Photo Credit: Masha Pavlova
Olivia Vo is a heart-centered entrepreneur and founder of Savvy Social Pro Enterprises, where she infuses her joyful energy, humor style, and savvy strategies for online collaborations and livestream events and productions. She credits the LinkedIn platform with providing her very first career in staffing as a recruiter and now as her livelihood as a social media content creator.
She is a graduate of the USA Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative, received her Laughter Yoga Certification, a professional member of the Association for Applied Therapeutic Humor, and volunteers with Harmony Mind Body Spirit Wellness Nonprofit in Jacksonville, FL.
Olivia facilitates hands-on trainings and workshops both for in-person and online virtual events and available to speak on entrepreneurship, laughter for well-being, and LinkedIn profile optimization. She is known for her ability to connect and energize groups through her infectious laughter, empathy, and winsome smile.
Her favorite type of social collaborations is book anthologies and Olivia is an international bestselling author of several including Heart Notes: An Anthology of Inspiring Letters to Matters of the Heart, The Cinderella Monologues, The Impact of One Voice, Live Life in W.O.W!, The Stories of Us, and Ready Connect Grow all available on Amazon.
FWM: When did your passion for social media content begin?
I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I was turned off at first by the sharing of daily life in an overly public way. However, once I recognized it as a tool for business then I started to think of it in a different way.
My first use of social media was LinkedIN. Working in recruiting and staffing beginning in 2010, it was our go-to platform to brand the companies and clients we were representing and advertise job openings and reach out to candidates. At this time, I focused on promoting and highlighting business and had a standard profile and that was it. I used it in a very matter of fact way to network within the HR profession and build contacts and create touchpoints with clients and candidates. I’ve recruited in variety of industries including sales, education technology, pharma, financial, and IT.
Over time, going beyond the popular career search sites such as Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed, to look at LinkedIN helped me become successful in my recruiting career. I made my profile a little bit more personable and included resources that I thought would help jobseekers and that made them feel comfortable to trust me and guide them through the application process. Just as I was vetting them for job openings, they now had a way to vet me too from reading my summary and seeing my activity and seeing my recommendations.
Then in 2020, when we experienced worldwide pandemic, I saw a major shift in my industry as workers were furloughed or transitioned to remote work. I went from juggling 5-7 requisitions a week to working 1 for an entire month. I felt this was detrimental since it was affecting my placements. I had always operated by the more people I can place in jobs then the more money I could make. As people were evaluating their circumstances and choices during this Great Reset, I knew that I wanted to make a change too. The recruiting career had served me well and it was time to move on. I began attending online networking events and discovered that entrepreneurship was the next step for me to explore. I could help the business owners and leaders that I was meeting with to improve their social media presence, especially with understanding LinkedIN and making it work for them.
I started out by training others on LinkedIN and teaching introduction courses and then I saw that LinkedIN was introducing video and looking for creators to create original content on the platform through livestreaming. I saw that as another opportunity to learn that video technology to make me more visible and helping others gain confidence on camera too.
FWM: Tell us about Savvy Social Pro Enterprises and how you have infused your joyful energy, humor, and savvy strategies to help others.
Savvy refers to my sense of style and flair and people have often commented me on that and that I am able to see things in a creative new perspective. Previously I was often seen as cute or adorable and it didn’t really sit well with me to be called that so Savvy was the perfect adjective that meant I could be taken seriously as a business and still have fun.
This is especially important when it comes to making LinkedIN learning fun. Most people see it as a big mystery or another chore item that they have to do and not realizing that it is a great site in which to build meaningful, genuine relationships and find opportunities (such as invitation for this magazine article!) (I had heard of the magazine and your name before from my colleague, Mila Johansen, when we published The Cinderella Monologues together, however you eventually found me on LinkedIN and messaged me!)
I credit my training as a laughter yoga leader humor studies with the Humor Academy of AATH – Association for Applied Therapeutic Humor, and understanding specific techniques to help people feel at ease and find creative solutions.
Before in my previous companies, I could never fully embrace my joyful energy and humor because I would be seen as too much and needed to tone it down, now it’s what helps me stand out and people can appreciate that I can bring joy and levity when they are feeling discouraged or frustrated.
One of my core values is collaboration and socializing. Two values that I could not fully express either in my job because it was a competitive environment where there was only 1 job to fill, 1 perfect candidate, to hire for 1 position. Now as an entrepreneur, I get to collaborate with such a diverse group of people all over the world, virtually, and I love it. I love coming together in an online community and creating summits, workshops, events, etc. Most recently I’ve come into my favorite type of online social collaboration through self-publishing book anthologies. Social in this case also refers to social media and being social and getting back to what social media was intended for and that is socializing, creating community, and having a sense of belonging. Nowadays there is a big push on social media for business and sales and constant pitching and that is a turn off. I think people need to feel safe that they can own their message and mission and communicate it authentically through a social media channel.
Pro stands for Professional that I can offer professional services for social media training related to LinkedIN and creative digital marketing though livestreaming.
The most important thing is that people who work with me do not have to feel that they have to go at it alone. They can partner with me and form a collaboration through books, events, and video livestreams.
