond your expertise in Pinterest
Rachel (07:24):
I see it as like twofold because I want to be able to teach people what I know and to be able to help them grow a business that fulfills them. And also, so they can use that business to impact the world. And so they have their gifts and their talents and for them to be able to do that, to serve the world, that to me is an impact, but also to be able to use the money that we generate in our business to give back and specifically in Africa, more specifically in Senegal where my husband is from and where we're moving next year. Yeah, one of the cool things is we started a nonprofit global mercy impact. Um, and we were able to just recently feed over a hundred families for a month that have really been affected from COVID. So they haven't been able to like work or anything like that. So my husband was there, like they had him and his friends were bringing like all these bags of rice to the communities. And then he also went back with some soccer balls and jerseys for the kids in the community. Cause they didn't have any of that stuff. So just to see like the smile on their faces and everything to me like that just warms my heart and to be able to do that financially contributes huge.
Laura (08:30):
That's so awesome. So wait a second. You're moving to Senegal next year? Wow. And did you meet him over there? Did I make that up? Okay. You met him. Were you doing missions work over there and that's how you met him?
Rachel (08:45):
Yeah, so I was volunteering at a nonprofit right before I got my master's. So it was like in between college and my master's that I moved there at six months and met him, fell in love, knew like right the day I met him, like I'm going to marry this guy that was 10 years ago. Wow.
Laura (08:59):
Wow. And now you're going back there. Yeah. That's amazing. And even with your own business. So I love that you're talking about these two different ways in which we serve the world. So we have our gifts and our talents for you. You've got this genius around Pinterest and then taking the resources that you're able to create from your gifts and talents and be able to better the world with it, for those people who are still figuring out the gifts and talents part, they're still trying to just make sure that they have enough income coming in, that they can make an impact with the gifts and talents. What would you recommend to them? If they're trying to find their place in the world, they're still trying to kind of break through the noise and find their niche?
Rachel (09:36):
Just start. Like a lot of times we find our voice when we find her place through taking action. And it, a lot of times what I see people struggle with is they try to think their way there and like they process it and then they get stuck in just over analyzing everything. When in reality, if you just started creating content, you started putting yourself out there, you would pretty quickly be able to find your voice and find what people are looking for, what they really enjoy coming from you. So I would just start.
Laura (10:04):
That's so cool. And then, because Pinterest has really become your niche and you were, you were an early adopter of Pinterest. I remember when we were sitting in, you were telling me the story of that it was kind of this aha moment where you were like, Oh, wait a second. I know how to do Pinterest really well. And other people could learn from it. And then it became your niche. Why do you think it's so important for people to be able to niche down?
Rachel (10:25):
It's how you stand out and how you can grow and influence really quickly. And so when I started this business, I actually started off like teaching general social media for like a hot second before I quickly realized Pinterest was going to be the thing. When you niche down, you grow so much quicker. So I really quickly became known as the go-to Pinterest person. Whereas if I were just doing general social media, there was like a million people who do that. And it's really hard to stand out when you have so much competition. So the narrower, you can go the better. And I always say like, stay narrow as long as you can. And you need to earn the right to expand it, to broaden out your area of expertise.
Laura (11:04):
Yeah. So go narrow at first and then broad. What are, what have been some of the biggest success stories from your Pinterest clients? Like give me some examples of people who have just killed it.
Rachel (11:15):
Oh yeah. So Kelly is a lactation consultant and she was actually going to close down her business and she found me, went through Pin with purpose and then, and activate and she has just expanded like crazy. So she actually has had to hire other lactation consultants and has one of the top lactation blogs on the internet. Yeah. So that's like really exciting to see just her grow, her influence and her impact that way. Another one of our students sells physical products on Amazon. So she has a wedding, a DIY wedding blog. And within 60 days she was able to triple her sales from everything coming from Pinterest. And she was like running out of stock, trying to figure out how she could keep up with the demand. So that's pretty cool too.
Laura (11:58):
Any other examples that just come to mind? Those are so fun. I love like hearing about different businesses that have really taken off that you wouldn't expect.
