Okay, let's go, let's get this party started. I love having these flash fire business q and a sessions as you're watching live. Feel free to leave your question so I can answer in real time. I posted yesterday asking for a call of questions, and these are a few that made it to the top. So I'm gonna start with MJ tap's question. If you had to start all over again, what are the strategies that you would use to get your very first sale on Instagram? And I would tell MJ the same thing. I would tell anybody else who's willing to listen, I would do the exact same things I'm doing now, because if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So let's get into actually the strategies of selling on Instagram, on Facebook, on YouTube, on TikTok, any social platform, the methodology is the same. What you want to do is first figure out. Now I I, I'm speaking in the context of business. I'm not speaking in the context of, you know, being an influencer. I'm not speaking in the context of just wanting to build out your friends and family profile. I'm really talking in the context of business. When you use social media and you have a business, it's not enough for you to say that my business deserves a sale without understanding what problem are you solving for? If you're in business, you're a problem solver. That's it. If you're a baker, what problem do you solve? Getting, making sure that people can commission desserts for an event or a party. If you're a photographer, the problem you solve is making sure that people feel comfortable in front of the camera and are willing to invest in otherwise what is traditionally perceived as a luxury thing. Photos. So the minute I quickly understood what it meant for me to create a sale on Instagram or anywhere else, I realized that if I just showed up for people, number one, made myself human or made the business human. So I'm speaking of this in multiple contexts. I have built out a, a personal brand, the Jasmine Star brand, and also a company by the name of Social Curator. We have the same methodology from a personal brand and a business brand. And that is to connect and make sure that people are seen on Instagram. We want to make sure that when we put out a piece of content, it's hardly ever about what I do. What we provide. We, we, we, me, me, me. 8% of the content we put out is all about you, you, you. In fact, what am I doing right now, mj? I am making a q and a session all about you and anybody willing to watch this video. When it comes to creating a sale, we first make sure that our content is positioned to highlight the problem we solve, and then we humanize responses. And I like to look at it as a, as a response. Not like, Oh, I'm leaving a comment in response to a comment. Or if you like one of my posts and I go to your profile and I like one of your posts. Or if you send me a DM and I respond, or somebody from the social curator team responds on the social security accounts. We don't look at that as engagement. We look at it as cultivating a relationship. Because if we put out content that highlights the problem we solve in the unique way we solve it, and then we humanize us talking back to the thing that you had expressed, like, Hey, our business solves this problem. And oh, hey, here's this helpful piece of content with no expectation. And then if you mj, like comment or send dm and then myself, if you are sending my account, I'm sending you DM in response. Or if there's somebody else on the social security account and they're sending response all of a sudden in that relationship, it's not transactionary, it is relationship. So this is a long answer, but I really wanna get detailed in understanding the nuances when it comes to selling on Instagram, on Facebook, what we want to do is make sure that we position the content in a favorable way that highlights the problem we solve in the unique way we solve it. And then we make sure to engage, not for engagement sake, but for relationship building. Because when we build a relationship like aka, somebody knows you're real, they're more likely to buy from you. Woo. All right, we're getting right in. Okay, let's go into what if my business is new and I don't have a large audience, how can I get them to trust me and the knowledge experience I have with my product? Listen, everybody has been new at some way or another. Like every professional was at one point in amateur. So if we know that every professional was at one point in amateur, then we have to say there has been somebody exactly like you who has gone before you with your amount of experience or lack thereof with your amount of knowledge or lack thereof with your experiences or lack thereof. So if we know that somebody has done it before you, you can do it too. And here's the beauty of what all of these things come out to be. I always look at this as if somebody else has done it before me, they've paved the way and they've proven it's possible. So if you don't have a large audience and people aren't buying, guess what? I'm gonna give you a good piece of news. The methodology that I have used to position myself as an authority, as an industry leader, as somebody who actively gets sales in the back of social media, the principles, I've been doing the same thing when 10 people were following, when 10,000 people were following, and I'll probably do the same thing if 10 million people follow, it goes back to the original question that MJ had asked. So what this question is, how do I position myself as an authority when not a lot of people follow me? And then mj, the question was before was like, how do I get a sale? Guess what, ladies and gentlemen, they're the same. You position yourself as an authority, you build your