Hey homey . Hey, thanks for tuning into the Jasmine star show. Today's podcast episode is a recording from a keynote I gave last month at TCC I R L 2020 that means the copywriter club in real life. This event was in San Diego and it's hosted by a dear friend of mine. Her name is Kira hug and she like all good friends. Wanted to give me a challenge. Okay. So a lot of the keynotes that I gave in 2019 we're really focused on social media and social media marketing and branding and Hey, like it's kind of my thing. But Kira knew her audience and she really likes pushing the boundaries with me and although members of her organization really love Instagram, she knew they needed something more and very specific training on how to pivot and diversify their businesses. And this really resonated with me because side note, I've always wanted to be a copywriter. I think copywriters are cool. I think Lee copywriters are the 2020 version of mad men . You know, like, I mean I want to be the female Don Draper except fully monogamous, no day drinking. And nice to people. So basically, yeah, I don't want to be Don Draper but I really want to be a copywriter. But either way I felt like this challenge resonated with me because I have always created my offers on giving people what they ask for. Like those are the keys to pivoting your business and those are the keys to diversifying your business. That's how I've done it. So when Kira asked me to train on something different than what I normally do, I was up for the challenge and it is the first time I'm speaking about this openly on the podcast. So friend, I am so excited for you to hear this new keynote and power punch Q and. A. Let's listen in and I'll catch you on the other side.
Speaker 2So my dad is a pastor of a church in East Los Angeles and so when he asks a question like people talk back to him. So I grew up in my life just thinking that was normal. So when I say, good morning, okay, we're making my dad happy in East LA. Um , I'm very happy to be here. What I would like to talk about today is a presentation and a conversation because the presentation is one way. It's me talking to you, but I'm not about that life. I like conversations. I like this thinking we're in this beautiful empowering, inspirational room and I want to learn from you. This is going to be a two way street. I'm going to start the conversation by talking about how to diversify and your business. This was actually a request from Kira . Every stage I've been on probably in the last two or three years has to do with social media and she's like, Jasmine, we know that's what you do, but we would like you to come in here and speak about this. And I was like, Whoa, Oh , we'll get to that in a second. But I just want to take a moment of grounding for the people who were brave enough to be in the room. Yes and no. I'm not referring to coronavirus . I'm actually just talking about brave enough to invest to come here. It takes a lot for you, not just to buy a ticket. It takes a lot for you, not just to get airfare and Uber or rent a car or say to hotel. It takes a lot to say, I believe in me and of all the places you could be in the world right now, you're in San Diego, California. Normally it's sunny San Diego. Unfortunately, or fortunately you get to experience Southern California in a new way. Uh , how I was brought to this stage was Kira and I met in a very small mastermind in Charlottesville. She was a guest speaker and I wondered who this brilliant soul was. And she just lived that hipster Brooklyn life. And I was like, she's way too cool for me. Like I don't think I can , uh, you know, get to know her, get to talk to her. And then lo and behold , um , we were like the two introverts to really kick it off. We're like, you don't like to talk. I don't like to talk . Let's sit next to each other and just not talking work. And then we kind of started looking over my shoulder, kind of giving me feedback on stuff. And I said, okay , um , I'm really new to this sphere and this world. Maybe we could work together. So a week started getting to know each other and cares . The kind of person who just makes you feel better about yourself. She tells you things like Jasmine, your stories or my protein. Um, you are a walking, storytelling rainbow. I ha I wake up and I see emails like this and I was like, I am a rainbow. Never in my life have I ever equipped, like made my equivalent of a rainbow. Um, we randomly, we have a very professional working relationship, but tidbits of our life are infused. She recently moved to the DC area and I was like, Hey, how's the move? The move has been, well, a move. We live a block from the Capitol. So I like to stride around with my unshaven legs and pretend like I'm Senator hug. I feel like the unshaven legs give me a way though. And I think to myself, I just want a pen pal and Kira , you know, like, can I pay you just to be my friend and good things? Is that I don't really have to. In fact, we've developed a very positive working relationships that when she gave me the honor to speak to the people who she finds cherished peers, I couldn't be more thankful. But I know there's a few people in the room. Listen, I'm quite self-aware, like asking why is she speaking? And I believe the reason I was asked to speak at this event is because Kira has had a front row seat to the evolution of my business. Karen, I met in 2017 2018 and I didn't know my way in like the digital space. I had successfully created businesses, but the way that it was done, like don't talk to me about email funnels, didn't know what that was. Don't talk about EPLs and CPLs and trip wires. And I was like, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. But she seen this happen over three years and I believe that she wanted me to come in and talk about what it looked like to quickly move in a quickly and rapidly changing landscape. So I am here to talk about how a business can pivot and diversify the revenue, but I also have to say that it'll give you a brief history about who I am for like five minutes. My name is Jasmine star and I'm a photographer and business strategist from Newport beach, California. My husband and I are high school sweethearts and cofounders of social curator, a monthly social media membership that empower small business owners to build a brand and market and social media. We've got a curator in the front row. We all be crazy like we're like, she's being polite, she's doing the quiet dance, but if you are in a room with more than like, I dunno , three quarters they'd be like, woo . Yeah. It's like we just are like out here with nothing. Making something like if that doesn't deserve like a whoop, I don't know what does but in order for people to understand why I'm like whooping it up in life. The story starts for me in 2005 when I was tired, stressed, and wildly overwhelmed. I am a first generation college student. I'm a first generation Latina. My father is an immigrant from Mexico. He met my mom from Puerto Rico on the streets of East Los Angeles. They started a family and then realized we have no education and we have no money, so we're going to homeschool our kids. I lived a very interesting life, let me just tell you, but I went to college on a full scholarship, got a full scholarship to UCLA law school and it was during my first year when I was tired, stressed and overwhelmed that I received a phone call from my father and he said my mom had a relapse of brain cancer and after her eight and a half year battle, the doctors decided her time had come. At this time, I promptly fell into a deep depression. I walked into the Dean's office and I said, I'm leaving school, but don't