The Social Media Takeaway - Louise McDonnell

Stop Guessing: How to Build a Predictable Social Media Sales Machine

• Louise McDonnell • Season 1 • Episode 74

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In this episode, I was delighted to be interviewed by Dan O’Donoghue.  Dan is a business development specialist with over 20 years experience in helping businesses grow sustainably and strategically.

We talked about my journey, the fire that was lit in me when a teacher said “I wasn’t as smart as my friends”, and how that same determination is what drives me now.

We talked about my passion… using traditional marketing concepts to drive business growth on social media. 

You’ll hear:

  • Why social media isn’t just about awareness
  • Why content creators and business owners have very different goals
  • The one thing you need to get right before posting anything on social media
  • Why “just using AI” isn’t enough
  • The difference between posting and having a system
  • Why clarity always comes before confidence

Join Louise LIVE on her upcoming 2026 Social Selling Masterclass and discover how to use social media to generate consistent leads and sales in 2026

Date: Wednesday, 10th December 2025
Time: 3:00 PM ET (New York) / 8:00 PM GMT (Dublin/London)

SAVE YOUR SEAT HERE!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to my podcast because more like this is on the way!

If you'd like to book a call to see how I can support you head over to my website here. www.sellonsocialmedia.academy/hello

My 2025 Social Media Content Planner & Guide is now available! Packed with 400 content prompts, expert tips, and $377 worth of free resources to help you save time and get results in 2025.

Grab your copy now on Amazon!
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Louise McDonnell:

Welcome to the Social Media Takeaway. This is the podcast for business owners who want to know how to use social media more effectively to drive leads and sales for their business. If you enjoy the show, please make sure you give it a five star review. I. And make sure that you follow us on all our social channels. So today I am delighted to let you know that I am actually gonna be the guest on my own podcast, and I am delighted to welcome Dan O'Donoghue here, who's gonna be the host, Dan, you're very welcome.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Thank you very much., Louise McDonnell: But do you yourself to everybody so that they can understand who you are and where you're coming from? I am supporting businesses, especially SMEs for 20 years. I'm self-employed 45 years, barring maybe One or two jobs along the way where I found I was totally unemployable. So I was, I'm better off on my own. I found working with SMEs, you know, they're self starters. They are, , they don't look for handouts. They just get up and get at it, but they still need a bit of help. You know, because. I find that you can be very good at what you do. Go to college, do your four years, five years, whatever, be really good at what you do. But building a business around that is a completely different thing altogether, you know?. Yeah. So that's me and I am . Hoping Louise to bring out a book in Q1 of next year. I have most of it written. So we'll keep a space for that and we'll talk about that later.

Louise McDonnell:

We'll definitely have you back to talk about that when it comes out.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Louise. You interview a lot of people, but now the shoes on the other foot, I would love to know who Louise McDonnell is, but also, , when people are really good at what they do. Some people, they just get it. Usually I find there's an emotional connection to what they do. So I'd love to find out who Louise McDonnell is, but also., , You obviously have a passion for what you do, can you tell me more about that?

Louise McDonnell:

yeah, I absolutely love what I do,, like for me, work isn't work, for me, I have to stop myself working because I just get such enjoyment from working with people and working on accounts. And like this morning , we have a team meeting every morning at nine o'clock and this morning we were sharing all the good stories from all the Black Friday campaigns we were running, and we were all so excited about. Who was up and what percentage and how much more money and what came in online and what came in because of the ad and what became in because of the email. I love, , working in business. Like I always say, I don't know if you find this right, but like, I'm completely not a gambler. Like, I think , I've done the lotto about, oh, I counted, on my hands 'cause I'm just not into gambling, but turn on an Ad and then wait to see the performance. I feel like it's a bit of, ooh, let's try this and see what impact it has. Let's do this. And I felt, , I get such a kick from the results of, , what people are actually going to respond to based on what you think that they are going to do. So I think , in some way in my head, I'm like, I wonder, is it a, , some kind of a form of gambling or something that, , you have this. You put something out there and then you have no control over how it performs. You can only, , put it out there based on how you think the market is going to respond to your words, to your images, to your messaging., , so absolutely love what I do., And I suppose I've always been like that, , , like in school. When I was a young one, like I wouldn't say that I was very academic. Certainly , I definitely did way better in college than I did in secondary school, and I did way better in secondary school than I did in primary school. And then when I look at it, , I just really wasn't interested in what we did , in primary school. I wasn't interested in. Reading blocks of text and learning stuff off and regurgitating. I had just had no interest in anything to do with that., And because of that, , I probably would've daydreamed a lot and done as little as possible., And I always remember when I was in sixth class in primary school here in Ireland. The teacher said to my parents that he didn't think that I, I should go on to secondary school. He felt I should stay back and do seventh class now. I couldn't wait to get outta primary school. Yeah. I was like, no. Yeah. And , he said, well, it's not like she's gonna be in the same, , classes as her friends because, , , they're gonna be,, in the honors and she won't be. And I remember, . I think it was the first time in my life that there was a fire lit within me. And I remember I was like, he's wrong., Now I, in hindsight, I probably didn't give him too much to work with 'cause I had no interest in any of the subjects. But I went into secondary school with a mission, and the mission wasn't even, it wasn't even to do the best that I could. My mission was to prove him wrong. And I was so, like, I don't think I was ever so consumed at something that it, like I went in and, I mean, I got, I used to get like do third best in the class. Second best, best in the year. Do you know I did very well in secondary school proving him wrong.. So by the time I came to my junior cert, like I did a wonderful junior cert, and then afterwards everyone said, well, that just proves how wrong that teacher was when he said that about you. Now, I, I don't think I had quite as much fire in my belly for my leaving cert, but 'cause I had already achieved my mission of proving the poor teacher wrong., Now years and years later, he arrived into me when I was working , in a role in Balina as the CEO of the Chamber there. And, , we became great friends again. Yes. But, , yeah, but that I think was probably the first time that I really felt that fire of determination to actually, succeed.

, Dan O'Donoghue:

If you are working now on social media,. You have that drive to get results as opposed to just the mundane just doing the job. It's the results you are looking for, and you create the process then to get the results.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah. It really bugs me when people say, oh, social media is just really for awareness that you can't drive sales from it. Yes. And you hear that said quite a lot, Dan and. I don't buy into that at all. Okay., , Yes, I work in social media, but , what I do is very, very different to, let's say , being an influencer or a content creator. So a lot of the time, and I blame the main mainstream media for this. When they talk about social media, they have somebody on and they're interviewing them and they went viral, or they had a few hundred thousand or a few million views , or they feature the people who, , have made a living from creating content and they ask them for the advice. And even sometimes when you go to conferences, you know somebody on the stage saying, well, this is how I went viral and this is what I do and this is what you should do. But I think you're talking about chalk and cheese. Yes, so somebody who's a content creator who makes their living from creating content and then , they have grown their audience to this, to the size that now brands will pay them to create content. Somebody who has that as a business model. That is, that's a, there's nothing wrong with it, that's just their business model. But when you see like , a business owner, , so whether they're in a manufacturing business or, and they, or whether in they're a coach or a consultant and they need to use social media to drive sales, you're not talking about the same thing at all.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Yes. It's a different job.

Louise McDonnell:

It's a totally different thing. So. Somebody who is running their own business. They can't just create content and that's it. Like, that's not their business model. That's not their business.

Dan O'Donoghue:

They're not content creators.

Louise McDonnell:

No. They're creating a service or they're delivering a service , and social media is a channel to market for them. So yes, I believe that it's a very different., Prospect, but , the way in which that business owner will use social media will be very different than the way the content creator will use social media. Yes. And I think again, people don't have time, and the good news is. You don't need to let it take over all your time. You can do it really effectively and efficiently. The good news is as well, is that you don't need hundreds of thousands of followers and you don't need to go viral with content. You just need to reach the right people and you need to reach them on message consistently.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Yeah, I love that. No, that is really refreshing.. I'm obviously of an age. I'm around a while, but I love modern technology. I love, , social media. Yeah. And sometimes I feel sorry for business owners that they're being bombarded left, right, and center, , and, , it's all about the likes and the shares and, and all that. And I like, but you have brought some clarity there now, I love your opinion post COVID. Did you find a shift? There was more people online,, and then I heard one person saying one time since, as I say, after COVID, it's never been easier to get your message out there, but it's never been harder to get someone to listen. What is your opinion on that?