Rachel (12:06):
Yeah. So one of our clients is in the fitness space and she was really struggling with attraction marketing. So she was trying to attract your clients with Facebook and Instagram and being so burnt out and direct messaging. A lot of people every day to our business. Oh my gosh. And like who hates getting those messages? It's just like a cold message. Yes. So she was so burnt out on doing that and obviously other people don't really like that. So she started basically doing everything that I teach on Pinterest and she followed in my footsteps. Exactly. So she was ranking at the very top of Google and Pinterest because they're connected and Google images usually have pins ranking at the very top. So she was showing up at the very top. She did one of her first launches and made $7,000 with that launch. Half the people that bought, found her on Pinterest. She started making passive income from her blog and seeing, hey, I made a new sale. Hey, I made a new sale all coming from Pinterest.
Laura (12:57):
Oh my gosh. That's amazing. . And what I love about it. Is it sweat equity, but at least you're not like spending all this money on ads trying to like collect data and figure it out.
Rachel (13:08):
Sweat equity at first though, because just like me, she stopped touching that blog a few years ago and she's still getting traffic to it from Pinterest and still making sales from it. Yeah. So it's like you work hard in the beginning and as long as you have a lot of content, it can work for you. I have stuff that's still driving traffic five years later.
Laura (13:26):
Oh my gosh. That's so awesome. What is one thing that somebody who's listening could do on Pinterest like today just to get started on exploring this opportunity of growing their business through Pinterest?
Rachel (13:38):
Just figure out, one of the biggest things is understanding keywords long tail keywords is what we call it. So a keyword would be weight loss, I guess would be an example to get more specific, I would use the term intermittent fasting for women. So that's a more specific search term and me and that client I was talking about, we've dominated at the very top of pictures for that search term. And so just go to Pinterest, go to the search bar and start typing in what you might think your ideal client searching for. And you'll see really quickly that Pinterest starts to auto fill and they'll start to fill in the keyword term. So basically I'll start typing in like intermittent and then it'll, auto-fill fast aid and then it'll like, keep going. So you want to use that most specific search term that shows up when you're doing that. So just do a little bit of research to see, all right, this is what I think they're searching for. What are they really searching for it? You can just start playing around with that.
Laura (14:31):
It's so, so good. And I invited you on this podcast because you are a multi-million dollar brand. You've reached the seven figure mark in your business. Is that right? I thought I heard you say that one time. And what do you think are some of the things that you had to move through in order to get to that point in your business? What are some of the challenges that you've encountered?
Rachel (14:50):
Oh gosh. Get out of my own way. Yeah. A lot of times it's just our mindset that holds us back and like that fear or anxiety, like, I don't know. So getting out of my own way, hiring a mentor, that's going to help me grow and push me and believe in me and have a vision for me that a lot of times, like I have this big vision and then I might start to doubt myself and like pull back. And she's like, no, no, no, this is where we're going. And so having someone that is that strong leader has been amazing and then working on my own leadership and personal development. So I'm actually doing like this five month leadership intensive program right now, because your business will only grow as much as you grow as a leader. And so that's been like, one of my biggest focuses is how can I grow even more? How can I develop myself even more so I can serve more people.
Laura (15:36):
So, so cool. And what would you say to somebody else who really just wants to become a multi-million dollar brand? And they're like, I just, I can't even see it for myself. Are you able to see it for yourself in the beginning?
Rachel (15:49):
Not the beginning. Oh my gosh. In my first business, I remember my goal is to make $500 a week. That was like my, my first goal that I set for myself because that was only as far as I could see. I couldn't see the, you know, like I couldn't see making six figures, I couldn't say see like making a million dollars yet to me, that was, that was so big. And I was only 23. And so I would say like set realistic yet stretchy goals that are going to challenge you and push you. And every time you set that goal, just aim the bar a little bit higher and a little bit higher and a little bit higher and you'll start to see yourself. You'll start to get that momentum. It be like, build that confidence. Heck yeah, I can do this and then set the goal higher.
Laura (16:29):
So, so good. And how has your faith played into it? Like as you set these goals, like what, how does, does your faith very much a part of your business? Do you see it something separate?