worry. I'll come back and she said, you have three years to come back and get your scholarships. I said, I'll be there. I just need some time with my mom. I was 25 years old and my mom was 50 and at that time in her life, she wasn't sitting there thinking about all the things she had done. She was thinking about all the things that she had not done. She was 50 years old and I was 25 so I promptly had a midlife crisis because it was in that moment that I realized life is short. It was so short that my boyfriend of nine years proposed, he'd been wanting to propose for a few years, but I was like, no, no. You see my life. It's planned out on an Excel spreadsheet and we're over here and then all of a sudden like life slap suit in the face and you realize you have no control. And I was like, please marry me. Please, please marry me. I want my mom to see his happen. So we planned a wedding in three months. Doctor said she's not going to walk, she's not going to talk, she's not to be able to fly. And she does all of those things against the odds. Everything I know about looking at impossibilities, I have learned from her. I got home after I actually should say , um , I'm a Newport. So it took me about two hours to get here and my mom talked to me for one hour and 58 minutes of that. Uh, she beat the odds and she is my North star. I shouldn't say that. Yeah, I know. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I make no joke. I mean, it's, in all honesty, I believe that my mom in a sacrificial, motherly love had to die to herself to have her children. We awakened to the fragility of life. So now when I talk about things, when I stand on stages, I'm going to ask you the same question that was asked to me shortly after I came home from my honeymoon, my husband, when we received a letter from UCLA to go back to school, I was like, I don't want to go back. I hate it there. And he said, if you can do one thing for the rest of your life and be happy, what would it be? I said, I want to be a photographer. And he said, okay, but you don't have a camera. I was like, you know, if I got one, I think I can make it work. And so in 2006, January 1st, 2006, I opened my very first digital camera from my husband and that was terrible. Like I wasn't even bad. I was like so bad. I mentioned my dad as a pastor, right? And I was offering my services for free to people at his church and they still said no. And I was like, you're making baby Jesus cry. You're rude, you're a real rude. Um, but I just promptly went to Google and I taught myself everything I needed to know about number one, photography and number two, starting a business. And lo and behold, by 2009, I was voted one of the top wedding photographers in the world. By 2010 voted most top 10 was influential photographers and by 2012 most socially influential photographer. And it's about this time that people are like, Whoa, wait, how did that happen? To which I'm like, I stand there in front of you and you're probably thinking, yo, you are unqualified. To which I respond , and not only was I unqualified, I was unprepared, I was unfunded, I was uneducated. I had never seen anybody in my life ever. Not once start a business. I'm a girl from the hood. My aspirations were to be somebody's assistant so I can wear pumps and take a briefcase to work. That was as a big, as my dreams ever. Let me get. So when somebody says, why you and why that you shouldn't have, I'm like, I have no ego. You're right. But I did it anyway. I now believe and know and now teach others that impossibility are simply possibilities in disguise. How bad do you want something? So when I step on stage and everyone's, Oh, well, she's a social media girl, like, no, I'm the girl who will use anything that's free to get me to where I want to go. I'm a squirrel trying to get a nut, not to quote two pucks . She's the core, but trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents. If next week somebody tells me I can grow my business by riding horses, you know, one leg on one and one leg on the other. Watch me do that too. I do whatever I can with what I have and I just think you see I'm a daddy, daddy. I brought him to church. They here now. All I do in front of people now is just say what you know and say what you think. And in this room there is nobody better to do that. Then you then all of you to have an opinion and write it so extraordinarily well. People say , Oh, she's the photographer. Yes, but I started as a photographer using the only free tool that I had, a blog, 2006 2007 that was the advent. That was like the Renaissance of blogging. I wrote a blog about not being that great of a photographer and within a year or two it's they're getting 25,000 unique hits a day to the blog. I just wrote what I knew and I continued writing and I continued writing and it got me featured on USA today about my opinions about Instagram. Do I know everything? I'm on Instagram. No, I just talked a lot about it. And then that opened doors for me to be on MSNBC, to be featured on Forbes. And just two months ago, Forbes also named me an entrepreneurs go to grind for social media presence. And I hope that probably the next three to five years I'm an entrepreneur's go to guide for something. I will take whatever the next thing is and make them all. And I know you have the capacity to , so this brings us to where we are today. How can a business owner pivot or diversify their revenue? And I believe Kira asked me to speak about this because she's seen me do this and I have never up until today, given myself the permission to have the conversation about what it is I do. I was underestimating my superpower. And it wasn't until I got desperate and it wasn't until I got hungry and it wasn't till I got thirsty that I'm like, I gotta do something to get out to form where I am today. Now I'm going to tell you, I prefer to teach what I know. So I'm going to be very cautious. Listen, I was born this way. Like I speak. Like I know what I'm talking about. Like I came out of the womb and I was like, mom, you could've done it better. I want to be very, I want to like tell you, I don't know what I'm talking about all the time, but I still talk and in the process of me talking, I figure it out. So why I'm asking for grace from y'all cause I'm calling myself out. Remember that scene in um, eight mile where M&M makes fun of himself before somebody else has the opportunity to make fun of him. Anybody, anybody. The hood. I mean , everyone's like, no, I don't know what you're talking about. Anyway, I'm calling myself out. I don't want to go Affleck . See on Twitter. This girl thinks she knows everything. No, I don't. I'm telling you I don't, but let me just walk you through what I have done. I am not a theorist. I don't talk about pivoting. I'm not a pivoting professional. I'm a practitioner. So I'm going to take you on this three year journey to show you what I have done and I hope you can extrapolate what you can do in yours. Now, real talk. I never guess a pivot ever as somebody who watched her parents lose their home three times as somebody who lived in a home that was robbed twice as somebody who's a governor , who is a recipient of government food and like collection plate pass around church for your family to survive. I don't pivot. I love security. Now I have diversified and I have pivoted based on one thing. What people ask for. That's it. So this leads us to being really open about me admitting I am risk adversed. But when I see an opportunity, I jump on it. Now let's talk about how you can framework to start seeing opportunities and start seeing the possibilities for you to diversify. Now for me, I started my business. Remember