AMY PORTERFIELD: Welcome back to another episode of The Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast. I’m your host, Amy Porterfield. Thank you so very, very much for tuning in.
Today’s episode is with a special guest. Her name is Jasmine Star. Quite honestly, that’s kind of a cool name that I just want to keep saying, Jasmine Star. She sounds extra special, right? Quite honestly, she is. Jasmine is a branding and social media expert and today I brought her on the show to talk specifically about social media.
First, let me tell you how I met Jasmine. I was at James Wedmore’s mastermind in San Francisco a few weeks back, maybe a little bit more than a month ago. I was there as a special guest. I got to present on how I grew my business and then I got to sit in on the mastermind.
I talked about this before a few episodes back on one of the other episodes but the point is that when I was at this mastermind Jasmine was chosen to do a 20-minute talk about social media to her entire mastermind group. When she got up to speak I thought it would be great but was sure she wouldn’t teach me anything new…I mean, I teach social media. I knew it would be good but I didn’t think it would knock my socks off.
I know that sounds very arrogant that this was what was going through my mind. But it was social media. It was an area I know well. Well, the good thing is Jasmine did knock my socks off. She got up there and for 20 minutes, first of all the girl is a fast talker so get ready for that, but she got up there and shared some things that were either brand new to me or just great reminders of things I was not doing.
Sometimes when we learn things, especially in areas we feel we know best, you have to ask yourself if you know something, are you implementing it? I was not implementing a lot of the stuff that Jasmine shared at that mastermind. I have kind of changed my ways with a few things and you will hear me talk about that in the interview with Jasmine. I asked her to come on and ask if she would do the exact presentation for an episode on my podcast because I think my listeners would find it really valuable. She said, “Yes.”
I will kind of point you to a few things. She is going to talk about building a story around your avatar. To me, that totally blew my mind because I talk about creating your avatar a lot but I have never put it into a story. Wait until you hear Jasmine do it. It’s pretty cool.
Another thing she talks about is repelling and attracting your avatar through social media. I never really looked at things that way so that was a huge a-ha moment for me. But I don’t want to give it all away. I want you to hear it directly from Jasmine. You will also hear kind of what she’s all about, how she got her start, and how she got to where she is today.
We’ll start that off right from the beginning of the interview. I won’t make you wait any longer, let’s go ahead and dive in.
Amy: Jasmine, thank you so very much for being here. I am so excited to have you here.
Jasmine: I am so excited to be here, Amy. Thank you.
Amy: This is going to be a treat for everybody listening and I already talked a little bit about how I got here with you today and why I was totally blown away with your presentation at James Wedmore’s mastermind. Today you’re a branding and marketing strategist for creative entrepreneurs but you haven’t always been. So, how did you get to where you are today?
Jasmine: I’m going to give you the short version but if you would like longer one we can do that over a glass of wine or you can read my blog to get the long story. In short, I started my photography business about ten years ago and I didn’t have qualifications or money. I didn’t even own a camera.
For all intents and purposes, people looked at me and said, “Poor thing, she wants to become a photographer and she really doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
They weren’t too far off with that assessment. But, what I did know I had the ability to do was over time improve my craft and, along the way, I created a brand and really learned to leverage social media marketing. With that, about 2 ½ years after I started my business I was voted one of the Top Ten wedding photographers in the world.
Amy: Wow.
Jasmine: I say that just because that’s a really condensed version but what I want to really show and encourage people is that it has so much more to do than just taking a photograph. It was about building an experience for my clients.
Shortly thereafter, photographers started asking how they could do the same thing. So I started teaching photographers and then, over the years, other creative entrepreneurs like marketers, travel agents, even lawyers. They were asking how they could create a personal brand.
For a while I hid from it. I told them I wasn’t really in the position to help creatives do this and would tell them I only do it for photographers. I started short changing myself and just recently, within the past year I started putting a curriculum together that would apply to a creative entrepreneur in general, not just a photographer. I do believe I am in a position to help people create a personal brand and then market it effectively using social media.
In February we launched the Path to Profitability. It is a website dedicated to helping creative entrepreneurs find their voice.
Amy: Well, you’ve done an amazing job. When I got introduced to you I immediately fell in love. There is just so much about you that makes people feel extra special when they are around you. I just want you to know that. Also, you make people feel like they can do anything and I think you really believe in those students you teach. It comes out through everything you do. I just wanted to give you a shout out first because that is the truth.
