Miriam Allred (00:01)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Home Care Strategy Lab. I'm your host, Miriam Allred. It's great to be back with you this week. I hope everyone's having an awesome week and it's fired up. It's February. Here we are, start of 2026. The year is off and running and it feels good. Here in the lab today, I've got Nick Bonitatibus the owner and founder of Digital Champions. Hopefully he's no stranger to any of you or many of you, but if he is,

I'm excited to introduce you to Nick. Hey, thanks for being here.

Nick Bonitatibus (00:31)
Thanks for having me. I'm fired up and excited. You're amazing, Miriam. So I'm pumped.

Miriam Allred (00:37)
You're kind. Most people are listening to this, but for those of you watching this, Nick and I are both podcasters. So we've got the mics, we've got the headphones, we've got the setups. Our backdrops are a little bit minimal, but we've got the real equipment, which is always fun. So you sound good and you look good.

Nick Bonitatibus (00:53)
Love it. Yeah, this is, this is what it's all about. You know, this is, how can we share some quality content that also sounds good and looks good.

Miriam Allred (01:03)
Exactly.

And here we are. was about to say we're two 20 year olds, but I think we're both I'm about to be 30 and I think you might be in your 30s. But here we are two young ins that are I don't know about you. People call me an influencer in this space and they probably do the same to you. I just thought we should start and tell people why we're here. Like, I just want you to share why you're here, what your personal mission, vision is. And then I thought I'd share mine as well. So let's start there. Like, why are you here and what are you up to?

Nick Bonitatibus (01:31)
Yeah, no, I love that. mean, I think there's so many ways I feel like I can answer this question. And the number one thing that comes up for me is impact. You know, is how can I create the greatest impact in what I do? And I think, not just for the people that I serve, but also myself, I'm a business owner, I want to create an amazing life for myself and continue to grow and evolve and.

You know, my goal and everything that I do as I continue to grow is to try and bring people with me. You know, there's no competition in my mind. It's all about how can we all work together to grow and achieve our dreams and, you know, go after what we want and create a lasting impact on this world and everyone that we interact with.

Miriam Allred (02:25)
love it. And I think you're aligned with all of the people listening to this. Impact is probably one of the number one words that I hear when people talk about why they got into home care. I would just add to that for me, it's the people and the mission of this industry. The people being, I don't know about you, I've met home care owners from all 50 states at this point and they come from all different backgrounds, all different industries, all different walks of life. And I meet these people and I'm just like,

awestruck, like so inspired by the people that are taking a chance on themselves, getting into this business and then helping so many individuals, employees and clients and families. And they are just so humble, but also so tenacious. Like I just am in awe of the people in this industry. And I think that's what keeps me here is just the people that I meet and how much I learn from them and how much I want to be like them.

And then also the mission, people are taking care of, I sometimes say grandmas, like they're taking care of like my grandma. You know, I think of my grandma June, I think of my grandma Becky and just the women and the men that my grandparents are and how special they are and how much I value their life and their health and their wellbeing and their independence. And I just think this industry, they're just taking care of a bunch of people's grandparents, including my own and...

how valuable and important that generation is and the seniors are in our families and in our communities, and what more to life than taking care of this incredible population of people. And I just love that so much.

Nick Bonitatibus (04:05)
Yeah, I mean, I've been in the home care industry for 11 years and you know, it's so wild that I feel like everyone I meet is amazing. And there's so many other industries and like there's events that I go to for my own business and things and just meet different types of people. like, I don't really like that guy. You know, like he's in this for the wrong reasons, right? But I feel like in home care, there are everyone that I meet is in this business for

Miriam Allred (04:25)
Yeah.

Nick Bonitatibus (04:34)
the right reasons so much so when people ask me they're like, Nick, would you start a home care business? I'm like, absolutely not. Like don't have it in me, you know, like, so for all you home care owners that are listening, it's like, I commend you because I, I understand not the same way that you do, but like the difficulties of this business. And, you know, it takes a special type of person to kind of persevere through the challenges that come with this industry. And, you know, so I just, I have so much admiration. ⁓

similar to you, Miriam, in just what they're doing and this level of service that is so much greater, there's such a bigger purpose. It's a privilege to be able to serve these owners, to help them achieve their mission and goals.

Miriam Allred (05:21)
Absolutely. And perseverance is a really good word. Home care years are almost like dog years. Like people that have been doing this for one year, five years, 10 years, you get people doing this for 20 years and it's just like, wow, the level that they're at and the perseverance that they've had to get to that level in home care, it's hard. this is, it's people's lives. It's care in the home. It is so hard. There's so many nuances. I was talking to an owner last week and just, I just said to him, like, tell me the phone calls that you're still getting like day in and day out. And it's just,

It's mind boggling, you the things that they're dealing with every single day, but that's the nature of it and they are persevering, which is incredible. You said you've been in this industry for 11 years. I'm not going to lie. That's longer than I had thought. For those that don't know your story, tell us a little bit more, you know, how you got in and then how you worked your way to where you are now.

Nick Bonitatibus (06:12)
Yeah, I think people are always surprised when I say that if they're looking at my face, because people think I'm 20. ⁓ But in their defense, my first job out of college was working for a company that home ⁓ care agencies. So I worked for Hurricane Marketing Enterprises, now Home Care Evolution. That was my first job. I was like an intern ⁓ right out of college. mean, literally it was like a month from graduating to...

like getting getting started. And so I was thrown into this world of home care, having no idea what this was. I was put into a role of things that I didn't have a lot of experience in, which opened up this massive opportunity of learning where I was just enthralled. Like they didn't even have stuff for me to do always right away. So I would just be watching YouTube videos and learning things about marketing and social media and just continuing to try to immerse myself and learn as much as I could to help the business grow.

⁓ which later led to me speaking for the first time in 2016. And that was where I kind of got the bug. They say that, you know, you're born twice the day of your birth and the day you figure out why. And that was my second birth where I just, I fell in love with speaking and teaching. And that became something that I really wanted to continue to pursue. so I, Hey, I want to speak more. I want to speak longer.