personal brand, and that ultimately leads to even more sales. Because when people know, like, and trust you, they begin to say, Wow, I know that I could probably buy whatever it is. You sell the same essential oils, the same birthday cakes, the same website templates. I could probably buy that from somebody else, but I really wanna choose this business, this team, this person because of what I've received from them. Everything that comes before the sale. So a lot of times people are like, Oh, I'm on Facebook, or I'm on Instagram, like for the sale, I'm gonna cultivate the sale. That's great. In theory, I always advocate of looking at social media as the pathway to a sale. It's so rare that you're gonna put something out on Instagram and be like, Buy this rubber van. And then all of a sudden everyone's like, I want that rubber van. It doesn't really work that way. What we wanna do is use our social platforms in relation to our business to highlight what our business does, to share thoughtful, engaging, educational content that people are like, Wow, that rubber band girl, she really does teach me how to do a really cool messy bun. I really like how she teaches me how I can have multiple braids going on and it works out for me. I like that she's walking me through the process of doing what I need. So what are you doing? You're essentially becoming a a content purveyor of your business. You create content. And this is the thing, okay? And this is why a lot of people are like, I don't like that Jasmine girl. See, I got into business because I'm an entrepreneur. I'm not a content creator. Okay, fine. But I would respond and say that the content can serve if you don't have finances. So I've always said a thousand times over, y'all know, like I'm the daughter of an immigrant. I have bootstrapped every single company. I have paid for everything cash. I have never taken a business loan, I have never borrowed money from anybody. I don't have equity holders, I don't have stakeholders, I don't have any investments. And so people are like, Well, okay, well how did you do that? I did it on the back of content. Do I think everybody needs to create content? No, not if you could pay for ads, Not if you could pay to have a whole strategy team. Not if you can invest in getting featured in outlets. Not if you can afford paying an influencer to talk about your business or product. Like if that's you, go ahead. I mean, hey, no ti no shade. I wish, I wish I had the funds you had. I do, but I don't. So the way I grew up in the hood is you try to make a dollar outta 15 cents or you take what you have and you make it work. And so for me, content has always been the Swiss Army knife. Listen, I don't wanna go to a war with the Swiss Army knife, right? But if I had to choose something to carry with me on a daily basis, the Swiss Army knife, well it got a spoon. When I'm hungry, it got scissors. If I wanna cut a piece of rope, it has a knife. If I wanna chisel away at a piece of wood, it is something that I can use in all ways. I think content is the Swiss Army knife to business. There is something in content that you can use in all these different avenues of your business. But guess what? People complain. Making content. It's hard. Cool. But when I have conversations, or whenever I do a business like q and a, I assume, and maybe it's me, I assume that you are here learning how to grow and market your business because you see other business owners who are doing what you wanna do or have what you wanna have. So my assumption is if you want those things and you want to become that person, or have that type of business, or be that type of entrepreneur, well then you have to change. And my apologies, I was treating you like somebody who was willing to do the work to become the person they wanted to be. That you are somebody who's gonna do the work to build the business you wanted to build. Now, it is totally okay if you say, You know what? I actually don't want to do that work. Cool, no problem. No prob like honestly, like, no problem. Good on you. Good for you to have the wherewithal and the knowledge and the courage for you to say, That's not how I'm gonna build my business. Great. I love that. The only thing I know is creating free content, sharing what I know and showing up for people. And a few million dollar later, it's kind of proven to work just for me. It doesn't have to be for everybody. But what I've known is the more content I create and the more I give, the more demand there has been for my business. And that does not settle well with a lot of people. And you wanna know what? I'm okay with that. We're all gonna find our own path. But the reason that you're having this conversation and you haven't tuned away, we are about 10 minutes into this conversation, is that I'm saying something that's making you feel something. I could be. I, And that's all I ever wanna do with your content. I want you to only ever make somebody feel one of two ways. As you hear my content, I only want you to feel one of two ways. I want you to be repelled or attracted. I want to attract or I want to repel. That's it. If you're listening to this and you're like, I do not like her advice, I could never create content. I could never live that way. Great, I've repelled you. That's exactly what I wanna do. But if you're listening to this and you're like, I think she might be making a little bit of sense. I'm willing to try what it is she's advocating for, good. I'm attracting you. I don't want you to invest 11 minutes of your time to walk away from this conversation and being like, Eh, sorry. Nah, your 11 minutes is so far worth it that you should know after this is like, I do not, I, I'm never gonna do what she says