Jasmine: Thank you.
Amy: But also, you blew me away at James’ mastermind. What happened was, when you started to go through these five different, really valuable tips around growing your brand using social medial, like I said in the intro, I thought I knew it all when it came to social media. Of course no one really knows it all. But I thought I probably knew what you were going to teach.
Then you blew me away. You have a different perspective of how you approach this. It was great reminders that if you’ve been at social media for a while it’s easy to forget some of the most important pieces of the puzzle to make it all work.
I was hoping we could go through these five key strategies that you taught in the mastermind and kind of dig into each of them. Are you cool with that?
Jasmine: I’m totally cool with that. Thank you.
Amy: Okay. Great. #1, you suggested that we speak to our ideal client on social media. Talk to me about that one.
Jasmine: If you give me a chance, I’m going to back up one thing. Like you just mentioned, there’s no one person who knows everything about social media. That’s partly because trying to talk about social media strategies is like asking somebody to take a sip from a fire hose.
Amy: Yes.
Jasmine: There’s so much out there. It’s constantly evolving and the tips I really want to share with listeners today are tangible, actual steps that people can take today and then use it to grow with their strategy as their business progresses. It’s not about this being “it” in its entirety. We are kind of growing together, let’s talk about these things, and I absolutely do believe that people, when applying these strategies, can really change the way they interact.
On that note, I’m talking too much so you can pop right in any time and tell me, “Girl take a breath, we’re okay.”
Amy: You’re like me. You get excited and we go fast.
Jasmine: I do. We don’t talk fast…people listen slow!
Amy: You are so right, amen!
Jasmine: I got an “amen” from Amy Porterfield, my life is complete. There we go.
Amy: Stop!
Jasmine: So speak to your ideal client. I was talking to an entrepreneur and the way she described social media is like she is yelling into a void. I understand that’s the feeling people can have but the only reason it feels like a void is because some entrepreneurs don’t know who they are talking to.
First things first, you want to know who you are talking to. The best way to do this is to have your ideal client in mind. My question to creative entrepreneurs in general is, “Do you know who that is?”
Once you get into the mind of who you’re speaking to you understand her struggle and understand the way your product or service can help her, can make her life easier, or can diminish a fear. That is such a powerful way to view social media. It’s not about, “Hey, look what I’m doing,” it should be more along the lines of, “How can my product or service help you?”
That really fundamentally shapes the way people should view it.
Amy: This is a big one for my audience. A lot of people that are just starting out (they might even be in business for a year or two) say they don’t know if they totally know their ideal avatar. They aren’t sure what they really need to do to make that happen.
Jasmine: Before we talk about who that person is or what things they should do, first relieve yourself of that stress. The thing that you need to do is speak to her or him in a way that will empower them to choose you over your competitors. The way you do that is not about talking about how great what it is that you do, you want to build trust, you want to make her life easier, you want to help her.
Once you have that kind of in the forefront of your mind you will find ways to service your clients in a different way. I’m going to introduce you to a friend. Her name is Elle and she lives in Manhattan Beach, California. She is married and has two adorable boys. She drives an oversized white SUV.
Prior to ending up in Manhattan Beach, California, she grew up in Ojai, California. That is about 35-40 minutes from downtown Los Angeles. She grew up on her father’s goat farm. He raised goats and would milk the goats. She would run the fields with her goats and along the way she would collect wildflowers and herbs and that became a huge part of her identity.
As she grew older she moved to downtown Los Angeles and started creating organic goat milk soap. On each bar of soap she inlaid herbs and flowers and it became a huge part of her identity. She got married. She moved to Manhattan Beach and now sells her goat’s milk soap in a farmer’s market in Manhattan Beach.
Opportunity arose for her. A buyer from Anthropologie was walking through the stalls and came across her soap and said, “I want to carry your soap in Anthropologie.” The biggest decision Elle had to make was whether or not her business was streamlined, whether or not she had built a brand, and whether or not she was able to leverage her marking in a way to facilitate this request from Anthropologie.
The person I just introduced to you, my friend, is made up in my mind. Her name is Elle and she is my ideal client.
Amy: First of all, I absolutely love this. The reason I wanted to have you on the show today is because I wanted my audience to hear about Elle. More than anything else you are going to share, this is my favorite part because most of us, including me, do not have an avatar that is built out to that degree.