And what I found is that the things that I was teaching were things that I wanted to help people to do, but I couldn't, because I had a full-time job. So it's like I'm teaching them how to do all this stuff, but I wasn't giving them actually any other support or resources to help them actually execute on any of things that I was teaching about, which later led to me going off on my own, starting my own business. I've been in my own business for over six years now.

approaching seven. But it's been, it's one of those things where seeing kind of how things have evolved is the vision that I always had. Like I always wanted to, you when I first started speaking, I wanted to speak at Home Care Association of America. That was such a big deal. And then I got it I spoke this past year. was like, oh my gosh, like these, it's crazy when you're living the things that you always hoped that you could do while also.

Miriam Allred (08:28)
He.

Nick Bonitatibus (08:38)
hopefully helping other people to continue to grow and thrive in what they do. ⁓ it's just, it's been a wild journey and I'm grateful for every step, the highs and the lows.

Miriam Allred (08:52)
Yes, you and I have always been aligned on that of you can achieve whatever you set your mind to. Like you and I are both believers of that. And look at us both like here we are out on our own doing this thing. And it's like no dream is too lofty to accomplish. Like I genuinely think that whatever you set your mind to, you can absolutely achieve that. And you and I are both like testaments of that. So you started 11 years ago tinkering social media, YouTube, like digital advertising, marketing, the landscape.

has changed significantly in the last 10 years? I guess I your take on that of like what you got into 10 years ago in the landscape of like online versus what it is today. Would you actually say it's changed a lot or there's more like parallels and similarities than one might actually think?

Nick Bonitatibus (09:37)
That's a really great question. And my initial thought is that it hasn't changed that much. know, one thing that I always, you I preach and you you and I even talked about this before jumping on here is this idea of social media around building relationships. And that has not changed. That is, the platforms may be changing and evolving as these new platforms come out, but...

the general aspect of that social media is designed exclusively for building relationships. When Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook with the intention of connecting people at Harvard, then leading to more universities to then what it is today, it was based on that fundamental principle of just building relationships. So even though algorithms have certainly changed and

business pages don't work the same way that they used to. But those fundamental principles of just providing value and building relationships are still the number one foundational principle.

Miriam Allred (10:47)
Yeah, I agree. And that's kind of why I wanted to ask you that because I, one might think, okay, what Facebook was 10 years ago, the lack of AI 10 years ago, like, everything's changed, but you're right. Like the backbone of social media has stayed the same, which is connection. And I'm going to break out the hot takes already here. You're going to bring this out to me. Normally I'm pretty like conservative, but I feel like this is a topic you and I are both passionate about and interested in. So we're just going to get to it. ⁓

But if you don't have an online presence, you're nobody. if you're not, you and I were talking, joking about this before. If I search you on LinkedIn and you're not there, you don't exist. And I say that half jokingly, half serious, but like if you are a business owner, if you are, if you are anybody, let me just actually backtrack. It's like if you're anybody that wants to be somebody and wants to connect with people personally and professionally, like you need to be on social media. So today we're gonna.

Nick Bonitatibus (11:21)
Yeah.

Miriam Allred (11:45)
We're going to focus on LinkedIn because that's a platform you and I both know a lot about, are passionate about, and also there's true value there for home care leaders. Like true value, tangible value, that's what we're going to talk about today. Let's just start right out of the gate. If there's a skeptical home care executives listening to this that are like, ⁓ LinkedIn, you know, I don't need to spend my time there. Like my team spending time there, like I don't need to.

that are opting themselves out of LinkedIn like right off the bat.

Nick Bonitatibus (12:18)
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things that comes up is really understanding what is your goal, right? And the aspect, and I wanted to touch on this, because I think it's funny when you're talking about not existing. To me, like not having a personal brand is like a business not having a website. You know, when someone's going to check you out. So it's like, okay, well you have a website for your business, but what about you? Right, what is your personal brand? What are you about? And so the way I always explain it to no matter who you are,

whether you're a marketing rep, whether you're an agency owner is if you want to grow your wealth, your business, your life, having a personal brand helps you to do that. so let's say you are building your home care agency and you have people that are running it for you already. was like, well, what's the next step? What happens when you sell your home care agency and now you have no audience, no nothing because you just sold what's next for you? And I think so often,

you know, you know, high level CEOs that are thinking about selling, like there has to be a next thing. There's always a next thing. You can't, you're just going to retire for one month and then you're going to be on board because you're an entrepreneur. There's no, there's no getting out of this. We work forever, get used to it. You know, it's coming. ⁓ And so when we're able to build our own brand, opens us up for whatever venture that we want to take forward and be able to not start from the ground up. Why should you, why should you start a business from the ground up when you've already built one?

leverage your connections, you've heard the quote, your network is your net worth. so social media and LinkedIn is your network. So if you believe that your network is important to grow as an individual, to grow your wealth, to grow your business, then LinkedIn is the tool, or social media is the tool to help you to continue to do that and build that.

Miriam Allred (14:14)
Hmm. Let me play devil's advocate for a minute because there is this instance that a lot of businesses hit which is where they they don't want to be the face of the brand. They don't want to be the face of the brand. They don't want to be the brand. Like at the beginning early stages

the CEO, the founder, they are the brand. Like you just said, they're relying on their network to get their business off the ground. But I want to speak to this, there's kind of this turning point. Maybe in home care, it's like that kind of like two to three million range where they're like scaling and growing and they're like, I can't do everything and I also don't want to be the face and the voice of the brand. I want it to be a team effort. I want it to be a brand and a company effort. What about that moment in time?

Nick Bonitatibus (15:04)
Yeah, and the way I think about your online presence is the same way you think about your whole business. Is that I think it's crazy to me if you were to, let's say hire a recruiter and you're just like, okay, go get us caregivers with zero training and you don't tell them what to do at all. Well, your online presence is the same thing. And so it has to start from the top and top down. So these owners, they...

If you're just trying to delegate and push this off, but you haven't actually given the structure to utilize and leverage this and how you want things to be done, what your representation is of your brand, how you want your brand to sound, how you want your brand to look, these are pivotal aspects of your business and your marketing. That needs to be an aspect of how are you trickling down into

what your online presence is. And a lot of this, and I think this is where social media gets overcomplicated so easily, in the sense that if you're building a great culture, social media is so easy. It's so easy, because you're just showcasing the culture that you have, and your team's involved in it, and they're having fun every day at work. If your people aren't having fun at work, then you have nothing to post about that's actually engaging for people to share. And so...