Louise McDonnell:

I think COVID changed the world in that online training, online coaching, delivering services online. Was always possible, and it was possible before COVID, but people really started to because they had no choice. During COVID, they started to consume services online. So that meant that if , you could find clients all over the world. So I think. COVID changed the mindset and that now we understand that it's absolutely possible and you can have a really good experience. You're coaching people every week and you know, you're, I'm sure you're doing that online'cause it's way more efficient. But I think the downside now is that there's so much noise out there. And like, not only since COVID, we now have ai. Now AI is fantastic, yes. But AI is, can also be a curse, right? Because, . , People that are just using ai, but they haven't worked on their core offering, their core messages, they haven't worked on the clarity that they need in order to communicate clearly., Then just using AI in isolation just creates more noise, but it doesn't create any impact. Yes. And I actually have stats to prove this up, Dan. So, , to prove this up, to prove this. So, , last, I know what you mean, Louis. I know Last September I launched, , , an online assessment. It's , a social selling assessment, and. People who take the assessment get a score on their likelihood to be using social media , to drive sales, to increase revenue for their business. And when I created the assessment, what I didn't realize was that when a certain, when a few hundred businesses would take the assessment, that I would have this rich, , data available to me that I could then. Interrogate and I could find out what was the linkages between how people answered in the assessment and things like how much money they made. Mm-hmm. And basically what the assessment showed was the higher that you scored on the assessment, the likelihood was that you're earning multiple six figures or seven figures. And the lower you scored in, in the assessment, the likelihood was that you're stuck at a 5K monthly revenue ceiling. Hmm. Okay. And one of the things that came outta the assessment was the people who scored the highest in ai, but the lowest across all the other categories within the social selling assessment. Those people were stuck. Okay. So what approves is that? If you're using ai, but you don't have your foundational messaging, clarity on what you're selling, clarity on how to sell it, clarity on who you're targeting. If you're kind of guessing that, if you're anyway kind of fudging that at all, what the assessment proves this, that you're not going to succeed. So AI is brilliant, but AI used in isolation doesn't work right.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Now. Funny you mention that now, because I remember, as I say, I'm , working with businesses for 20 years. Mm-hmm. And I was always beating the drum. About what exactly do you do? So in other words, your mission. Yep, yep. Right. What exactly do you do? Where's you lane? Right. And I was asking them, okay, why do you do, what's your emotionally charged connection? Why are you connected to what you do? What's your passion? Who do you do it for? Where's your target market? And I found before COVID,, people were listening and they were going, yeah, Dan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know what? They get away with it, they might know. But now I found very much onto what you were saying, that nowadays it has to be on point. Hmm. You have to find your lane, as in what you were saying, they are about clarity. Hmm. And what exactly do you do? I find that when people actually realize the actual business they're in mm-hmm. Makes results come. Would you go along with me on that one?

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah. I would say, Dan, when I start working with people, even people that come to me and they think that they are clear on their on, I would say all that's related to messaging.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Yes.