that blog that soon people started reading? I was just talking about what I was learning. In fact, I got my behind handed to me when I wrote this very long article about my new favorite lens. The 50 millimeter or 1.6 at lens doesn't exist. Oh, did you see the comments? See the trolls, what get you having an opinion. And I was just like, I went to Google. I was like, what is this one ? Oh 1.8 delete. Delete 1.8 1.8 by . So I started teaching photographers what I knew and then people were just coming to me saying, yes, but we're actually Jasmine. We're better at photography than you are, but you're the one making money. And so I started teaching photographers how to run a better business. And then the photographers started telling their creative friends like, Hey, this Jasmine girl is teaching me stuff. And so then I started focusing on creative business owners. How to empower them to build their businesses. And then low and behold, around 2016 2017 when Kira and I, our pastor to crossing, I was just like, I am building these concentric circles that are slowly getting bigger and bigger. The more circles that surround you, the larger the opportunity becomes for you to diversify or pivot. I didn't know that then. I am telling you what I have learned today. So the question then becomes how did you know when to diversify? The question I want you to ask yourself or what are the questions that people are asking me now I don't want you to dismiss the questions that people are asking you cause you're like, that's easy. Everybody knows it. Come on. But your super power comes easy to you and difficult to others. So any question that people are asking you again and again start indicating that you put up your intent to start seeing this. So one of the questions that I was asked around 2016 2017 was Jasmine, how do I use Instagram for business? It wasn't how do I use Instagram? It was specifically see you using Instagram for your business. Can you teach me? To which I resisted entirely like, no, come on. No, this is stupid. This is ridiculous. I'm going to talk to you about the excuses I gave to myself. I don't know how. I've never created an online course before. Is this going to be a waste of time? At the time I was still shooting a ton. I was trying to diversify my business. I was trying to go in a different direction and people kept on asking me for something I did not want to talk about because I said, well, other people teach it. Go to Google, go to YouTube. I was literally telling people, here's the YouTube video to watch. I was sending them away, but I believe now that if I can go back and tell myself something is the thing I'm going to tell you today, you owe it to yourself to simply test your ideas. You will never hear me talk about diversify or pivoting beyond testing. That's going to be the thing. I want you to walk away with confidence today. That first launch when I decided to launch an Instagram for business course, having never launched a course, having not for having an email funnel, I wrote the whole thing myself. Never do that unless you're a copywriter. I'm never running ads, never doing anything to testing idea based on what people wanted. And our first launch yielded $255,000 no for a girl who has not seen internet money. I was like, what the heck just happened? So then I was like, okay, like we'll keep on launching this course. But then I started seeing that people wanted to know, okay, but Jasmine, what happens is when you're getting on Instagram, but then how do you actually get customers? And I was like, well, you've got to build a brand like Instagram out here is for vanity metrics. Instagram's for popularity. A brand is for profit and profitability and be like, well how do we do that? And I was like, well, let me launch a course called path or profitability, how to build a brand in market and on social media. Again, having never done this before and this is where I hired Kira . What did I learn from Insta? One 80 don't write your own emails. What do you want to do when you want to do a bigger launch? You work with somebody who's professional. We tested our ideas based on the feedback we got from inst when ed, we really leverage that for path to profitability. And our very first launch of that course was $385 in a matter of 12 to 24 months. My life got flipped side down kind of like fresh Prince Bellaire but I wasn't living in Belair . Um, so take a minute and just sit right there cause I'm a tell you little bro . Okay. I am telling you that when you give yourself the permission to get over your excuses, to find reasons for your success, to test your ideas and listen to what people want, it is not a matter of if, but when your success will come. The biggest issue I see quite often is people creating the course that they want to take themselves. Don't do that. Create a course that somebody really wants to hear from you and that is another lesson I learned. I didn't want to create courses that I didn't want to take myself. Then I got tired of creating a course in selling it specifically, I have never come from launch life. I had never heard of digital marketing before 2016 so I get into this game like wide eyed and bushy tailed like, Oh the world is mine. And I realized I don't really like this at all. It felt like too small of a jacket and at that time I knew it was time to pivot. Why I had the same moment that when I saw my mom and USC Norris hospital in Los Angeles, it was new year's Eve and we sat around her hospital bed and we wore noise. We had hats and noisemakers to ring in the new year. And we looked at my mother who was hallowed and desperate and I thought to myself, this is it. Like this is it that we work our whole lives doing something memorable for like little tiny peaks and valleys of happiness and success in this is it. We owe it to ourselves to do stuff that lights us up, whether or not it's monetized , because you can go to your cubicle full time and hate it, but if you have something that gives you life, do it. It's the stuff that gives you life that you can then share to others as long as it's on your own terms. So how then, thank you. So you see , I knew, I knew I was with my people. Like you put me in a like in a room of people who have opinions about opinions, love to wear like business on top and party on bottom, right? Like to have their opinions go on and we're getting a group of people. Everyone's like quiet, small talk. I'm glad I brought this out. I'm at home. So we've talked about diversification. Diversification was like small micro steps to help feel it, understand the market. How then do you know when to pivot? I believe that you know when to pivot, when you will over time. Oh verdict time of doing it again and again and again. You're going to see that your content will create momentum. The momentum is the indication to pivot. This is where a lot of people get stuck, number one over time and number two, the level of consistency yet got gotta hit people again and again and again and again. Why not asking for something, listening, listening, listening, listening, listening. That is how you diversify and then that's how you pivot because a pivot is when preparation meets opportunity. I do not think you can change 100% of what you're doing going in different directions and expect to be met with success. It has to be like a very large ship. Slowly moving over time to point you in the direction you are supposed to go. So I'm here to give you a couple of tips about pattern spotting for pivots. Number one, your idea is working and or there is a demand for it but you don't really like it, but we know people want it. Number two, you think there's a better way