To me, social media is just a reflection of your brand and what your culture is about. And so if you're not willing to do that and showcase that, then you probably don't have a good culture and you don't have a company that people are excited to work for, that want to work for. Your social media should look like where people are like, are you even working? Are you just guys having fun all the time? Right? Like that to me is something that you want to project. And there's ways to get, I'm not saying like you're not.

Miriam Allred (16:45)
Hmm.

Nick Bonitatibus (16:54)
you're showcasing things that you're doing out in the community. You're showcasing things that you're doing as part of your team, but it's this environment of ⁓ fun, of things that people actually wanna showcase. And I know that there's a lot of companies out there that like, my company's really fun. I'm like, it probably is. So like, just show other people. Yeah.

Miriam Allred (17:11)
And then it's a bunch of stock photos. Then it's a bunch of stock photos

on their social media. like, prove it. Don't put a bunch of stock photos on your social.

Nick Bonitatibus (17:20)
Yeah, you're having fun. Just like show people that you're having fun. Like I've heard of, there was one company I was talking to, and they're like, yeah, we like prank each other. And I'm like, what? Why are you not showcasing that? Like, how are you not posting about these funny pranks that are happening at your office? To me, that's so fun. Like that's gonna get people to wanna work with you. And at its core, right, social media, again, coming down to that building relationships is how does your social media represent

Miriam Allred (17:30)
He

Nick Bonitatibus (17:49)
what you want people to know and feel when they're seeing your content. And again, that comes down from that top-down leadership and what your representation is and what that, you know, are they excited to work for you? You know, are they posting about you because you've helped them, you've mentored them, you've, you know, like that's a piece that's really important. And so again, I think it's like, hey, can you grow your business without social media? Absolutely, people have done it. ⁓

But to me, it's just so easy to use this tool that is only going to magnify what you're already doing and make it easier to do the things that you want to achieve.

Miriam Allred (18:28)
Yeah, I love that. Let's talk about what that actually looks like in application. So home care company, culture's great, thriving, successful, office team, happy caregivers, like they've got the culture down. What do they do? We're talking like owner selfie style, like taking videos every day around the office. Like, what do they do? Tell us exactly what they should be doing daily, weekly, monthly.

Nick Bonitatibus (18:54)
I love that you brought up the selfie because I love the selfie. Okay. And I know a lot of people are gonna be like, no, I'm not doing it. And I'm going to challenge you on that is like there I've, I've tested this. Okay. The selfie outperforms every other piece of photo content. And my philosophy, my theory around this is that there is nothing more real and authentic than the selfie. Cause you're like,

I'm here, I'm doing this right now. This wasn't planned or prepared. It was just like, I pulled out my phone and we snapped this photo real quick. And so that's the rawness that people are looking for. And in this world, and I think this is important because I know we're both fans of AI too, AI is going to change a lot of things, especially social media. ⁓ And so it's looking for more of that raw,

authenticity, that's what is going to be working and the only thing that's going to be working because it's going to be so easy to just create fake, real looking AI content. so it's, we need to start doing these things now where when someone's reading a post that it actually sounds like it was from someone and not a robot creating the content. And I think that's where we're at right now is like all these people are like, oh my God, chat GBT is the

I can make 10 social media posts in one minute. like, yeah, that's why all your posts are horrible.

Miriam Allred (20:32)
Yes. Yes. Okay. One layer deeper, who should own this because ownership is key. This is where I see it falling through the cracks of so many businesses is like the owner's too busy. They do it. It's sporadic and spotty. They don't want to assign it to someone because that person doesn't have full decision-making power and the owner wants to ⁓ review all of their posts.

Nick Bonitatibus (20:40)
Yeah.

Miriam Allred (20:56)
Talk about like ownership and who's best suited to do this well and consistently in the business.

Nick Bonitatibus (21:03)
The best person to be in charge of social media is the marketer or marketers, people that are involved in day to day out in the community doing things. But again, it is also like a team effort in how you're communicating different things and just planning future things. And so there's aspects and this kind of ties into the culture of like direct things that you can do. So for example, and you've probably seen this, there's all these

really weird holidays, ⁓ like National Bagel Day, right? So don't post Happy National Bagel Day. Get your team some bagels, bring them into the office, and then take a photo of all of you together eating bagels, and then post it, right? And so again, that's like the difference in what showcases company culture and what is a dumb post.

Miriam Allred (21:41)
Yeah

Nick Bonitatibus (21:59)
sorry for being that maybe that was a little direct. ⁓ sorry. So we need to be like aware of these things. And so there's all of these aspects, like another one that I think is absolute gold is like national pet day, right? Again, don't say happy national pet day, but let's be honest. One, everyone loves dogs, cats, pets, people love it. So then you have each of your team member submit a photo of their pet and a little funny, like

Miriam Allred (22:04)
No, that's great.

Nick Bonitatibus (22:29)
bio about them. And now it's like the pets of the office. And it's just this whole little thing and there's little bios and it's, my gosh, who's not going to love this? It's very personal. People love seeing their pets on social media, like, and getting to be able to share that. And so now again, it's this very like nappy national pet day to, my gosh, this is like fun. This is company culture. You're getting to see people's pets, home life, personality.

All of this starts to shine when you can start to adapt these things that are kind of lame into something that is much more real, authentic, and personal.

Miriam Allred (23:08)
Yes. And to take it, I like to get like technical here, make it a part of someone's job description. If nobody owns it, if three people in the office are tag teaming social media, that doesn't work. If the owner is doing it independently, it'll come and go. And social media is a long game, is an evergreen game, and is a consistency game. And I said to you before the call, I hear so many operators that are like, we tried it for six months, didn't yield anything, we gave up.

That is the story I hear way too often. It's a long game. It's a consistency game. And there's too many National Bagel Day posts and that's just ruining your credibility, but also losing engagement and losing audience by doing that. that was long-winded, but make sure it's a part of someone's job description, especially someone that wants to do it. Don't throw it at someone.