Louise McDonnell:

When they think they're clear on their messaging, first thing we start off with is identify with their core offer is, and I would say a really high percentage of businesses, even those that are doing well and succeeding. But they've obviously come to you for a reason, so there's obviously they need help somewhere, and they don't have that clarity around what their core offer is. So when you don't know what your core offer is, it's very hard to have an entry level offer that leads to your core offer. It's very hard to have a free experience or a lead magnet. That leads to the core, that points directly to the core offer. It's very hard to show up with messaging that leads people towards your exact, your core offer, the core problem you're going to solve for them, , the transformation that you can promise for them. If you don't know what that core offer is, and you don't, you cannot define clearly what the transformation is. Your marketing will always be weaker. So you may be showing up week in, week out, or you may not be showing up. You might be showing up sporadically, but , you'll always be less effective in what you can do. And , that is the thing that we work with businesses the most is to get them, give them the clarity Because there's so much noise now, and you're right. Since after COVID, there's so many more people online. There's so many more people online now with ai, because they can be, it's easier for them to show up and to have, , content. But , if your message isn't persuasive, then yes, people won't take the any action. They'll just zoom by. So being persuasive. You need absolute clarity on your core offer. You need absolute clarity on why somebody should work with you. Your positioning. You need absolute clarity on who you're targeting and what you're going to say to them to get their attention through all the noise on social media. And they're all very different things. Yes. And if you, yeah, and if you don't sit down and work on them. You won't know them like I call it like my clients when that go through my coaching program, I call it the smoke coming out the ears moment. I'm like, I'm gonna make your ears smoke. Come outta 'em because like you're gonna be thinking so hard. Yeah. I'm gonna see you thinking because., A lot of the time, like they really have to go away and gain that clarity., Like how can you communicate clearly if you don't understand yourself, what you're trying to communicate, you don't know what it is. You're haven't defined it. And, , and so I don't know if you find this Dan, but. I would say most businesses that come to me, that's where we start. And nobody, yet to come across someone that I say, you have it down, you're fine.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Yes, I totally agree with you and I, I even find that my hardest job is one step before that, again, is to get 'em to stop for God's sake. Stop. Go talk to Louise. Because if you are sitting down with Louise and you're talking to Louise, you are now working on your business, whether you know it or not, because Louise is asking the right questions. There's another question that fascinates me. I loved what you're doing there about the self-assessment and the data you are gathering now. That's gold. It absolutely is gold. What do you say about. You've mentioned about your outgoing message and your clarity and all that, which is, fuck, , I could be talking about that one all day, but the people that are listening, do you find that if you have a clearer demographic of your client's target market that they. Can be found in different places. Like where do they hang out? What do they listen to? What do they read? What do they look at? Talk to me about that side of it.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah.. Another thing I, and this just I have found more and more over time, , Dan, is that when someone says to me, oh, your social media, I kind of begins to annoy me a bit because honestly. You know, we use social media as a channel, but it's just a channel.

Dan O'Donoghue:

It's a tool, isn't it?

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah. Yeah. A tool. It's just a route to, to, to get in front of somebody. So when someone says to me, oh, or are you Instagram? Or, oh, are you LinkedIn? I'm like, like, I'm all of them, because they're all just different channels and the process. The process doesn't change whether you're using, you know, you might have slightly different, nuances between the different social media channels, but ultimately, , whether it's social media or whether it's the traditional media, whether it's your local newspaper, your local radio station, if it's a podcast or if it's a radio ad,.,, The messaging, , you still still needs to be consistent. So, for me, like , the difference between online and offline is just, they're two different, places. But the messaging should all be consistent

Dan O'Donoghue:

but you'll find then that if they are pinpointing, I had an example of that last week that, , it was an no auctioneer client of mine, and when we identified that a lot of his clients were people living abroad, owning houses here. Then we were able to connect them with a tax consultant who was able to give added value to that market. So they were able to cut through the knives, find their lane, and get right to the person that was interested in purchasing a property in Ireland. You mentioned their process, and again, I'd love , your handle on this. I find some clients are. Totally focused on the result, but don't give the process enough credence and enough time. Mm. And it's all like, , I might mention, , mission and vision and target market, and the eyes roll. I go, oh, you know, like, you just get me two clients or get me clients or get me sales or whatever. But it's about the process. And , you triggered that. I mean, when you said it a minute ago, it's about the process versus the result. Money in the bank is a result of getting the process right. Would you agree with that?