Rachel (16:40):
It's everything. Oh my gosh. Let me actually pull up. I have a quote on my website from Craig Rochelle, and I'm going to pull it up because this is like summarizes everything. I honestly would not have a business. I wouldn't have anything if it weren't for my faith.
Laura (16:55):
Some people are like, well, it's part of who I am, but you know, it's, it comes in from time to time, especially if somebody's in a traditional business setting, if they can feel that a little bit of that need for separation.
Rachel (17:08):
No, it's everything. So I literally have this quote on my homepage, on my website. "We are, faith-filled big thinking, risk takers. We want to seek God for the impossible, believe God for miracles, dream that God would do exceedingly and abundantly more in our lives for his glory, that generations would know who he is. We will be faith-filled with all that we do". So I see myself as all right, God has put me here for a reason, how could I live up to my highest potential and impact as many people as possible for his glory?
Laura (17:39):
Do you think some people who are faith-based have a hard time reconciling this idea of me having a multi-million dollar company and being faith-based?
Rachel (17:46):
Depends on what they were taught. So if they were taught that money is evil, money is the root of all evil. It's not true. It's the love of money is the root of all evil. So it just depends on like how they've been taught about money. In my group coaching program, activate , this past month September has been money mindset month. And so helping people break through those limiting beliefs that are keeping them small, I think money can be such a great tool. And I mean, yes, you can treat yourself and have a nice car if you want. Like, I don't see it as being evil to be able to treat yourself. But also like when you have money you're able to contribute more. Like why would we intentionally keep ourselves small and living in poverty? When in reality, if we're able to succeed in business, then we're able to give back so much more. We're able to contribute so much more. We're able to employ more people, create more jobs. I see it as a huge blessing. And I know not everyone is called to be an entrepreneur. I think some people are called to ministry and that's great, but I think some people think God can only use them if they're called to ministry and not necessarily with their business when in reality, your business could be your ministry.
Laura (19:01):
So good. So good. I think a lot of people needed to hear that. So thank you for sharing with us. So we will go into a couple of fun questions, what is your favorite book?
Rachel (19:10):
I have the John Maxwell leadership Bible, which is incredible. I love going through that. All John Maxwell books, intentional Living is a big one that I go back to like over and over and over again. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Growth by John Maxwell. Those are probably some of my favorites, Radical by David Platt and Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Those are two of the most impactful and life-changing books aside from the Bible.
Laura (19:39):
Wow. I haven't heard those before.
Rachel (19:40):
Oh, you have to read other they're so good.
Laura (19:43):
I'm going to write it down. After this podcast, I get so many good book ideas from people that I interview. And then what's your favorite vacation spot?
Rachel (19:52):
I love going back to the places that I lived. So Kenya, France, and Senegal. I just love going back there and exploring and seeing like the people I used to live by and all of that. So I love doing that. Also. I love to Egypt and Israel.
Laura (20:08):
So awesome. And then where can people find you if they want to learn more about Pinterest and just, you know, your podcast and where can they go?
Rachel (20:16):
If you're listening to the podcast, the She's Making an Impact podcast. And then if you want to learn more about Pinterest, you can attend my free workshop, just go to freepinterestclass.com.
Laura (20:25):
So cool. Thank you so much. Rachel is great to see you again. It was great to talk to you and I cannot wait to follow your adventurous to Senegal. That's amazing. And I just really appreciate you being here.
Rachel (20:36):
Thanks so much for having me.
Laura (20:43):
If you love this, make sure to visit our website, multi-million brands.com, where you can subscribe to the show in iTunes, Stitcher, or RSS so you never miss a show. And while you're at it, if you found value, we would love a rating on iTunes, or simply just tell a friend about it. That would help us out too. Thanks for listening.
The Scale with Joy podcast dives into the mindset and strategies of scaling your company to the million dollar mark and beyond. Each week, we follow the journeys of innovators, disruptors, experts and leaders - sharing behind the scenes stories of their most challenging moments and greatest lessons learned-all while building their multi-million dollar empires.