to do something and you have the experience to make it happen. We're keeping this real basic. These are things to keep in the back of your mind as you start pivoting. So I'm going to walk you through an example of pattern spotting for pivoting. I want to show you a real life example. I you guys know now know about one 80 and don't worry, I'm not pitching my courses, I don't even have these courses anymore, so I want to be very clear that I'm not trying to be like end at the end of this. You opt in and I'll follow up with five emails and sell it to you. No, no, don't do that. Nope. Okay, so nothing's wrong. Nothing's wrong against it. It's just not how I roll, which is why he specifically stop selling the courses. It just felt icky and sticky and like it literally felt what people are doing in 2017 I want to do what's happening in 2023 can I get an amen? Anybody else know ? Everyone's like, no , we really like our trip wires. All right. Okay, so it's the one 80 remember we didn't want you just once we had continuous, we had continuous launches. We're always tweaking. We're always trying to find ways to get it better. This was not the first time somebody was seeing an offer from me for, and so one 80 anymore. So we said, how do we use this step ? How do we get somebody off the fence? So the team and I, the team at the time was my husband, myself and one other person. Um, we said, what can we do to get people off the fence? People always said, Jasmine, I just don't know what to say. So I said, I'm going to spend a weekend and I'm going to write 101 Instagram caption templates, fill in the blank, customizable stuff. I put it in a word document and I export it as a PDF. Okay . It was ugly. It was just like me, like, okay, let's see if this works. That was our biggest launch ever when we launched this bonus and I was like, Whoa. And it was distinct because it was a mid cart bonus. So we couldn't say, Oh it happened when the cart opened. What happened? Cause the cart closed . It was distinctive, measurable. This is in the middle of a launch. This is usually like the slump period. It was inverse of us. It was our highest day. And I was like, Oh, something is here now by us launching into an 80 again and again by us launching path to profitability, we started seeing three major pressure points happen again and again and again. Number one, Jasmine, I don't know what to say on social media. Number two. Well that works for you cause you're a photographer. I don't have photos and a number of three Jasmine, I don't know what to do. Like social media is changing and I actually don't know what's working. And I bought a course, but I didn't go through it for like eight months and now all of like how to do it is expired because the algorithm changed. So I was like, okay, how then do I, how then do I change this? So example of a bad idea. My husband and I were walking the dog and we're like, so people want to take their own photos. What if we had a subscription box where I fill it with props and I mail it to you with an iPhone tutorial so you can take them? And then we're like, ah, inventory. We live in California. What does it actually look like? And we had this idea like, okay, what do we actually know? People want solutions. People are buying courses that they're not finishing because what they were looking for was not more education. They weren't looking for another thing to do. They were looking for a solution. So we started taking a step back and saying, okay, how could we solve the problem of not having photos? Well, what if we who are uniquely qualified to create lifestyle stock photography? Another solution is what we saw. The caption templates work so well in instant when ed like what if we did something along those lines and what if, because my power play is to be on top of the social game and whatever the next, the next iteration is socialize . I want to be on top of that too . Why? It's free. Like talk about making the most in your business with nothing. You go to the thing that's free. So when we realized that we were in a unique position for photos, captions and a marketing plan, we pivoted promptly to social curator and social curator is a monthly membership and no, I'm not pitching you because we're closed enrollment. I'm talking about this from business to business. On the first of every month you get over 30 lifestyle stock photos. You get 30 caption templates, you get a marketing plan, you get Instagram story sets, you get monthly group coaching, you get accountability, you get a whole marketing plan laid out for you. It's a solution. And the social curator that we launched with in 2017 we launched in our first week to 2,444 people and that blew our mind and today we have just under 8,000 members and I am doing what I want to do on my terms and nothing lights me up like the photography. I like it. Writing captains, I like it , I like it, I like it. I'm happy to do what I do. But what lights me up is seeing a small business owner do the dang thing because what we see often are people are like, I left social character because the photos weren't like me. Okay, so then we added photo ideas for you to take yourself only you see I don't have a budget for our photographer. Okay. So then I made iPhone tutorials and how to shoot photos for yourself. I'm not great on camera. Okay. I taught you how to have, listen, we've had a lot of people leave social curator, but I am so proud of the people who've stayed in because I was like, this is just the beginning. Watch when social curator is an algorithm that guesses and Taylor makes photos and captions for your industry for where you live and what you sell. Just wait. I saw a vision of a future that was so different than what we had. I didn't know how to get there, but every single year, listening to what people want positions my business to no longer be a membership. I'm moving to a platform. Watch out Mark Zuckerberg like I am doing this and it's awkward and it's ugly and it's painful, and he'd be like, I get kicked in the gut and in the butt almost same day. And then some days at the end of it you're like, this happened. Dang , this happened. That's a business. So everything I know about diversification and pivoting, number one, what questions are you asked the most? And number two, can you create a solution on proven demand? Not on what you feel would be great, but I want people want, now I'm going to be answering your questions. We're going to have to roaming mics , so it's coming about five minutes. I want you to know that my answers will go back to social media period . The end. I will not talk about paid advertising, although I could. I do use it. 90 plus percent of my stuff is organic. I'm not going to talk to you about layered strategies. It's social media period because every iteration of my business came as a result of social media, not social media itself. Listening to the conversations that people were having with me, so all of my responses and prior to social media, it was blogging. I was standing on a stage talking about blogging, why people were leaving comments, same thing, just short form. Now I know this is probably what we're going to think . Yeah , Jasmine, we get it. Social media we get there's a party on the internet and we can grow our business there too and I'm going to look at you and like politely smile and be like, okay, boom . This is where the water gets really murky because there is a difference of being on social media and using social media. Now I ain't about to spill some tea but watch me spill it. I creeped on y'all and you, Oh decadent, gluttonous , talented people of the land. Remain starving because you just won't show up.