When I heard that I thought, “Whoa.” I feel like I could write so much better copy, better emails, better sales pages, and better social media if I was that specific about my ideal customer avatar. It kind of blew my mind.
Jasmine: Well thank you. But here’s the thing. This is a point of differentiation. I am sure many of your listeners know the idea. They know an exercise. So in order for people to understand who their ideal client is, what I did and encourage other entrepreneurs to do is to create a profile. But how do you create a profile?
I blogged an article. You can read it in JasmineStarblog.com If you type in Ideal Client Profile this should pop up. There is a list of questions. Just to give you a better idea: Where does your client live? How old is your client? Is your client married? What does your client do for a living? How much money does your client make in a year?
These questions must be answered. Here’s the thing I like to tell creative entrepreneurs: Specifically, once you have the answers to the questions I don’t know if that’s enough. When you create a story around who it is you’re speaking to that person comes to life. You’re not just checking a series of boxes. You are saying, Because of her history…Because she’s married…Because her husband has a full-time job and gives her the latitude to have expendable income to use as she chooses…all of the sudden the copy I write, the blog posts I am engaging with sounds like I am writing for one person. In a way I am.
Everything I put out is to service Elle. But the thing I hear most often from creative entrepreneurs, their biggest, largest trepidation is that they don’t want to speak to just one person. They are worried about pushing everybody else away.
Amy: Yes. Talk to me about that.
Jasmine: The way I like to describe it, and I don’t want to get all scientific and technical, but if you harken back to your high school days, we learned about atoms. In the center of an atom is a nucleus. Around the nucleus are a bunch of different types of cells, organisms, whatever the heck we want to call them. Like I said, I’m not very technical.
If we think about this in different pieces: The center, the core of the person, the nucleus is my Elle. But by talking to Elle other people within the atom will resonate with that. Because I have such a clear vision of who I am speaking to it appeals to other people.
I have yet to service or consult with a creative entrepreneur who actually has created a line of soap. I have yet to consult with a creative entrepreneur who is selling her items at a farmer’s market or even has a potential of getting a contract from Anthropologie. But part of what is giving me encouragement is that there is an article written by FastCompany and they outlined how Anthropologie has identified their ideal client with such specificity. They know the smells that client smells, the music they should be pushing, how they need to be merchandising the store.
Furthermore, not only do they have one ideal client, as you walk into Anthropologie each subsection of the store, which is laid out in a grid into five or six sections depending on the size of the store, has an ideal client as well. Each of the subsections are actually components of their main, ideal client.
There is so much freedom in knowing who you are speaking to and understanding you are not speaking to one person. Your copy and your craft and your story is for one person but we have to know and trust and understand that the one person speaks to many.
Without having that one person in mind your message and vision becomes diluted. When I was a photographer and started my business in the beginning, I suffered from what I call the photographer superhero complex. It was like, “Where there’s a wedding, I’ll be there.”
I wanted to service anybody. When I truly understood this and created my ideal client I knew how to service that ideal client with such specificity and care that other people saw it and said they want that too.
Amy: So many good things here. Let me break down my big takeaways here. I mentioned earlier that I don’t have an avatar that is so detailed as yours. You hit it on the head that I have a list of all of that stuff you mentioned. I’ll make sure to link to Jasmine’s article on her blog in my show notes so you guys can grab that. But what I don’t have is the story and how it’s all linked and the transformation my avatar has gone through or that this happened because of that.
I think that really rounds it out and takes it to an entirely new level I’ve never experienced. I am excited about that and am excited my audience is going to experience that as well with their own avatar.
Jasmine: Thanks for giving me the opportunity.
Amy: Yeah, it’s so good. The next thing I took away is the fact that you’re talking about one very specific woman, Elle, and all of these details about her. But that doesn’t mean, or correct me if I’m wrong but I am pretty confident here, it doesn’t mean you are sitting down and writing a blog post and constantly talking about organic goat soap or Anthropologie or this husband and two boys she has.
You’re not necessarily referencing that stuff in your article. Am I right?
Jasmine: Absolutely correct. I am not talking about those things. However, the thing I think about is that if Elle is a soap maker and an artist and cares and finds value in her story and her family history then I am empowered to write about my story and my family history. Why? I know it will appeal to her. That changes the scope.
Amy: That’s a perfect segue into your really valuable strategy #2 to attract or repel. Talk to me about that.