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah, absolutely., when people start working with me through my, I have an eight week program, which is built around my process, and , we worked through, we started step one. And the first day that when I'm starting with a new group of people, my first slide is Stick with the process. Yes. We're going to start at step one. And I don't want you to be talking to me about step three or step four. We're just gonna start at this step. And all I want you to think about are, so every week I give people a workbook , and homework and, but I only give them. Week one and week one. I, I don't show them the rest of the weeks.'cause I know they'll all hop on to week, that's right. They want to, they'll hop ahead. And I'm like, no, I only will give you what you need when you need it.'cause I said it's a process and trust me, you need to go through it and. Other things that can help Dan, I'm sure you see this as well, is that people then can get a little bit overwhelmed. So I'm like, if you just stick with me and stick through the process, then you won't get overwhelmed. And the first thing we do is, , , I get that eyes rolling, , oh, , I don't want to do this because , , I just wanna get to the marketing, but the first thing we do is like, we bring people through that positioning exercise of what's your why exercise. And they get it. Like they come back on on week two and they're like, oh, I,, I can't believe how much I got from that. I can't believe the impact it had. So, , I started a new group of about a few weeks ago, and one of the ladies like that, I got her to do the What's your why? Exercise. Like, why do you do what you do? Why did you start all of that? Dig deep, dig deep, dig deep. And then afterwards I gave. Them an exercise of a specific type of post that I wanted them to publish on social media. It's called , a story driven insight post. So it's a story from their past. It could be an origin story or some kind of story that has some kind, an impact and really communicates their core messages. So a lady, she did it, she came back the next day or the next week, and she's like, she had put it out on. LinkedIn was her primary network, but she also put it out on Facebook and Instagram as well. And she couldn't believe the impact. So what happened was the post performed incredibly well. But she said, and this is so common, I that she was in a shopper, she was somewhere and people were coming up to her and they were going, I saw your post on LinkedIn. Oh my God. That was really powerful and right., And what she was saying to me. But the one thing that was in her head was like, she was going, but they never commented on the poster or they never shared the poster. They never even liked the post. I'm like, it doesn't matter. They saw the post, it did its job. And not only that, she got emails in from people going, oh, I meant to get back to you about that piece of business. So that one post, which. Was, again, that whole positioning piece, that whole why, , what you do, and it wasn't a sales post, it was just a post telling a story about something that happened to her 20 years ago, which impacted her so much that she meant she started her business.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Yeah.

Louise McDonnell:

And so that post when , she wasn't saying, and by the way, I'm open for new clients. You didn't have to, , it had the impact, , so that was just the start of the process. Yeah.

, , Dan O'Donoghue:

I remember I was at, , a conference, oh, it must be 20 years ago, and someone said, , if you give me the right lines, I might buy off you. If you tell me a story, I will sell you. Yeah. In other words, stories sell,, and I just to finish up on the process, anyone listening to this podcast and maybe sports orientated, you'll know that all the good team coaches. Never, , rely on the score. They never look at the score. They never look at the scoreboard. They look at the process. Okay, the process is breaking down here. We gotta fix the process and the results will come., Like I'm from Kerry Ga mad,, and we were at the wrong end of Jim Gavin, who was managing the Dublin football team, won five in a row, which we didn't win. But Jim Gavin was an adamant that you stick to the process. He always spoke about the process. He would come off the field, he wouldn't know what they had scored. But he'd know the process, so brilliant. Another thing, I'd love your opinion on then the implementation, and the importance of implementing what people going on your course now, what they're going to learn, but the implementation of that then, and the importance of it. Talk to me.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah, so basically what we build in through our process is we build a social sales system. So part of that is getting clear on your core message and your messaging, your, how you communicate and being persuasive. But the other part of it is actually building a system which you can rinse and repeat to make sure that you have a system for generating leads. Because on social media, uh, you can have what I call the, , nurture trap. And the nurture trap is where you're there nurturing and nurturing and showing up, giving value all the time. But if you don't have, at some point, if you don't move those followers onto your email list and move them onto, into a, into a sales call, you could be nurturing them. Nurturing them and nurturing them, and you're missing out on the opportunity to turn them into a paying customer. So that's part of what we do in my eight week program, Dan, is we build that a system. So by the end of the program, it's not just a training course, it's actually a build. By the end of the eight weeks, the system is built and it's in place. It's about sending direct messages to people 'cause I'm absolutely allergic to that. Now , we do talk about engagement and social media engagement is usually important, but we build a system which is, quite unique. It's built using your signature framework in which you deliver your core offer. So if you are a consultant or if you are a trainer and you deliver , a program, maybe you're a life coach and you're delivering a program to somebody to maybe free them up from stress or whatever it may be, you have a framework and , we build that whole system around that framework, and that becomes very unique to you. So in terms of implementation. From week one, we give tasks to our people in our programs to start showing up. Now, the reason that's important, Dan, is this, a lot of the time people are lacking in confidence, okay?

