Lessons

Lesson Info

Q&A

JD's in the chatroom at the moment, and so JD is like, circumventing everybody. He's like, "Jasmine, you gotta pay attention "to these questions." I was like, "Yes sir!" Okay, Katherine, "I'm struggling with finding "the emotional component to my intangible service. "I write, teach, and do social media marketing. "Isn't it empowerment?" Okay, real talk. Let's all rally together to support Katherine. How many of you would love somebody to handle your social media for you? Okay, there's no shame in it. Some people are like, "Me." Yes, yes! Okay, so if you would want somebody to handle your social media for you, what is the feelings that you feel as to why you would want to outsource somebody doing your social media? Just talk it on out now, and I'll repeat it. [Audience Members] Peace of mind. Peace of mind. [Audience Members] Yeah, peace of mind. Relief. More time. Okay. Give me two more for Katherine. Rally. We got four. Actual organization. Organization! Organization. One ...

more for Katherine. Strategy consistency. Strategy consistency. Katherine, (clapping hands) you're welcome. (audience laughing) It's not just empowerment, right? We don't wanna be waking up in the morning, "I'm so empowered to be a henna artist." Like I had mentioned to Caitlyn, and yesterday, day one, in the video, people are buying out of pleasure and/or pain. Not and/or. Or. Pleasure or pain. When you are a social media implementer, strategist, doer, chances are, you're gonna be relieving a pain or a pressure point. Because now, all of your copy could be, "Are you disorganized when it comes to social media? "Do you want to trust somebody that will save you time? "Do you wanna show up consistently on social media? "Do you want somebody to understand your voice?" And all of it, everybody is like, "Yes, yes." Then Katherine says, "I'm here for you". That, my friends, is how things change. So people can always say, "I sell an intangible service," but you're selling to an emotion. What are those emotions? Put yourself in the shoes of your consumer. We'll start off with Kayla, then we'll move back there. Okay, so it's a teeny bit heavy, but you said the categories and what am I comfortable sharing? Yes. So first of all, the categories. I feel like because, as an interior designer, people will look at my feed as a portfolio. So I feel like I should only post interior design pictures. But then I also know that the reason I stopped doing commercial and I started doing homes is because of my struggle. When I had my son I almost died, and my struggle of getting over the depression after that relates to a lot of moms. And the way that I got out of it was by, first and foremost, making my surroundings nice, which made me feel good. The problem is that I can talk about that, but it's very personal. I mean, I was suicidal. And I'm okay now talking about it like this, on a surface level. But going deeper, I know that that's what they'll relate to. But A, I don't know if that's a good picture to put on my feed. And B, I don't know how deep I should go in that 'cause it's an extremely personal thing. So, number one, we're gonna reframe every time somebody asks a question. Because the thing that I heard yesterday over lunch is, "The only problem I have," and I would challenge and invite everybody to say, "The only opportunity I have is to." So, it's not a problem for you to struggle with what to post, because all of us can identify with, "What is too much to post?" Do I think that making a mention of how design and home space literally saved your life? Yeah, that's okay. Do you need to get into the granular aspects of what happened, how you were feeling? I can't answer that, but do you think your end customer, do you think the person who's going to hire you for a 30, 40, 50 thousand dollar job to redo the room, wants to get into the daily components and what really happened in that? You could make a grand statement and say, "Interior design saved my life." And in two sentences say, "After I had my son, "I was at my lowest. "I found my identity by changing my surroundings, "and I would love to do the same for you." You let people in on something real deep, but this is like you, sitting at the wedding, at a table, at a circular table, and be like, "I was so depressed, I was suicidal," and this person's just like, "Whoa, I need to go to the bar." Right? (audience laughing) But this is, it's not a joke, because depression, I'm telling you, I feel you in a real deep way. But in order for us to talk about it from a business perspective, we let people in. We let them know, "I connect and I understand," but it doesn't define us. And I don't want you to use it as a point of definition on your account as to why somebody will follow you. Let people in. You don't have to share all of it. But I love that. So, from Tara. "If you don't want to have quotes on your grid, "how would you suggest doing an inspiration, "encouragement category?" Tara, girl, I need you to do the Social Curator Challenge. Okay, we have three challenges, twice a year. One for Instagram, one for Facebook. And one of the categories that we put in, it is, rinse and repeat, quotes. Quotes kill the game. And you're like, "Oh, it doesn't look right on my feed." Well, if you have a quote that points back to your business, and you as an entrepreneur, and it resonates with somebody, you're gonna get interaction. Because what did we say yesterday? People interact with things and businesses and people who resonate with them on a personal level. So if you're like, "I don't