Speaker 3You have the power.
Speaker 2You stand at the buffet and say just don't feel like eating today.
Speaker 3[inaudible]
Speaker 2and you guys are laughing cause I'm calling you out. Yes I am. That's what I do. It's what I do. Your mom is there to coddle you and your friends right here . Our business is going to be, I'm here to tell your business could be nothing until you change because what got you in this room is not going to keep you getting to this room. You must change and iterate to continue to grow. Can I get an amen? Okay, so here's a quick way just in case some people are like, I am not quite sure you are on social media. Five, three questions. You post only when you remember, you post for promotional purposes only and it appears randomly. I'm guessing nine out of 10 of you haven't posted last three weeks and then randomly at the tonight's mixer are going to be like introverts, extroverts thing and then it goes
Speaker 3[inaudible] .
Speaker 2So here's how to know if you're using social media, you post consistently, you have to have a one to one connection. You're not out there for 100,000 followers. You're out there for the one who has the courage to leave [inaudible] comment on a dead account. Cause I'll go to your accounts and people leave comments and then there's not even a comment back. Oh come on guys. And you show up with a plan and strategy. You know why you're there. I have to be very honest with you. A couple of weeks ago I walked into a room and that gentleman comes up and he's like, Oh Jasmine, you're an influencer. I said, Oh no, I'm not. I'm an entrepreneur with influence. That's the difference. In 2020 my friends, I am not on social media to be popular. I don't give a rip. I have my friends, my husband likes me, my daughter thinks I'm rad, my dog thinks I'm cool, my parents love him. Forgive me for all that I am. I don't need to be cool. I need to create a legacy. And my legacy is to talk to you. And you and you and you and you and you to say stop standing at the buffet, get a plate and fricking eat. That's just real talk. So I use social media strategically and I want you to do the same before we go into Q and a three quick tips to use social media. So because I can't come up here and like with a, with a bazooka, I'm so nice, like I gotta give you something to do right when you walk in this room. Number one, please make a plan for consistency. The only way you will ever know when to diversify or when to pivot is when you're getting constant feedback from your followers. How do you get constant feedback? How do you actually get frequently asked questions? By showing up frequently? No . When people ask, yes, but Jasmine, how much is, how much? I don't know. But if I went to the gym twice a month and I was complaining that I didn't have a six pack, you guys would be like, you're tripping. I say the same thing to you. Can you show up on social once a day? Yes. Thank you. Queen, of course you're a curator. That's right girl, you ain't got no excuse. Okay. So you can pick and choose from where you want from there and what's best for your audience. But I'm gonna tell you once a day is probably going to be it. Number two, to build a brand. And I don't mean this esoteric li like I literally mean make somebody feel something. There's nobody in the than the people in this room who have the capacity to make somebody feel something. You guys know, I've gone to copywriting workshops. I just, I literally want to be a copywriter in my life. I will never be a copywriter. I'm not even that good . But I just go to them cause I'm like, I just want to learn by us. And mostly , you know, copy is about moving. Somebody's copy isn't making somebody feel understood. So somebody had said, it's not my quote, but somebody said marketing is
Speaker 4yeah ,
Speaker 2to make somebody understand copy is to make somebody feel understood. You can do that. And that is a brand. A brand is what somebody says about you when you walk out of the room. A brand is what somebody says about you when you're not even in the room. And we can do this on social. Last thing is to test your ideas with short form content. People on BT to go, well I'm going to go into a beta test and I need to go find a deal client and I need to build out my ICA and I just can't do it. Dude, go to Instagram stories and put up a poll . Put up one quote versus another. Put up one blog idea to another. Go on Instagram live and just say like, listen, I'm in San Diego and it's raining outside. And so what I want you to take your phone, you put it in the window cause we sit in front of a window or a door, you get good light and then you just say, I'm in San Diego, I'm at a copywriting event and I'm going to walk you through the three things I've learned. Story number one, you're going to story number two, tip number one, Jasmine stars . Amazing. Step number two, I a whatever. And how of these you're , we're using the texts, right? One, two, and three because studies show that people listen to stories more than 77 70% of people listen to stories and watch videos on YouTube and Facebook and Instagram without volume. So your stories, you have your texts of what people are telling you. And so by the end slide you say, what would you like to learn more of? And then you put a pole and it's like catchy copywriting, email , subject lines, and then everybody who votes, you're going to go to email subject lines. Hey, I wrote this really cool blog post and you dropped the link. I hope it helps. Expect nothing. Make them feel everything. So quick review before we get into Q and a, how to pivot and diversify your business in seven simple steps. Number one, answer your FAQ. Number two, create a solution based on demand. Number three, use social media with a strategy to test your ideas. Number four, be consistent. Number five, build a brand. Number six, test ideas with short form content. Number seven, rinse and repeat. Ladies and gentlemen, everything I put out here on the board costs, not a single penny, but time and energy and putting aside your ego and on that happy and friendly note , I would love, I have about 15 minutes to get into Q. And. A. This is where, this is where things get granular, like there's no such thing as a dumb question. I gave a 30,000 foot view. If anybody would like to take the opportunity to ask any questions about anything. I am making yourself accessible. I think I'm better at answering questions than I am giving presentations. If you've thoroughly enjoyed things, it's only going up from here if you don't like it. So he up to this point. Don't worry. Give me another try. Any questions? We have questions back there. So we have two mix and so if I can get the second mic on deck, that'd be great. Hi guys .