I'd be careful, don't even force it on a marketer or force it on a said role. It's like find someone that's excited and passionate and interested and make it a part of their job description and check in with them regularly to make sure, because it's hard. You and I are both content creators. Like it's really hard to create content for months, let alone years. So like check in with that person and make sure that they are continually passionate and interested and fired up about it and don't get burned out of it because then that's the last thing that you want.

Nick Bonitatibus (24:32)
Yeah, and I think, a big part of too is, it's like that they have a strategy. So, and they have the tools to be able to do what they need to do to make an engaging social media. You know, what I often see is it's someone's job to do social media. And so then they end up just creating all of the cookie cutter content. And so then they're posting all of this and then they're like, why isn't social media working? It's like, because you're doing it wrong. Like you're not using it in the way that it was intended. And so.

Naturally, it's not going to perform well if you're creating what so many home care agencies, actually this would be very practical things that we can do. I'm gonna give two very specific things to stop doing that I see so often. Okay, number one, stop selling. Stop talking about your home care services. Okay, that's not educational, it's just salesy and nobody wants to see it. Your social media is not a billboard. If you wanna run ads, run ads. That's different.

but your social media should feel like it's its own human. Like if you had a personal Facebook page and your photos of food and kids and activities that you've done, what's your business version of that look like that's just personalized content? Number two, stop posting links, okay? Links, and I see this so, so often. Here's what you need to understand and why no one ever fights me on this. Facebook, LinkedIn.

It doesn't matter what social platform. Their whole money making formula, their business model is based on keeping people on the platform. Any time that you share a link that takes someone off of that platform, the algorithm is going, all right, let's not show that to anybody. Don't show them to people. We don't want anyone to see that. We don't want anyone leaving. So you're killing your social media.

Miriam Allred (26:17)
Yeah.

Nick Bonitatibus (26:24)
Every single time that you post a link and the third one this one's for fun hashtags are done. Okay, they don't work Stop using them, especially the 30 of them

Miriam Allred (26:31)
Hashtag stop using hashtags.

That ship has sailed. These are really good reminders. mean, again, to you and I, these things are like second nature, but those are probably things that people needed to hear, especially the links, because it's second nature for a home care owner. Post their website, their service page, like in the post, don't do that. So really, really good reminder there. I wanna...

Nick Bonitatibus (26:55)
Yeah.

Miriam Allred (26:58)
I want to kind of like circle back to, so there are three audiences, this is way I think about it. There's three audiences for home care companies. There's the clients and the families, there are the caregivers and there are the referral partners. Like those are the three people that they're talking to. Those are three very different audiences. Like you could argue there's like some overlap, but three pretty different audiences with three different messages going to them. How do you...

manage your social posts when you're talking to three different audiences? Like, can you do that all in one company page? Or is that an individual pages? How do you do that well with social media?

Nick Bonitatibus (27:38)
Yeah, no, I love this question and I always start off every presentation that I give my like main keynote talks about how there are three different core audiences and how you can't talk to them ⁓ the same. Like you have to be, you can, but you have to be understanding that most people try and talk to one or the other, right? And they're like choosing. And so they are like constantly posting these different things that are talking to different people. Now I will say there is some,

nuance, because one thing that we haven't talked about that is super unique is just understanding the difference between your business brand and your personal brand. And to me, the personal brands are really what I'm continuing to see is thriving and growing. And that's where your personal LinkedIn, because really impactful specifically, the owners and marketers and people that out in the field and connecting with people. And we can dive into that. But then the personal brands too, the reason why the business brands, they need the personal brand also, because that's what helps grow

the business brand. And so if you want to grow your business brand, the personal brand is the number one way to grow your business brand because you're connecting with people you know and then you're sharing it to your personal pages. And so that becomes a really important element. Now, how do you talk to all three is similar to things that I've kind of talked about is your culture is a fundamental aspect of what your

social media content should look like and culture is a representation that connects with every single person, right? It connects with those referral partners, it connects with prospective clients, it connects with caregivers. And so if you're see, let's say you're sharing some video testimonials that are from caregivers, that's great because one, it showcases to caregivers, hey, here's some really great testimonials. Two, it showcases the clients that you actually have caregivers that care about.

and like working for your company. And the same thing with referral partners. When they see that, they're like, this is a great company that has good caregivers that I wanna send business to. And so again, the fundamental aspect of your brand is around that aspect of building relationships. And so one of the things that you can do that's really helpful, and this is something that I, ⁓ when I was knowing that I was gonna come on and talk with you, Miriam, I wanted to hit on this, because I think this is,

one of the easiest and simplistic ways to create better social media content, and it comes down to storytelling. And there's so much social media content that people are getting pushed like value, education, which again is great. mean, hey, my business model is built on creating educational videos, but it's this aspect of one thing that we're always trying to do with everything that we create is how can we input stories into our videos, into our content?

because that's what really connects with people. That's what keeps people's attention. And so how can you tell stories about your brand? What's something that you did in an event recently? What happened? What was unique? What's an amazing caregiver thing that a caregiver did? What was the story that they helped with the client? What's a client's story? Maybe something that they have done in their past. Maybe their service, their veteran service, and you want to highlight a client and what their experience was.

Maybe it's a story about one of your referral partners and what they did to help one of your clients to succeed. Maybe you have a home remodeling and they installed some grab bars and how amazing they did in the customer service and this was the experience that our client had working with them. ⁓ Reviews, we're getting Google reviews, but here's the thing when it comes to Google reviews, I see this all the time. People will just screenshot a Google review and post it. Stop, stop, stop doing that. What, what?

made this Google review impactful? What did you as a company feel when you read this, when you saw this? Like share that. And that's something I'm always doing with my clients is, know, and with AI it makes it a lot easier, but you have to know how to do this. These are the practical steps that you can do is what were you experiencing? What were you feeling? What exactly happened, right? And then that can all get crafted into this much more personalized storytelling experience that when someone's reading it,

They're not thinking, oh my god, this is clearly AI. They're thinking, wow, the owner or this team or these people actually spent the time to create this message. And so if you're on here and you're like, this is great, social media's gonna be so easy for me and so fast, you're already lost. If you're looking for shortcuts in social media, you will lose, period. Like you said, it's the long game, but it's that

Miriam Allred (32:17)
Hmm.