Dan O'Donoghue:

Yes.

Louise McDonnell:

And I think what implementation will always be stronger when your confidence is higher. And so from week one, we're reviewing. That was fantastic you, so well done. You put up that post to look how well that performed. Look at the impact it had. Now week two, here's more part of your build, but here's your social media homework as well, and do that and let's see how it goes. So by the end of the eight weeks, you eight weeks of feedback on what worked on social media, what had an impact and the impact it had on the business. Hmm. So I think that implementation comes hand in hand with confidence and hand confidence comes hand in hand with putting yourself out there, being a little bit vulnerable, but seeing the impact it has, learning from that and going on.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Yeah, and another bit of insight that I think would be useful to, I think I know the answer here that would be useful to your listeners. I get this a lot. People comparing social media channels. Mm. Comparing TikTok with,, LinkedIn and comparing meta and comparing and all that. And like there is really no difference. It's about your messaging, your process, and identifying exactly who you want to talk to

Louise McDonnell:

and if they're there. Would you agree

Dan O'Donoghue:

with that?

Louise McDonnell:

If they're there so. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you should, you know, you shouldn't be deciding what social media channel you're using because based on what you like and you don't like.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Correct.

Louise McDonnell:

It should be based on who you're targeting and where they're hanging out. Now, bear in mind that like if your B2B, LinkedIn is definitely the place to be, it's an amazing platform. It has grown so much. COVID did it absolute the best favor ever because everybody went on and started networking on LinkedIn and it is phenomenal. But don't forget about Facebook and Instagram as well, especially if you are, , depending if you're a life coach or if your audience are hanging out there, then you also need to be there. And the other thing that's really good about Facebook and Instagram is the ads. So we run ads all the time for our clients. The ads are phenomenal. You can still get the best result. Like as I said this morning, we sat down this morning, we were comparing how all our clients did, who was up, how much they were up by, what did we spend on the ads, what did they generate? How many sales, what was the value of the sales?. And you can do that. And it's really, really effective. The algorithm on Facebook , and Instagram obviously owned by meta is so powerful, , that it automatically retargets., If you're ever gonna run ads on Meta, start them on Facebook and run. Run them onto Instagram or create in the ads manager., I'm not a fan of just boosting or promoting a post, , on the Instagram platform because the algorithm isn't as powerful there as it is., If you start the other, if you start on Facebook or if you use the Facebook Ads Manager. So that algorithm on Facebook is phenomenal. It is phenomenal. It just , does retargeting automatically. So , if you have been creating awareness content like nice where, , videos where you're adding value, where you're giving advice, where maybe if it's a podcast, you're having relevant conversations. If you're spending money, a little bit of money every month, just making sure as many people see those., Then when you have something to sell, or maybe it's a free masterclass or maybe it's a free lead magnet or maybe it's an assessment, then when you run an ad, it would automatically find the people who showed any interest in any of your content throughout the year. So that is absolutely phenomenal. We used to have to do that manually years ago. Create retargeting audiences. It does it automatically now., , and you can track everything. And then of course you have TikTok. Like TikTok is phenomenal now.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Like I was just going to ask you about TikTok.

Louise McDonnell:

It is phenomenal. It's, there are so many people on TikTok. Like,

Dan O'Donoghue:

it's unbelievable.