Speaker 5I'm Melissa and I'm a sales page designer and I'm literally in the messiest part of the shift and the pivot right now. What the heck do I post? I mean I know that, but like do you post the messy ? Do you post? Do you? I don't like, yeah,
Speaker 2so Brittany Brown says we should talk about things from a scar, not a wound. A scar is that we've healed. A wound is still open. Do I think that you can let people know that you are a pivoting and that you're in transitioning and you're realigning your business? 100% do I think that people need to know that you spent your last dollar doing it or the kids are crying and you burnt dinner and you're four days behind email. No. There is a difference between being authentic. I am in the Meyer being overshare. I'm sharing everything was in the Meyer . So do I think you should show up as you, yes. The general rule of thumb is what I call the stranger on the airplane role . I only post on social media. What I would tell somebody who I'm sitting next to on the airplane. If I would not tell this stranger that I'm in the messy Meyer and that my kid like my laundry is piled high, I would not put that out on social. Thank you. I appreciate that. Very polite laugh. Thank you. I'm so sorry. Kira , can I get you some, Oh , could I get you some water? Can I get you some water? Can I just get, get me some water? I had something my throat. Yes. Hey Jasmine. I'm Tarzan and um , I have been for a long time teaching freelancers how to be better freelancers, but I'm moving pivoting to teaching more about email and they do want to come along, but I'm concerned about like the concentric circles, like leaving the people in the middle. Okay. So my audience want at one point. Thank you so, so, so much. I'm so sorry you guys. My audience at one time was a hundred percent photographers, rightly so. I was teaching photographers how to take better photos and then I'll see do photographers how to take, run better businesses. And I understand that I changed the terms of the agreement. I cannot be offended when people stop. We intercepted in my, at my party, I invited them to my cocktail party. Hey guys, is my cocktail party. We have a DJ. If I decided at 9:00 PM I'm going to bring in a four piece quartet. Everybody who is there for the DJ would be like, what the heck? Rude. If I had a DJ and then incorporated alive violin with the DJ and then an hour later invited a cellist along with the violin and the DJ and then later invited, I don't know , give me another instrument that could go along with the DJ. I don't know, a saxophone, Kenny G come on out. It's like Steve Aoki and Kenny G, whatever, another interest in it . So we have to make [inaudible] pivot slow, but also understand like you're going to lose the list, you're going to lose your followers. And then I had turned to say, it was like, Oh, what is this about me? No, I changed the terms of who I was speaking to will like , do I want them to come along? Because I think that the information that I'm sharing to a small business owner definitely applies to a photographer, business owner, but if they can't see it, I'm not going to waste my time. And in fact, I want people to unfollow me because if you continue follow me and not engage, you're hurting me. You're hurting. Who's actually seeing my content. So I decided to change it from why is this happening to me? It's happening for me. Burn the list. I openly tell people, if you're not going to engage, please don't follow me. Please don't creep. Like we don't need that. Like I want to create relationships with people. You as you transition from freelancers into email are going to lose people and you bless and release and say thank you for having me serve you during this time. I'm changing and I'm going here. Be very open about it, but slowly over time do it. Thank you. Who wants the mic up to the next question? So we have a question here. Thank you. Hi Jasmine. My name is [inaudible] . Um, I love using Instagram for me . Copywriting business. It works, but I love what you said about I don't want to do what's working in 2018. I want to like have my eye on what's happening in 2023. I'm like, should I get a tick tock account? What do you see for the vision for what might work in 2023 or what should we have our eyes on? Um, so quite honestly, Facebook now is play to pay, but when you get like on a Facebook page, when you get like 1.5% organic reach is played at pay , um , on Instagram you're getting somewhere in the ballpark of about 3% organic reach. They're already working towards pay to play. So do I think Instagram in three years will be what Instagram is today? Like? Absolutely not. I do believe that Instagram will acquire tech talk, but if they ticked off, decides to go the route that Snapchat went and said, we're not going to be acquired, Instagram is going to put off on the inside of stories period. The end. Like it's not if it's, when do I think people should get a tick tock account? Absolutely. If for nothing else than to see how to edit videos. Because you now see commercials being edited like TechTalk , you now see movie previews, movie long form movie previews being edited like TechTalk . You now see people aggregating content from stories and ticked off and making whole commercials around them. It would behoove us to know where things are going. I don't think it's dreams going anywhere. Like um , you know, it's not gonna disappear. It's not, people are gonna fall off. But I definitely think it's like the ground is fertile for the next thing to pop up. Do I see what the next thing is? No, other than Dick talk, but I'm always about diversifying. Like I'm on Facebook, I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Twitter, I'm on YouTube, I'm on Instagram. I have a newsletter list like I'm doing all the things cause we just don't know what's happening. Do I think you should absolutely do. I think that what is happening with stories is like right now it's going to be the best it has ever been. The fact that you're getting anywhere from two to 3% organic on stories and there's a much higher likelihood of engagement. I have noticed that my engagement on my posts have gone up because of stories now. Why? Because people when they leave a comment on a story, they know it's one to one and they're going to be like, I loved your comment. And then they're just gonna watch and see what you do. And so if you like it, I can give you a bonus point. If you leave me a comment, two points, if you actually leave me a comment more than four words, huh? Let me, let me vote on a poll and see if she notices. Let me DM her. It literally is like dating with every single one of my followers. Like let me buy a drink, buy another drink, buy another drink. And then finally they will want to go on a date and buy a date. They will leave a comment publicly on my [inaudible] . That is the one
Speaker 6long, long, long, long game.