Nick Bonitatibus (32:22)
Quality that is going to go so much further and more is not better in social media You're better off creating one really engaging thoughtful personal post every week then trying to post once every single day

Miriam Allred (32:37)
I love it. So many good points. And you said it at the start. We're so quick to like over complicate and overthink social media. But everything you just said, it's like it's a mirror of your culture. don't get and here I am like don't get hung up on the audience. Know your three audiences, but know that the right content resonates with all three of them. You reflect your culture that speaks to your referral partners, to your families and clients and to your caregivers like

If you reflect everything positive about the business, all three of those audiences are intrigued and more likely to work with you. So don't get hung up. Just get out there. Be authentic. This is marketing 101, like storytelling. That's another easy thing to overthink. Like, what do we post? What do we say? Do we say it perfectly? It's like, no, just, just start telling the story. Just start writing it down. Like, I don't know about you, but I take notes like always, like I'm always just like writing things down. That's really helpful with social media is like,

You should always have like a pool of ideas, of content, of images, like documentation. Like we're in a world where like just document things and then it's so much easier to draw on the random thought you had on a Tuesday afternoon to then post next week. Like it's easy to dry up, but document, keep ideas and tabs just like ever flowing so that you don't run out of ideas.

Nick Bonitatibus (33:58)
Yeah, and it's things that you can utilize. So don't think of it only as social media. It's things that you can utilize when you're talking with a client. So if you keep a library of success stories or stories that happen with clients, you now have this whole library. Yes, good social media content, but also when you're sitting down with talking with a referral partner, sitting down and talking with a client, you have these stories to pull from. I actually did a video where I talked about Notion and how I use Notion to organize. And one of the things I have Notion for is

creating, I have a whole bunch of content. So I'm like, man, what am I talking about? I need some posts. I just go there and I start ⁓ scheduling out the content because I've got this library that's pulled up. And so I love that you mentioned that is just, again, creating a place doesn't have to be Notion. probably don't even, you might not even know what Notion is, but again, you're just having a place that you can store these stories to come back to. And that's going to help so much in so many of the things that you.

that you do.

Miriam Allred (34:59)
So let's talk about actual like content types. And then I want to circle back to business pages versus like personal branding and LinkedIn specifically, like what CEOs need to be doing on their personal LinkedIn. So we'll get back to that, but talk about content types, video, carousels, photos, written, like there's all these different content types. Video is king and has always been king and will continue to be. I saw a stat that's like still like 30 % year over year.

video post out performing like everything else, but there is some value to carousels specifically on LinkedIn that are doing really well. I'm curious from your perspective. Are we going away from like written posts? Like I thought recently, I don't know, that's a relative term, like written posts, you know, pretty like a meaty almost like short form blogs were doing well on LinkedIn, but talk about the different content types. What's performing extremely well right now?

Nick Bonitatibus (35:56)
Yeah, I mean, think obviously platform is a big aspect in what performs well. it's not, at its core, the thing that performs well is good content, not the medium itself. so, what's funny is sometimes there may be a video, like, my gosh, this is such a good video, and then it doesn't perform well. ⁓ then maybe there's a post that I was sharing that's long form written that I'm like,

I didn't really think much of it and all of a sudden it's blowing up. I'm like, this is so wild. And so there is this element sometimes that you don't know what's going to always perform well based on just what you think is going to do well. ⁓ but I'll talk about some of the things that, that I've found. ⁓ obviously I think, you know, video and YouTube is super underutilized and a big aspect of that is because YouTube is just video, which it creates this whole nother avenue that people aren't

leveraging and utilizing where you can have a library, basically have your own Netflix, your own streaming of home care resources that become assets and not just something that you're posting, because that's the rabbit hole sometimes with social media. You feel like you're constantly just posting something and then it does well and then it's gone and it goes in the newsfeed and poof, whereas with YouTube, you're building these assets and videos that you can leverage and utilize again and again. So from that standpoint, think...

the right videos, and again, this is where the strategy comes in, is having the right videos and how you're leveraging those videos in your network, in your community, with prospective clients, with caregivers. That's where you're gonna see the greatest value because it's not just this like chase the feed and try and fix the algorithm to work in your favor. So that's the first piece. Now, when it comes to the content itself, what I've found at least is

one video but two, like personal storytelling in that longer form aspect where the idea that I think about when it comes to social media, and this is again more towards the personal brand side of things, is this aspect of when someone reads it, do they feel like it's you? And like the amount of people that,

feel like they know me, they come up to me and it's because of this aspect because I find, and again, not everyone is gonna like to hear this, but the thing that I find from a content perspective is vulnerability that thrives. My most honest posts are the ones that do the best because that's what people relate to, people connect with it. at the end of the day, that's the goal, is how are we just connecting

with the people that we are looking to connect with. And that comes from vulnerability. Like we have to take the first step in order to connect and open ourselves up. And again, you don't have to go around like, you know, sharing things that like health problems or complications that you're having, don't need to share. But when we can be vulnerable about certain struggles that we're having or things that we've overcome, like that is what I've seen to do really well. Now,

Side note from an algorithm standpoint without bouncing around too much, one underrated thing that I wanted to bring up is I love LinkedIn articles. It was something that somebody had told me about when I was at an event. They're like, don't sleep on LinkedIn articles and I didn't. And I've seen great results from LinkedIn articles where people are commenting on them. And what's really cool from the video strategy side of things is basically LinkedIn articles is your own blog, but it's in LinkedIn.

so you can embed a YouTube video with a written blog that you can now share as an article, but LinkedIn is favoring it because now you're not taking people off the platform because the video is embedded into the platform itself. ⁓ And so I found that, and it also gives you a little like, hey, this is how many minutes it'll take to read this, and I think that's like a cool feature because people only have so much time, so when it actually shares that information, it can help. So there's a lot of opportunity. ⁓

there. again, I feel like there's a lot of places that I can go. Hopefully that gives some direction.