Louise McDonnell:

I think, there's more people that are on TikTok that were never on other social media channels, so I'm a firm, I dunno about you, Dan, but I love to observe what people are doing as well. So if I am, if I'm in a queue, if I am waiting and I can just see people around me on their social, so I'll just have a quick, you know, I'd be able to tell 'em like, oh, they're TikTok. Oh, they're on this, they, yeah. Yeah, TikTok, so don't ignore TikTok., You can use really good promotions on TikTok as well, but as long as your audience are there, as long as your audience are there.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Yeah, exactly. I'm glad you said that. Now, also, just to finish up,, I find that I, do you agree? But if you are saying, like you were talking about your message, again, giving value, if you are saying what people are thinking, then stop scrolling. Would you agree with that?

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah. So one of the exercises that we do as part of, , my, my program is , , we just don't talk about the client's problems, right? Because people sometimes, They're symptom aware, but they're not necessarily problem aware. And if you are a coach or consultant, you're an expert in your field, you can sometimes look at someone and you can go, oh, I know exactly what they need, but actually what you need to be focused on is what they want rather than what they need. Because big difference, yes. You and I can be saying, oh, you need to improve your messaging. And they're like, well, I don't want that. People don't buy what they need. They buy what they want.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Correct.

, Louise McDonnell:

so one of that, of the exercises that , we start off, we go, , what do you think your client needs? And then we go through a whole exercise. We go, well, let's rest. Now let's write down , what they believe that they want, what they want. Because you have to, get their attention, , and getting their attention. It has to be with something that they want. So you have to get their attention with something that they want, and then you have to then deliver something that they need, which is gonna get results for them. Yeah. So slightly different, two different things.

Dan O'Donoghue:

So, , to finish up, , I find what you're saying. So refreshing., Like I, as I say, I'm of an age, I love social media. I was creating links for the real estate market back in 2005., Before there was any social media. The key takeaways that I am getting from, , talking to you this morning would be the process is so important and, , having money in the bank is a result of getting the process right. Yeah, absolutely., Some people just go straight to get, show me them money. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, mightn't be, it's boring to do the process, but I've always found if you get that process right

Louise McDonnell:

mm-hmm.

Dan O'Donoghue:

And you get your message and you walk through the right challenges, you say it, it is going to work for you. Mm. , , , I love what you're saying about., It's not about clicks and shares and likes and brand awareness and all that, , it's about getting the process right, getting the sales right, getting , the results right. And we got to know a bit more about Louise McDonnell. So there you are now, Louise. So that was brilliant., So what's next for Louise? We'll hand it back to you.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah. So I have a free masterclass, which is coming up on the Wednesday, the 10th of December. So if you are in New York or, across the

pond, it's at 3:

00 PM ET.

But in Ireland, UK it's at 8:

00 PM So on Wednesday evening,

the 10th of December, 8:

00 PM there's a free masterclass. It's called the 2026 Social Selling Masterclass. So Dan, what I'm gonna be going through there is to go through the myths., Some myths and debunk some myths of what people think they should be doing right now, which is just wasting their time., And then I'm going to go through which we spoke so much about the process that you need to follow. I'm gonna bring people through that process step by step. I'm gonna also give them tips on using AI effect, not to create noise, but actually to help them make more money into their bank account.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Yes. Yes. Yeah., Louise McDonnell: And we'll be 2026, what people really need to be focused on to generate, revenue for their business.'cause that's what it's all about. So if you'd like to sign up to that, you'll get it at sell on social Media Academy slash free masterclass. And we'll have a link in the show notes as well. So that's Sell on Social Media Academy forward slash free masterclass. Well,. That's gotta be good., It was brilliant, chatting to you, Louise, and, , the best of luck in , your, , , upcoming courses and business for 2026.

Louise McDonnell:

Thank you so much , for coming on the show, Dan, and, for, , being the host. And I look forward to chatting to you in early 2026 about your new book.

Dan O'Donoghue:

Great. Great. Thanks.