Speaker 2And for those of you who are here and decide to bring out that old archive version of Instagram stories and decide to tag me in it, I'll respond to you. That's how I do. I don't need you to like me. I need you to trust me. I need you to do what I'm telling you to do. And if I don't do it, get the heck out of here. Sit. So test me, put out a story and if you're like, I'm just very evocative, it's raining outside. Go to a puddle, put it on boomerang, add some text and tag me like don't give me excuses. I want to connect with you. Let me show you how it's done. Challenge, challenge, accepted or not. Okay. I think that's me. Yes. Hey, I'm Draya . Nice to meet you. Um, so I'm a new freelancer. Just went full time and I have been exploring diving into Instagram this past year and made the pretty little highlight thingies and all that. But I'm still learning the craft. I'm still trying to really figure out my, I kind of know what my niche or niche is and I'm , but I'm still trying to figure out what my brand is. So what, where do you start when you're, when you're posting and junior stories? Cause I'm kind of like sharing my journey but I don't know if that's going to help me get, you know, you know, shake hands and get them to, you know, grab my freebie or check out my website. Where do you, where do you go from there? Let's not start there. Okay. Like before anybody will go to your blog or actually, can she keep the mic for a second? Before any, before anybody will ever take an exit link from you. Like you've got to go real deep. Okay. Like think about it. Can I just do a raise of hands? This is just to humor me. I, I, it's not a loaded question. I really want to know if you go to somebody's new account and you see their highlights and the highlights, are these like really pretty icons or you see highlights and they're just grabs from the video itself. How many of you prefer to see the pretty color coded icons? How many preferred to see the real photos from somebody ? Highlight? Hell yes. Me. Sorry. I wasn't trying not to, I was trying to repress my gag. I hate that. Here's a tutorial on a pet and it's a bone. I'm not going to click on your bone. I'm not going to click on your heart. This is my favorite thing to do. I want to see it. I want to connect. Like there was a time that Instagram was about creating a museum. There was a time that Instagram was about creating a magazine and you were the Anna winter. Yeah, those days are gone. Okay, so what we wanted is we want to show up real, not ugly. Real. Okay, so not getting out of bed ugly cause I've done that before. My style. There's a way, there's a way, there's a way to do it. There is a way that is genuine and real. Now let's get back to the practicality of building your brand. When people go home and your homegirl is talking to her partner, her friend, and she says, I like her because she's what? Give me three things that you want people to say to describe you. Just you as you as a human. Me as a human. Yes, I'm that. I'm fun, fun and silly and weird, weird , and I'm good at what I do. Okay, let's kick out fun, silly, and weird, fun, silly, weird. I'm going to take out silly. I'm going to keep a fun, weird and good at what you do. Okay, Kate. This is what we call it hot seat. Like you're , it looks like you're about to shrink under like , right? Like everyone's looking at her. She's just a freelancer, like poor little thing. This is like freshman hazing and the sacrifice that you're going through is helping everybody over here who is a senior or too cool for school and they're watching you, but they're going to take something from it. So let yourself be open to the thing that we're about to receive. All right, let's do it. If you want somebody to think you're fun, you're going to write fun things. Okay. And did you want somebody to say that she's silly or sorry. It was weird. If somebody wants you to be like, you're weird, you have to write weird things. Okay. And if you want something to see , she's good at what you do. You gotta be real good at what you do. Now for the room, for the one person who appreciates the fun weird part of you, your objective is not to be liked by 100,000 people. Your objective is to find 10 clients for your first year who will pay you a premium to do what it is that you do. So all of your content should be measured by the barometers of when you read a caption. Does it feel fun? Okay. Does it feel weird without trying too hard? Without track ? Like I don't need you to wear a silly hat and big glasses to be like I'm a note is you can be weird. Like I follow somebody. One of my friends, he just takes random photos of weird things in life and I know he's weird and he doesn't have to tell me he's weird. Yeah . And I like it. Yeah. I like him for it. This is a matter of taste. So do I think you need to put out things that are professional? No. Okay. Unless you're trying to attract a professional customer. I believe that what you should put out are barometers of success. I chose the words consistent. I chose the words empowerment and I chose the word brand. Okay. When people walk away, if they tell one person, she just kind of made like, I think I want to show up a little bit differently. Good. Consistent. You know what? I think I'm going to be afraid to like unafraid to step out. Like I want to be who I am. Good. That's a brand. If I made you believe that something that you think is wild idea that nobody else thinks is good, that you believe it's good. I did my dang job. I fell into one of my three verticals. That's the only thing I want you to focus on on Instagram. Those three. Okay. Thank you. That's great. Thank you. We have three minutes and then there's, Oh yeah. Hi, I'm Kirsty . I'm a launch copywriter. Um , my question for you is about when you're making those pivots in your business, how do you create the space to do that? So you've got the traction and the bosses moving. Um , moving on to the next thing, like how does that work within your business with this space? I mean, this is where, this is where you see it big time in link , the digital marketing space. And I can only see it now. Like only in retrospect