Miriam Allred (40:16)
Yeah,

no, that was great. And the thing that I want to add and just like the reminder is like each of these social channels is its own like search in its own right. know, 12 years ago, 15 years ago, it like Google search. Like everything we did was through the Google search bar. Now YouTube, Google owns, but every single one of these social channels, excuse me, is like its own search bar. And so people are coming to businesses from all of these platforms, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.

and it becomes a search bar. And so your articles, your posts, your videos, your photos, everything that you put on there is searchable. And so I just, I that as a reminder of like, think of these like search bars. If people are searching for you ambiguously, like what keywords, what content would they be searching out to find you? Like, and that's a little bit of a mindset shift. ⁓ Let's lean in a little bit more to like the personal branding. So,

We're talking to home care CEOs. Some of them are spending time on LinkedIn. Some of them aren't. They say they have 15 or 20 minutes a week to get on LinkedIn undivided time and attention. Like what specifically should they be doing on LinkedIn to build their personal brand?

Nick Bonitatibus (41:27)
Yeah, so the first thing is spending time just connecting with people that you already know. If you're newer to LinkedIn, it's just as simple as continuing to build your network of your existing people. How are you taking your existing network and digitizing it, right? Everyone that you know in the human world, ⁓ adding it to the digital world. And so that means everyone. I'm talking family, friends, people from church, your...

children's parents, it doesn't matter. If you know them, connect with them on LinkedIn, because you never know who's gonna know who, and finding these mutual connections. The reason why LinkedIn is so impactful is because it's the only social platform where you can actually see where people work. And so when you're looking to connect with someone, and then you can actually see, this person is friends with this person, can they make an introduction? And so...

No matter where you're at in your business, connections is everything for growing to scale. So even as a CEO, let's say you're not even trying to grow the home care agency, but you're just trying to grow yourself. Well, again, how do you get in front of the rooms? How do you get in the masterminds? How do you get in front of the right people? It's through your network and finding these right people. So that's the first thing, is just spending time connecting. The other thing is understanding that, forget what the stat is, I'd have to recheck it, but

it was either like one or 10%, I forget, because it varies per social platform, per users are actually posting. So like, I think it was like 1%. And again, correct me if I'm wrong, even if it's 10, it doesn't really matter. That's the amount of people on these platforms that are actually consistently posting. And so just by being someone that consistently posts, you are now outside of the norm of the general population that is creating content.

how do you separate yourself from even the people that are posting is how are you posting content that isn't super generic? And I see this all the time, especially with young professionals. like, I'm so excited for this new job opportunity or look at us at this conference. And it's just like very, it's almost like they're doing it just to make their boss happy. They're like, look, I'm sharing stuff on LinkedIn. I'm doing it. I'm posting stuff. But I think where it becomes really impactful is how can you highlight things?

Miriam Allred (43:41)
Fluffy.

Nick Bonitatibus (43:55)
People, ⁓ and I think that is a really easy thing to do from a content perspective. It's like, who's on your team? What have they done? People really appreciate public admiration. So when you can give somebody a part of your team, like, hey, here's what they did, here's the amazing things that they're doing, that's awesome.

And like as a leader, like that's what we want is like you can tell them, hey, it's great, you did a great job. But when they actually see this public recognition, it goes so much further. And that goes with like recognizing mentors. Like I did a post recently and I didn't even say the mentor's name, but he knew I was talking to him. And then he commented, he even posted like a photo. ⁓ And I thought that that was like so funny because it was a photo I didn't even know he had of me. And so like that created this whole aspect and I'm like,

just so you know this is about you. He's like, yeah, I kind of figured. Because again, we have these people in our life that have been played pivotal roles in helping us to get where we are. So the higher you are in your success or wherever we're at in your level means that you have more stories, more people, more things to share that you've persevered through. What have you done and how can you share that value? And again, that's what it comes down to from a content perspective.

and when we think about all of our content that we're sharing is how do we share our stories in a way that relates to the audience that we're looking to connect with? And so it's not about like, hey, look at me at this event. It's I love going to events, meeting people, connecting with people. If you're not going to events, you're missing out. So notice how I'm not talking, hey, me.

I'm talking to the person. And I think that's another big mistake that a lot of times people make. It's this aspect of talking at somebody instead of kind of like with them. Where when someone reads something, does it sound like you're talking at them or does it sound like they're hearing it? That it actually feels like they're speaking to them. And that's how we kind of want to tweak our content that's going to help you to connect with the audience more instead of it just

Miriam Allred (45:57)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Nick Bonitatibus (46:16)
feeling like you're documenting, which again, I've talked a lot about documenting, but it's how are you taking the things that are happening in a documentation standpoint, but relating it to the audience and why it's relevant to them. Why should they care? Like post a photo of you doing training at your office with your caregivers. Okay, good first step, but don't just say, here's us doing training. Talk about why it matters. Why is this relevant to them?

Oh well, we're training our caregivers. We do this every single month because we want to provide the absolute most exceptional care for every single person that we work with. And that comes down to training, that comes down to supporting our staff, comes down to supporting our team.

Miriam Allred (46:59)
Super, super good. Two things that I want to add to that and just highlight even further. One is interest-based distribution. Some people think they post and all of their followers see it. That's not how this works. It's interest-based. And so if you start talking about something specific, it's going to be put in front of a specific audience that's interested in that thing. So always be mindful.

about kind of like the lanes that you're channeling into because that's who's going to see your content. So interest-based distribution. And then the second thing, which you talked about is I read this word narrow casting. It's actually like specific niche content and audience, like start small. Some people start way too broad and generic and it's like, that's fluffy and boring and nobody cares. Start like hyper niche, like

even focus on one area of your home care business that like nobody else is talking about, like start super niche, start building an audience around like niche topics and then expand out from there. I think that's a mistake that a lot of people make with social media is like, they're trying to catch all, they're trying to be relevant and interesting to everybody, therefore interesting, relevant to nobody. And people are afraid to start like too pigeonhole, they're too niche, but I would argue like that's the best place to start is like get hyper specific, nerd out on one specific thing.

And then people will find that interesting and engaging. And then you can start to like broaden your horizons from there.

Nick Bonitatibus (48:27)
Yeah, and you also start to get known for that thing that you're hyper-focused on. And so now that becomes part of your brand and your differentiation in what you're known for, right? And so, you know, I've built my brand around like social media and video. So like these are what I'm known for. But also keep in mind that like I do talk about stuff that's not always, you know, around social media and video because what I've tried to do too, and again, this is...