people should do. Good on you. That was a total win. Now go and find something that's gonna work for your business. Now, if you hear this and you're like, You know what? I think she kind right, She's kind of annoying, but maybe I need to make these changes in my business. Good on you. We've attracted, Now we're gonna go a little bit deeper. Now we're gonna start talking about strategy. And if you have strategy questions, let's go right in. Okay. A shout out to Hanta. She's like, I haven't seen you in very long. Well, I've been here, Queen, still making out content all day every day. Okay, So let's go into how do I stop myself from comparing my business to others on Instagram? Well, I've once said, this is a quote, and it is not mine, but comparison is the thief of joy. I feel like at my lowest points in my life and in my business, I am the most sad or the most down. When I compare my business progress myself. Anything, when I compare anything in my life to somebody else, I am the most down. So if you're asking, how do I stop myself from comparing, you must analyze, you must assess. How are you seeing what people are putting out? In fact, okay, I don't know where this is coming from, but I'll share it. Last week I decided not to take a social media break, but I decided to break a little bit of my social media patterns. So I was still showing up for my business. I was still posting stories, posts to my feed. I was still going live, but I wasn't scrolling. Oh, and now I was answering dms. I would go in solely as a business owner. I wasn't going on social media to consume. I was creating, I did zero consumption. I wasn't scrolling on stories. I wasn't scrolling on feeds. I wasn't watching videos on social media. And so for a week, all I did was I put my post out and then I walked away. And I have to tell you, it was such a good break. I told my husband and I'm like, I really like that I did this. Now I'm back in consumption. So now I'm catching up. I was like, What? What do all these people be doing? And how's this? But I feel like I'm in a better head space. So the question for you that I'm gonna be very honest was, you know, if I feel like I'm comparing myself or I feel like I'm not doing enough, well, the reason I'm seeing that is cause I'm going to it. I'm going to it. That's like me drinking some poison and then being like, Why? Why do I feel so sick? I was drinking the poison. That's just, that's just where it is. So my advice, which is not deep advice, is figure out the poison that is comparison and don't go to that well. And you're like, Wait, I have to, It's part of my business. I have to go to social media. I, okay, but do you have to consume? Can you just create and only engage with with on your profile and you put out your stories and you, you respond to your dms. That is only in inbound. That is only incoming information, incoming engagement. Can you do that? If so, I think that that might help. That's my advice and it's coming from a practitioner is what I did. Okay, just under the last few minutes, as we type things up, Karina Moses, every time I make a decision in my business, I keep changing my mind and getting nowhere. How can I commit to my ideas? Oh, Karina, I just had a phenomenal conversation with Sherra. Hamal. It's gonna be on my podcast in a couple weeks, but let me, So these ideas are hers. They are not mine. So oftentimes we stop ourselves from making progress in our life and business because of self doubt. We stop making progress in our life and business because of self doubt. Now you might hear that and you'll be like, I don't know if that's really me. I'm not sure. Well, she explains that self doubt takes a form in three ways. Number one, we make up all of these pretend scenarios of how we're gonna fail and it's gonna be terrible. And all these bad things that could happen that are fears, the fears we made up become true. And we don't start, That's self-doubt. The second form of self-doubt is essentially analysis paralysis. We're overwhelmed with all the, all the ideas in all the ways. And then all of a sudden these types of people analysis paralysis, they start a lot of projects, but they never finish them. It's not because they're not talented, it's not because they're not smart. It's not because the idea wasn't good, but all of a sudden they kind of like peter out, they lose momentum. And Karina, I kind of hear that you might be there. The third person that struggles with self doubt, that maybe doesn't look like self doubt is somebody who is obsessive compulsive over worker. You are the obsessive compulsive achiever. You are the type of person that when you say, If I just make that amount, if I hit that number, if I get to this place, then I'll be happy. But the obsessive compulsive overachiever always moves the goal line that you say, If I just ever made a hundred thousand dollars, then I would be happy. And then the minute you get to a hundred thousand, you're like, Well, actually it was 200,000. If I just got to making a million dollars in my business, then I would be okay. Well actually it was 5 million. Obsessive overachievers are filled with self-doubt that they will ever be enough, and what they have will ever be enough. Ooh, okay. If you wanna hear how to overcome all the other madness, if you found yourself in one of those three categories, I can't get into the whole podcast, be sure to listen to Sherra. It's coming on two weeks. But I wanna address Karina. Karina, the person who's an analysis for lysis starts projects and then feels like they peter out at the end. How can I commit to idea? So what Shera advises is for us to determine your why. Why did you start the idea to begin with? Why did you start the project to