there's two camps. There's the hustle camp and there's the Wu camp , right? And um, I've been mentored by both. I believe that there was a time for both. I do not believe in all hustle all the time, but I also just don't believe in the woo . Like I'm just going to see it. I'm going to check the energy and that's just going to pop out in front of me. No, it won't. No want to break it to you. Like, if you believe that, I'm sorry, that's not where we are. In the 21st century, there was a time in human history when that could have been the case that who your mama was, what school you went to, your zip code, all those things could have been the reasons why you succeeded. And then the internet broke that the internet made everybody equal. The internet democratized. Who won ? Are you good? You're winning, so how do you take time to pivot? You cut something away and that really sucks. You're cutting away time from friends, family, your business, Netflix, softball, bowling, movies, girl time manicures. Yeah, or if you're at a space in your business, which is where thankfully we were. We were able to bring on people to keep up the pace in our photography business like photo editors, design like we needed art directors, we needed people doing print fulfillments. We brought that in when we were doing it all ourselves. We were less profitable on the photography side that year, but more profitable because we gave ourselves space to create something different. My husband and I are going through this really gnarly time in our lives right now, gnarly time and we've moved into this apartment and we've been there about three weeks and we've never, we haven't turned on the TV once. There's just no time when you're trying to, when your aspirations are this, your actions must map your aspirations. It requires me to wake up at four 30 every single morning so that I have quiet time before my daughter wakes up and in the middle of the day I pray she goes down for two hours and I go back to doing that , the thing that I have to do and there will come a time truly that I know I won't be able to balance all of that, so I'll need to bring in help of some kind. How do you make space by cutting away something that you love so that you can do more of something you hope you love? As we close, the one thing that I wanted to get back down to, what was the thing that you want to do to diversify or the underpin, the underpinning of what you want to do to pivot? Sometimes if you're anything like me is clouded by the idea that somebody else is doing it and I want to call that out because people have this misnomer. Well, you can do it because Oh well that, and I'm saying, no. I feel like a fool standing on a stage thing that one day I'm going to build a platform, but I'm recording it on video so that 10 years from now when we have a platform, I'll say, baby girl, you trim too small. I want you to look at something that somebody else's doing and believe they're a space for you to do it too differently and quite possibly better. I stand on a stage to people, to anybody who's willing to listen to say , the world needs you. Broken. Perfect, ugly, gorgeous, old, young, educated, dumb immigrant, natural born. The world needs you. I've come to believe that if you stop yourself from stepping out, you're robbing God in the universe of the thing that you were put here to do. The question too that I ask people on the daily is, do you have the courage to step up and do the thing that you want to do? Somebody would've told me, we're not afraid of change. We're afraid of the loss that's associated with change. Friends, I am begging you to not look at things as loss, but as a gain to show your future generations of the sacrifices you made for them, that we may stand on the shoulders of other people who went before us to make the sacrifices so that we could sit here in this room and have the luxury of a decision to say, I will or I will not. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that by the end of this week and you say, I will I shell and it is destined to become a success. Thank you guys. So, so, so
Speaker 3[inaudible] . Thank you. Thank you
Speaker 2there. Have it. Friend,
Speaker 1I hope you enjoyed this new content about how to diversify your business. I would love to know your biggest takeaway from this keynote and you can connect with me on Instagram or even better yet, you can leave a review on the podcast like Jen who left a five star review. She said, girl, your energy is on fire. You know I not going to beat around the Bush and you're always very clear on what you're talking about. I'm so happy I found you. Well, Jen, let me be the first to tell you that I am so happy I found you too. I appreciate it. Now also for me, Ellington's one, two, three she said, the podcast has an energy that is contagious, that the sincerity is undeniable. Jasmine is straight forward and no nonsense and unbelievably helpful. Well , you want to know what? Thank you very much. Sometimes I could be a little much for some people, but meowing tens, one , two , three, your my people. If you are my people, nothing would mean more to me than to read your feedback on the podcast. So leave a review for more ever. You aren't listening to. Now, I would love to also connect with you on Instagram. So if you take a screenshot of this episode and you happen to put it on your Instagram story, be sure to tag me at Jasmine star and tell me what you learned. Also, we have some brand new Jasmine star gifts that have been added to Instagram. So if you post a story and you tap on the GIF icon and then you type in Jasmine star, you're gonna see new gifts that came out. Well , I mean, what can I say? Like, let's have fun on the ramp , you know , uh , I just want to say thank you for listening today. I want to say thank you for chatting with me, and I want to say thank you for having the courage and the audacity to dream beyond what you think is comfortable pivoting and diversifying your business is not for the faint of heart. It is for the courageous and the courageous are the people who grow the fastest, the most, and serve people well.
Speaker 7Thanks Brian . [inaudible] .