I'm 100 % with Miriam in like, niching down and focusing on this. But I think where it's really cool too, and this is more nuanced, so I hope this isn't like, over people's head, but it's like, how are you creating niche content that also can connect with a broader audience? Because that's what I've been seeing like, can perform really well. So it's like, super niche, but it still connects with deeper people, so then that helps to kind of like, build it. But when someone's reading it, they're still, it still connects with the niche more.

but it's still relevant to potentially more people. But again, I'm a huge fan of niche marketing, right? Like if you want to brand yourself as dementia, then you should be talking about dementia often, you know? If you want to brand yourself as fall prevention, then it's like, how are you talking about these different things that are really relative to what you want to be known for? And again, that's the idea of marketing and building a brand is what do you want people to remember?

about you, those are things that you should focus on. And you can kind of start to think about this from your own personal brand is like, what are your core pillars that you want to focus on? And then making sure that you're just consistently talking about those things. And then that always helps with, like, I don't know what to talk about. It's like, all right, well, what are your pillars? And how can you focus on those key areas? And then that helps make it a lot easier when you're struggling with potential content to create.

Miriam Allred (50:23)
And stay consistent, stay consistent. It's a long game. just, you know, I hear, I can picture people hearing you and they start down that path. Like they establish the pillar, start creating content. They don't see anything and three to six months get discouraged and then just fade. But it's like, no, just stick with it. Any content creator, anyone that's anything online, like they have been doing it for years.

And there's a reason. There's a reason why it's a long game. There's a reason why it's hard. There's a reason why only 1 % of people is posting on these platforms. It's hard. It takes work. But be that differentiated business in your market. Be the one that's posting really, really solid content. Because I can think of literally like probably five or six owners like right now in my head that are just like nailing social media and they are reaping the rewards.

You know, and they don't want other home care companies to get into and get good at it. They're like, no, this is like my differentiator and it's working well for me. But it's like more companies need to be leaning in and focusing on it and reaping the rewards of it. ⁓ What is your take on let's let's talk a little bit about AI. What is your take on content creation tools powered by AI? Are they good? Are they bad? Are there any out there that people should be using or should we be steering away from them at this point?

Nick Bonitatibus (51:40)
So this is like a very interesting topic, especially when it comes to video. ⁓ But before we get into video, I think it's important to address just like general AI usage with social media content, because I have seen like just horrible mistakes, ones that like are hilarious in the sense I had, ⁓ you know, my content, and a lot of times people content, they...

comment on mine because they're trying to build their own reach and so they comment on mine because they're trying to get in front of my audience, right? And I had one person that was like clearly AI stuff and I kind of told him like, dude, please stop. Like this is not, I appreciate you doing comments but I know it's not you and it's clearly AI. ⁓ And so like you don't want to do that to anybody because they're just going to get a bad impression of you. The second thing that happened, I had someone that

the post started or the comment started, this would be a good comment for this post. So be very careful about what you are copying and pasting when you are using AI. like, at the matter of this is, you are sharing, so I'll give you, if you know who I am or have seen any of my content, I use AI for everything, every single thing in the last like two years.

Miriam Allred (52:43)
Yeah.

Nick Bonitatibus (53:07)
But if you read it, you're reading it and you're going like, this sounds like Nick. Like you can tell that I've input myself into the content and that's what your content should feel like also. So if you're reading something and you're like, this feels like AI and it doesn't feel like me, then you're not doing it properly. And so again, being very mindful of that. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Miriam Allred (53:29)
Let me, it's a breach of trust. If

I read it or watch it or sniff AI, it's like almost an instant breach of trust in that I'm like, ⁓ like, is anything that you give to me real? You know what I mean? Like that's extreme way of thinking, but you have to be so careful. Again, not that AI is bad and not that we aren't using it, but like being hyper aware.

of what you're putting out with it and how you're utilizing it so that you're not breaching trust with people.

Nick Bonitatibus (54:04)
Yeah, it's basically going in the opposite direction. It's like you're trying to provide value and build trust. And if you overly are dependent on AI, you're now reversing the fact because now who wants to follow someone that's just like not intentional about what they're sharing. like, again, that's the aspect of like good social media content is one that people are intentional about. And so if you're intentional, you will see...

greater results, and again, that takes more time to be intentional and really thoughtful about what you are going to share. Now, I will say, ⁓ to kind of transition here into this video world, and I'm getting ads from people that are like, hey, create your AI clone. I've created all these videos and look how many views that I've gotten from this AI video. I'm a little disgusted by it, ⁓ but at the same time,

I have to be, ⁓ I can't let emotional aspects affect decision making. And so I was like running from AI video for a while because I'm like, this is horrible. This is not going to work. again, it is happening. And so like I need to, and I have been trying to stay at the top of like what's happening and how this is happening. And right now we're in this world where you can tell. like that's

That is losing, that's leaving. Like it's just, yeah.

Miriam Allred (55:35)
We're on the cusp of not

being able to tell.

Nick Bonitatibus (55:39)
Yeah, and it's like this funny aspect around, know, this reminds me, I'm sorry, this is a tangent here, but there was like this comedian that he talked about. He's talking about his mom and his mom, his mom shows him some news article and he's like, mom, that's not real. She's like, how do you know? Well, I don't have time to explain to you why the news is in a different font. And so I could tell that it's fake. it was, and I, it's, so funny because it's so relatable because depending on your age,

certain things are easier to tell what's real and what's not. But now, it doesn't matter. We're the younger generation can't tell either now. So like it's getting to this point of we're not going to know what's real, what's not real. Now, this is important because this is going to dramatically affect on how social media changes and evolves. And so my prediction and kind of what I've heard other people predict as well,

is this aspect of people that currently have personal brands are going to thrive because they've already built this trust for new creators that could be a totally fake AI person. so start now, and again, even if you have zero LinkedIn experience, I've worked with clients of mine that had absolutely nothing that are now consistently getting referrals from LinkedIn, people reaching out to them saying, hey, I wanna work with you.