begin with? If you keep in your mind the why, the undercurrent of why you did it, was it to set a good example for your children? Was it to highlight the legacy of your grandmother who immigrated to this country? Is do you want your business or project to succeed? Because 10% of all of your proceeds go to an organiz, a non-profit organization that's near and dear to your heart, whatever it is, People who struggle with the analysis paralysis, they're actually very well, a well meaning they have like a big heart, like a bleeding heart they wanna do and help all the people in the world. And all of a sudden they get into it. They're like, Oh, let's do something else. Right? So the way that Karina Shera would advise would be for you to actually be very cognizant of why you got into it. And here's the thing, Karina, if you're in the middle of a project now and you're like, I actually don't know why I got it. Like why? People who are in this mental self-doubt often go back to their why. If you don't remember your why, or you can't figure out your why, there's a good chance, hey, time to start looking at other things. But if you're like, I just don't have the energy, I feel like I get lost, I can't do it. But then you're like, But I wanted to start this business to help, to do, to show, and like it's important to me. You bring that every single day to the front of your mind and be like, The reason why I will push through and do things I don't wanna do. The reason why I will continue to get up even when it doesn't make sense, the reason why I will push through, even though everything I had planned has gone wrong, I will continue to build my business, even though it seems crazy and it seems like it's just a really expensive hobby. I will continue to Why? Because of your why. So on that note, kind of feel like it's a really great space and place for us to have a conversation around that. Do you know that I, I often talk about business, right? And the thing that I've noticed is I can speak to anyone. I can speak to a group of realtors, I can speak to a group of plastic surgeons, I can speak to a group of photographers, I can speak to a group of stay at home homeschool moms. And you wanna know what the, the thing that ties everything together isn't my business acumen. It's not my savvy for breaking down social media strategies and marketing. It isn't my robust knowledge and experience with sales. It isn't building a seven or eight figure business. The thing that ties every single person together, regardless of industry, regardless of race, regardless of social status, is the fact that I can speak to the business owner struggle in a very clear way. I can talk about strategy and I can talk about the quick ways, and I could talk about quick wins, and I could talk about hacks, and I could talk about funnels, and I could talk about trip wires, and I can actually show you 110% of how I run my business, of my launch or promotion. I could show it all, But if this and this ain't right, all of your business efforts won't succeed. Not because you're not talented or brilliant or your product or service isn't amazing. Not that at all. They probably are. You are talented and you are brilliant, and your product or service is probably amazing. All of that could possibly be true. But if we don't have the mental fortitude and if we don't have the grit to get up every single day when our business flat out sucks, we'll never move the ball down the field. So I like to have live conversations on Facebook, on Answer. I like to have live conversations wherever anybody will have me. So if you happen to see this conversation and you found it helpful and you think that somebody else needs to know, why don't you just like tag them in the comment, let them know it's here. We put these videos and we keep 'em out for free in perpetuity. Because I believe I've been put on this earth to empower people, not just to build a business, not just to get your first a hundred thousand dollars or your first million dollars. I've been put on this earth to help people believe that the impossible is possible. But the only way that I could speak with such conviction is because I feel like multiple times in my life, everything that I've wanted, it seems really impossible. The business I wanna build, I'll be very honest. The business that I am in the process of building right now, it feels very impossible to build. It's just like real dog. The business I want to build right now. It feels like it's an impossibility to build. And then this morning, after a rough night, I wake up and I say, Come on, what? Another day, Let's go. Let's do it. Let's try. Why? Because I believe that I have purpose and I believe that the way that I can connect with other people is to cut the Bs. And like let's talk about, let's talk about the real things of business. It ain't always cute. It ain't always pretty. And it is isn't always like dance, pointy, shake, shake, shake, fun, fun, fun. It's this, It's us having real conversations about what it means for us to show up when we don't want to and do things that we think is hard or impossible. And then at the end of the day, we could look back and think, You wanna know what? Maybe it did or maybe it didn't turn out the way that I hoped weren't expected, but it turned out the way that I needed. And so I just wanna say thanks. Thank you for being here. If you find it helpful, tag a friend, share it. All the good things, much love, much gratitude. Take care and shout out to the social curator community who empowers me to be able to have these conversations. I look forward to our private community at Social Curator in doing these same things again and again. Much love, much respect. Take care of y'all.