Jasmine: The nutshell version is love me, hate me, I don’t care. Why? Because I understand that every creative entrepreneur has competitors. There are anywhere from 10 to 10,000 people who do what you do. That means customers have a choice. They can choose whom to follow, whom to support, and they can choose whom to buy from.
I know we’re probably very tempted to be everything to everyone and as a result we don’t share our opinions, we don’t share personal aspects of our lives, but when we do that it just means that we blend in to everyone. If everybody is doing the same thing you don’t stick out.
I come from the school of thought that it is better, it is in your best interest for your business, to do one of two things. You want to attract or you want to repel. By saying you are going to attract somebody you are going to understand how they see the world. By and large, the more you put out the more you will attract people to grow your tribe in a way that think and speak and feel and share commonalities.
But you will also repel people who don’t understand how you do what you do, why you do what you do, or they simply don’t really like much about you. That’s fine. What happens is we always want to play things safe. But as an entrepreneur the best thing you can do is grow your tribe in time.
Dale Carnegie, I’m totally going to chop up his quote, but the premise is that you will go farther being genuinely interested in two other people than trying to get 200 people interested in you. In social media we do that. We think numbers, numbers, numbers. But I don’t want to be popular, I want to be profitable.
I will be more profitable with a smaller group of people who drank my Kool-Aid. Can I get an amen?
Amy: Amen to that. When you first talked about this at the mastermind the thing that got my ears to perk up is that you had mentioned you didn’t think everybody loves you posting pictures of your dog in costumes. Then you said, “But Elle does!”
Right away I thought, “Oh my gosh!” You said that was all that mattered. If Elle likes it I’m posting it. So a lot of my students, including myself at times, wonder if we should post something or whether it’s a good idea. We wonder if people are going to think I’m weird or if people aren’t going to like it.
If you got really specific with your avatar and took it to the next level with the story, all you have to ask yourself from here on out is whether your avatar (when you give it a name) is going to like it or not. Yes or no, that’s how you decide everything you do on social media.
Jasmine: Right. Exactly. And there is so much freedom in that. Our whole life we were aiming to get out of the high school cycle where you want to be everything to everyone. You get to be an adult and express your creative freedom and then we stop ourselves out of fear of what somebody would think. But if we find power in our ideal client she would like it, he would like it. It’s all good.
I’m growing my tribe because social media grows the fastest and strongest when people feel they know you, they trust you, and they get you.
Amy: That’s so very true. I’m a huge fan of this whole strategy behind how you created Elle. I love the idea of attracting or repelling. Ask yourself whether your avatar cares. If the answer is “Yes,” you move forward and you are right. It gives you so much more freedom and creativity and you actually enjoy what you’re doing. It’s a big one.
I am moving us along. The next one is that you want to choose your platform. Talk to me about that one.
Jasmine: Once we have laid the foundation and once we know who we are speaking to it’s going to be very important for you to ask yourself one question. Where does your ideal client spend time on the web? We have to understand with the plethora of options available our ideal client is going to choose one or two platforms she is the most comfortable with.
It’s not important whether or not we like those platforms. We have to put ourselves in the shoes of our ideal client and ask where she will be hanging out. Once you know where she is hanging out, where she’s being social, where she gets her news, where she actively searches for answers to her questions (is she on YouTube, is she scouring Pintrest, or Instagram? Where is she finding answers to her questions?) you want to get active there.
I have addressed at least two or three platforms to be active on. I have chosen Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for my ideal client, in that order. That’s where I feel Elle will spend most of her time. Once I have chosen those three platforms, the thing I want to do is then kind of create a social media strategy about how to speak to her.
I have chosen to write blog posts based on how often I think she will be reading. I blog four or five times a week. Other creative entrepreneurs don’t have to blog that often but the key is to establish how many blog posts they are going to be posting each week. Then, how many posts on Facebook are you going to be posting per day, per week? How many tweets are you going to be sharing? How many images are you going to be sharing on Instagram?
You will be creating a schedule. For my audience, I subscribe to the 3:1 ratio. I call them three gives and one ask. A give is an insight into my personal life or I am sharing a funny video or an update or, yes, a photo of my dog wearing a Halloween costume. I have one ask. One ask comes in the form of wanting them to visit a blog post, I want them to subscribe to my newsletter, I want them to make a purchase to come for a business summit or to buy an online course.