wanna use quotes," what you're essentially telling me is, "I don't want to spend the time that it's gonna take "to drive the engagement to make my business "resonate with somebody." So, Tara, mindset shift. Before you come to me and you ask me, "Oh, I don't want it to ruin my grade," I'm gonna come to you and ask, "Can you just please try it out for 30 days? "Can you post one quote a week for the next 30 days? "And then you tell me what happens. "And then we'll have a conversation." Okay, is there a question in the studio? So, I will just say, it's kind of funny how, I don't wanna sell. I have a hard time selling to people, and yet last night, after you talked about Instagram TV, or yesterday, and you're like, "Well I don't have time for this," and so I'm like, "Oh wait, I think I can buy your old issue." So I went home last night, did the old issue, started my Instagram TV channel last night, so-- Congratulations! Let's just clap that out! Let's clap that out! And I did. I was like, "Okay, what's the one video on my Instagram feed "that got a ton of traction?" And it was a one-minute video because it was on my Instagram feed, but already people are liking it, and it's just, anyway. [Jasmine) Good, good, action. And the whole time, I'm like, "She's totally just selling to me, but I don't care." (Jasmine and audience laughing) No I'm not! No I'm not! I'm showing you. You're showing me, yes. I'm showing you, that's it. That's it. I'm showing you. You're ready to show. Yes. And so, it was great. So anyway, so the question I had, which I know you probably get all the time, you were talking about how, "Don't let negative people influence "your business ideas and things," earlier. I know you get this all the time probably, but online, if people post things that are somewhat negative, do you delete the comments? Do you respond to them? I haven't dealt with that, that much, but sometimes in the homeschooling world, the topics can be controversial without realizing it. And so I never know what to do with that. So it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when, we will all get a drive-by comment, right? And they hurt, they really hurt. And I don't have a hard answer for you. I'm just gonna explain what I have decided to do, and maybe you can pick and choose what's good for you. So there's not a right or wrong. If somebody comes into my house and poops in the middle of the floor, you're gone. Like, "This is my house, my domain." That's just the truth. If somebody walks into my house and says, "You offended me," then I'm gonna go, "Whoa." I'll let that sit there. I will communicate. I will try to effectively articulate why I thought what I did, and I will apologize publicly. This then borders on that critique versus criticism. There was a time in Social Curator I had to eat this. So my very best friends, very best, like my childhood best friends, both of them are black. And on the INSIDE of Social Curator, one of them is on the INSIDE of Social Curator. And I was putting together an issue, and we made a big decision on the inside of our team to have diversity in hands shown in our lifestyle images. And I wanted to make sure that we represented a spectrum of color. And so our last big super shoot, where we shoot a ton of images for the year, we brought in hand models. All Curators, right? We wanted to have a mix of color. And then as I prepared this video, the preparatory video, like, "Hey guys! "Just want to let you know that we had this shoot." And before I posted this video, 'cause I recorded the video, JD heard me, and he was just like, "Hey, you should run that by Bri and Mel "to see if they're okay with it." And I was like, "Okay with what?" And he said, "Oh well, you said that you have chocolate, vanilla, and caramel hands represented." I was like, "Uh huh." And he's like, "You should just ask them to see if they're okay with that." And I was like, "Cool." So I texted them, "Are you guys okay with being called chocolate?" And they were like, "Yeah, no big deal." And I was like, "See JD?" (audience members chuckling) Always listen to your business partner. 'Cause I put it in the group, and then we got emails. "I feel like it's offensive "calling my skin color chocolate." And everything in me wanted to be like, "I called myself caramel! "I didn't call you chocolate and me, like, gold," right? So I hurt somebody's feelings, and so I had to go in the group and be like, "Listen." I ran it by a friend, but it doesn't mean that that is solve-all like, "I'm okay," anymore. If I hurt somebody's feelings and they didn't like the way that I said it, I apologize for it, will amend it, but please know that it was just how I speak. Doesn't make it right. So, in that particular instance, I didn't just leave it. I opened it to say, "I see it, it's gonna change." But you wanna come in and say something negative to me on my account, talking about my daddy, the way I look, my dog, my husband, "Bye." No, block and delete. You have something to say about me and give me the opportunity to clarify, I absolutely leave it there, a hundred percent. Cool, thank you. There was another question, yes. And then we'll pass the mic right up here. Thank you. Talking about pivoting. Yes. And taking your personal account and making it a business account. Or keeping it as personal. So, just so that I'm clear, we use interchangeable words, right? So people will say, "I have a personal account, "and I wanna use it for business." And then people say, "I have a personal account and have "a business account." So, oftentimes, I just want to be