You can go from nothing and start seeing success pretty quickly if you're doing the right things and you're doing it in a very intentional way. But we do need to be mindful of like this crazy world that is happening and social media is going to take a dramatic turn when we live in a world where before we assumed everything was real and question was fake. But now we're going to assume everything is fake and

not know it's real. so it's we're like we're on the prep a prettypist I'm a precipice yes of that that transformation right right now it's happening.

Miriam Allred (57:40)
as it is, yeah.

Yeah, and it should like look at us. We're both content creators. It doesn't scare us. It's like it's an opportunity. It's a point in time where we're learning and growing and using AI for things like strategy and drafting and content creation, like concept creation. It's like there's all these benefits to it. But I just come back to now for a second do I want someone to think that I am AI and what I'm putting out there is AI like that.

That's game over. Like when I see it, when I read it, like you just kind of like cancel those people, like nix them out. Like, okay, I can't, can't really trust you anymore. And what you're putting out as AI, like, I don't care. I want to know what the real person thinks and feels and posts, not AI. And so like you just said, I completely agree. Like the real stuff is going to be hard to come by. Therefore it will, it will be differentiated and succeed in the long run because there's going to be a bunch of fluff, a bunch of fake stuff.

and the real stuff will bubble up and win. so again, don't get discouraged, but like lean in and create good authentic content that's high quality and people will trust you more than ever in a sea of AI sloth.

Nick Bonitatibus (59:01)
Yes, and there is a lot of AI slop coming in this world where people still don't know when even like us it's clear that it's AI but people are you seeing comments like my gosh I can't believe this and and it's gonna get to a point especially and again I'm not going down this tangent but just like of news in general and how I mean someone can just change a video to like that was real like so to give me I don't know if you guys are familiar with Sora but like

Sora is a platform that allows you to just scan your face, take a few photos, and you can create videos of yourself. But what people were doing is that they were telling the AI to create a lower resolution as if it's like a webcam from a doorbell camera, so it's like kind of grainy, and then they're blurring out the watermark, and you don't notice that the watermark is blurred out because they've asked the video to be grainy. And so like...

There's just a lot of content where people are just chasing views and trying to get engagement. And so we don't know what's, again, what's real. So be very mindful. And the only way to do this is by learning about AI, learning tools, learning how to do this right, learning how to do it the right way. Again, I'm a big proponent of just education and hey, you're here, you're listening to this podcast. you clearly...

believe in education and so continue on in that education in these areas because it's going to serve you well and I think the agencies that adopt AI quicker are the ones that are going to succeed so much faster.

Miriam Allred (1:00:37)
Yeah. And for what it's worth, said a few minutes ago, you can build a successful home care company with social media and without social media. I've actually asked people that. Can you build a successful agency fully on boots on the ground, in-person marketing? And or can you build it solely with social? I've asked people that. And it's interesting. was one...

One company that went all digital, like they didn't do any in-person marketing, which this is less common. Most people will try and build an agency like Boots on the Ground, like referral in-person marketing, not the opposite, which is fully digital. This company that I talked to, they got to $4 million and they were like, we maxed. They were like, we did everything, which is great. They built a $4 million company.

on digital alone and they were like, got to this point where there's diminishing returns and we needed like boots on the ground. We needed in-person, we needed those referral sources. then same on the other side is like companies build all in person all day, but they get to the point where they're like, there's this whole other market online that we're just not hitting. We have to hit them. And so just kind of wrapping up this conversation, like the agencies that succeed,

long term and grow the biggest scale, the largest, they do both and they do both extremely well. And so no matter what size you're at or what stage you're at listening to this, there is a place for both. They compliment one another and they introduce you to and expose you to two different audiences. And so don't, don't write off social media. Don't write off your online presence and your personal brand, because there's a whole nother audience, a whole nother network of people online.

that you could be talking to and generating business from just as if you were in person.

Nick Bonitatibus (1:02:24)
Yeah, I couldn't agree more and to piggyback off of that too, and I think this is an important element and you did touch on this is like a lot of times people think of direct referral marketing and online marketing as two separate entities that you're building and the ones that are winning are the ones that are doing it together. It should not work. I don't even work with agencies that aren't already doing direct referral marketing because they need to be doing these things because what I'm doing with my clients only works if you're really leveraging and utilizing

your direct referral marketing strategy. And so they need to be working together, not separately, which is also why you can't outsource your online presence. You can't have some other company just come in and do your online marketing. Like it has to work with your business, in your business, internally. Like you can use contractors and you can use people to help you, but it still needs to have that top down. So again, I love that you said that. Remember, direct referral marketing.

and digital marketing working together is the number one way to see success and grow your agency to levels far beyond what you can imagine.

Miriam Allred (1:03:33)
Yes, Nick, great conversation. In closing here, for people that this really resonated with or people that need help with this type of stuff, Tell everyone a little bit about the services that you offer and how you help businesses specifically with this.

Nick Bonitatibus (1:03:48)
Yeah, so we have a program called Video Sales Accelerator and basically our goal is to help you to create strategic videos that you can leverage and utilize every day for years to come by building out this asset library from your brand story to a caregiver recruitment video to educational resources that you can leverage and utilize again and again.

And our process is really simple. We do it with you. So it's not, you're not trying to record and make videos on your own. We're able to do everything together. It only takes two hours a month to be able to do. And so if you're like, hey, I've always wanted to do video, not sure really where to get started, how to get started, schedule a call. Our website's thedigitalchamps.com. I'm happy to just, again, have a conversation. I'm not gonna, you know.

offer you anything that I don't think is actually going to help you. And my goal every time I talk with someone, no matter what it is, that you're gonna leave more educated than when you jumped on.

Miriam Allred (1:05:00)
Yeah. And Nick is an expert in all of these things. We kind of bounced around topics and channels and platforms today, but you can go a lot deeper in every single one of those. And so some people may have specific questions about Instagram or about LinkedIn or about YouTube, for example. And so don't hesitate to reach out to him with specific questions that are platform specific or video specific because you're a wealth of knowledge in all of those regards. So Nick, this has been awesome. Thanks for joining me in the lab.

Nick Bonitatibus (1:05:25)
Hey, thank you so much for having me. was a pleasure.