There’s also enough Savvy-ness to go around! One great example that combines savvy, joy, humor, and creativity is that I created an acronym to help clients with “breaking the ice” and feeling good before they have to go on camera or need a reminder of their awesomeness when they don’t know what to post!
Ideally, they need to have 5 items for each category:
S = Skills, services they provide, or subject matter expertise
A = Attributes; positive aspects of themselves that they like
V = Values; causes they support, what they believe in
V = Victories; celebrations, milestones, and special achievements
Y = Young-at-Heart activities; what they enjoy to do for fun or special hobbies
FWM: You work with clients globally on effective networking and what you term as “Ripple of Influence” on LinkedIn. Share a few best practices.
Most people think ROI, their Return on Investment, and thinking what is it that they are going to get out of this.
I like to offer why not a pay it forward approach and create your Ripple of Influence, and make your message and presence increase tenfold. I believe your activities will speak louder than words and you can delight others in doing the following without the expectation of having to get anything in return.
Best practices:
- Give kudos and mentions of your connections or clients (there is a built in LinkedIN post feature to offer fun kudos) and giving them recognition for who they are or what they’re doing
- Introduce them to another colleague; create an introduction message for referrals or suggested connections
- Invitations; if there is a event or class or group that you know they could benefit from, then be sure to bring them the opportunity.
FWM: What have you learned over the years as a Savvy Strategist?
I’m still learning! I left my full-time recruiting career in June 2021, and without that external pressure I am so grateful for the freedom to create. It is a gift to focus inward and decide how I want to shape my life and business and go after the things and experiences that I want.
Since that time until now, I have successfully produced online summits, hosted my own livestream show called Get Your Happy On with 32 episodes of Season 1, created and hosted livestreams for others, graduated from a competitive business accelerator program called USA Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative; included as a published bestselling author in 6 book anthologies; spoken on stage for bLU Talks at Harvard University, became an international speaker in Puerto Vallarta Mexico and sharing messages about laughter and creativity, and forgiveness
Lesson 1: Be decisive, once you have made up your mind, then follow-through with it one step at a time, without wavering. You may be tested, and that’s ok to learn to re-commit.
Lesson 2: The Terror Barrier is not all that bad. There is so much joy on the other side of the terror barrier. I can remember being faced with a major decision and my mind and body were freaking out in super tense physical sensations and as challenging as it was I made the decision to go through with it. And everything that maybe I was so nervous or hesitant about, unfolded in the most beautiful and rewarding way. I was hesitant about my present conditions and circumstances (I’m not there yet, I’m not ready yet, what if it doesn’t work out), bound by my conditional living standards and slowly you can break free from that.
Lesson 3: Take a digital detox whenever necessary. Early on I took 3 months off from social media, deleted the apps, refusing to login and it was absolutely crucial to be still with my inner child and recalibrate my inner world and learning to operate from my own heart center versus being influenced by any external noise. Whatever it is for you, it could be a day, a week, month, etc and it’s ok to gift yourself that time away of being caught up in the social media sphere.
FWM: Tell us about your hands-on training and workshops.
I am available for in-person bookings for training and workshops in Jacksonville, Florida and customize a program on topics of laughter for well-being or LinkedIN social media training.
You can find me at the Jacksonville Botanical Garden and Arboretum volunteering with Harmony Mind Body Spirit Wellness Nonprofit. You can visit Harmony’s website and FB page for the schedule.
For virtual events, I am happy to be your Speaker, and Professional Emcee and introducing playful energizing laughter sessions. Most events are featured on all my socials, FB, LinkedIN, YouTube.
#SavvySocialSaturday Live is Saturdays at 2pm ET
Get Your Happy On is Thursdays at 4pm ET (Season 2 coming soon)
Savvy Social Author (interviews with indie, self-published nonfiction authors also coming soon)
FWM: You are an international bestselling author of several including Heart Notes: An Anthology of Inspiring Letters to Matters of the Heart, The Cinderella Monologues, The Impact of One Voice, The Stories of Us, Ready Connect Grow, and Live Life in W.O.W!. Tell us your mission to change the world.
I want to be known as the Great Encourager. Through laughter, play, humor, creativity, I want to encourage people to remember their core essence and embrace it and live out their fullest expression whether through writing, speaking, on video, and know that they can do it.
FWM: You are also a much sought after Keynote Speaker. Tell us about your topics and plans for engaging audiences in 2023.
I’m part of the bLU Talks community and they are creating stages in many locations so I’m looking forward to being at Oxford University, Canada, Stanford University, MIT.
I’ve also got my heart set on TEDx! I’m actively submitting my application to speak and possible talk titles are: The Power of Laughter and How It Can Help You to Forgive; Through the Lens of Love – My Journey with Heart-Shaped Glasses; Seeing Life Through Heart-Shaped Glasses
I am also a Professional Emcee and facilitate laughter energy breaks for event attendees
https://linktr.ee/oliviasavvypro (this has all the links in one place!)
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliviavo-savvysocialpro
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oliviavo.savvysocialpro
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oliviasavvypro
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Olivia-Vo/author/B09V8CYRYB