very clear. It's, "I have a personal account that I am transitioning to use it for business, but it's still gonna be personal," or, "I have a personal account. "Should I have a separate business account?" I just wanna make sure you and I are having the same conversation. So what conversation are we having right now? Because I will be using my name as part of the-- Is this a new Instagram account that you're starting? Well, I'm asking. It could be. I could stay in my personal account and just kinda shift it around. Great. And if I did that, would I then go in and delete some of the just random stuff on it? Or, should I go and just create a whole new account? Keep it as a personal account? I got you. I got you. So I-- And grow it from there? You're gonna be able to figure out what your followers, and what your dream customers, and what you're comfortable with. When I was transitioning away from solely wedding photography and into business strategy, that pivot took about two years. And so I just didn't stop right then and say, "I'm no longer posting any wedding stuff anymore." I just slowly introduced, so that when somebody could look at my Instagram account, if they ever decided to lay all thousands of posts out, they could see a slow transition of me introducing a business post once a week. And then I would wait four weeks, and maybe five weeks later, two business posts. Two months later, three business posts. And so all you're doing is making a slow progression, understanding that for two years, you're going to just stay stagnant. And the conversation that JD and I had, it was, we started losing a ton of people from our newsletter list. Because the newsletter list started changing from photography tips and tricks, and photography approaches, to business stuff. And I assumed, falsely, like, "Photographers are business owners. "They're gonna love it!" No, they hated it. Photographers just want the pretty. Like, "How do I get better with my camera?" And I'm like, "What's the point in getting better "with a camera if you ain't got no customers?" But, it's neither here nor there. I thought people would love it. They didn't. We started losing a ton of subscribers. And I was just like, "Ugh, this feels ugly." And then what we decided to say is, "Burn the list. "Burn it. "We're going to be like the phoenix. "Burn all of it. "And the only people who remain are gonna be "the small tribe of people who continue to go with us." So if you have that same gumption to say, "Burn it! "I'm gonna slowly pivot, "slowly bring these new people on." But to be forthcoming. 'Cause there were plenty of times that I had to say, "That is no longer who I am. "This is who I am. "Whoever wants to get with me can continue ongoing, "but don't say you don't know, 'cause now you know." So, if you feel that way, you slowly, slowly, slowly start moving that ship, but let people know the direction you're going. Gotcha. Cool, thank you. Are there any other questions? We have one online, and if there is somebody in the studio. Okay, perfect. Jennifer, "I am transitioning to a new kind of portraits. "How can I find the right hashtags to get my ideal clients?" Jennifer, just wait and see. We're gonna be moving into that section later today, and-- I love what you said about going deep versus going wide, and that's what I implement in my business. But I'd love to hear from you, what does that look like for you from a logistical standpoint? Like when you're planning your content, or when you're engaging with people, what is that deep versus wide? How does that play out for you personally? Personally. So there was a time in my career where I was not getting the attention, and not attention like, "Oh my God, look at me." The attention engagement, right? There was a time in my career where I was not getting the engagement that I wanted. And if we're not getting the engagement that we want, that's something you will hear me say again and again, is you must give the type of engagement you want to get. So this goes back to going deep versus wide. Instead of me standing on a soapbox being like, "Why don't you like my business? "I'm great! "I'm offering value, and nobody cares." Well they don't care. They still don't care. So, that's wide. Going deep is going into hashtags, following other people's accounts, leaving comments on somebody else's Instagram post for somebody who left a comment. Be like, "Oh, I love that show too!" "I love building a business! "Sometimes it's not for the faint of heart," right? You're just starting conversations with people at the wedding cocktail hour, you know? You have this vivacious personality in real life. How do you get that out online? (claps hands) Leave comments. Go deep with people you don't know, because all of a sudden, they say, "Oh." What we all understand implicitly as humans is the most valuable thing we possess is time. When I give you time, that's crazy. And when you give me time, that's crazy. But when people follow you, and we're gonna get into this. We're gonna get into direct messaging in a second, but when people follow you, like your followers, and then randomly you're kind of like in a funk, and you're like, "I'm just not getting what I want," and you go to your followers list and randomly choose five people, you go to their Instagram account, like, like, like, send them a DM, like, "Hey, I just want to say thank you. "How you doing? "It's beautiful out here in Maryland," or, "It's beautiful here in Seattle. "Just sending you a little love." And you put their name in it? They're like, "What?" That's deep.