Every time I ask for something from the audience I insure that I am giving three things. What happens is people have come to use social media as a constant stream of advertisements, “Buy my widget,” “My widget is on sale,” “My widget comes in green,” “My widget has a write up in the New Yorker.”
Okay, that’s fine. But what are you giving to your audience in order to grow your audience? In order for you to grow your platforms and to attract more of your ideal client you need to produce content with intentionality.
Amy: I love it. I think that is so well said. When you were talking about choosing your platform you also talked a lot about respecting the platform. Talk to me a little bit about what that means.
Jasmine: Respecting the platform in essence is when you make an update to a platform be in that platform. A common mistake I see a lot of entrepreneur doing, they will be on Instagram and then link up Instagram to their Facebook profile and their Twitter profile. When the image goes into Facebook it does not remain linked so if you didn’t @mention to @AmyPorterfield and I did it in Instagram, if I were to sync that image up to Facebook it would not automatically tag Amy’s Page.
People visually just see text with the @ and then @AmyPorterfield but it doesn’t go anywhere. People know visually that you are not in the platform when you created that update. That makes people feel like you’re not in their space speaking to them in the way that they want to be spoken to.
Furthermore, if you link up Instagram and Twitter studies have shown it a 17% click- through rate when somebody posts an Instagram photo to Twitter. But the click- through rate when you actually upload a photo directly to the Twitter platform is somewhere in the ballpark of 78%.
Amy: Wow.
Jasmine: It’s a big difference. But that’s because people think that where you’re speaking is where you’re dwelling. That’s the thing you need to make sure you are doing.
Amy: I think that is a fantastic tip and I’ve started to do that where if I do link up Instagram and Facebook I jump over to Facebook, it takes two seconds, to fix that there.
One question I have for you, because you’re posting a certain number of times a day on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook, do you use a scheduling tool?
Jasmine: That’s a really great question. By and large I don’t. There are times when I go on vacation and I have strategically outlined blog posts that I really want people to know and be a part of. To be clear, my ratio on Facebook is 3:1, my ratio on Twitter is about 3:1, and on Instagram (I just post once a day) every fourth day, even though it’s not as strategic, I feel comfortable asking for an ask but by and large I am staying with what is pretty normal on those platforms.
There are people who link up their Twitter and Facebook platforms and people tweet so much more than they do use Facebook. So what happens is if you’re updating to Facebook, Facebook’s not really meant to be updated more than three or four times a day. It’s just so slow moving. I do use Tweet Deck if I’m on my computer to update Twitter.
But if I’m on my phone within the Twitter app, I do believe that Elle appreciates real time updates. She wants to see where I’m at. That is why I think platforms like Snapchat and Periscope are doing so well and are growing with such intensity because there has become a veneer on Facebook and especially on Instagram that everything is so perfect, like the cappuccino you’re drinking, it’s that perfect all the time. The outfit you’re wearing, your outfit of the day, you look that hot all the time. In reality that’s not the case.
That is why there has become such a demand and hunger to see people in real time. That is why Snapchat and Periscope have done great things. You can’t preschedule so there is so much more truth behind it. But I know at this point in time I enjoy those platforms and use them but I do not leverage them in a business capacity because I don’t think Elle is there.
Amy: Oh! Interesting. I love watching you on Snapchat but I know you don’t do it a lot. Your thought is it’s fun and you are going to play with it. You like the real time aspect of it but Elle’s probably not there yet so it’s not going to get a huge focus.
Jasmine: Yes. The demographic for Snapchat is definitely younger. And I enjoy it. To me that’s kind of like a play platform. I don’t really have to push a lot of my current platforms in that direction because it’s not there for me. It’s not ready for me yet. But on a personal front I take pictures of my dog and I even like did a Snapchat that I was going to be on the podcast today. It’s silly but, again, I’m not using it strategically for business quite yet.
Amy: What is your dog’s name?
Jasmine: My dog’s name is Polo.
Amy: Oh my gosh! Polo is the cutest little thing ever.
Jasmine: I’m obsessed Amy. It’s very creepy.
Amy: I’m a little obsessed with him too. You guys, if you want to see Polo you’ve got to check out…I’m sure Polo is all over your social media, but he is really shining on Instagram. You are JasmineStar on Instagram, right?
Jasmine: I am.
Amy: You guys have to check it out. If you’re a dog lover like we are, Polo is definitely a cutie pie. We’ve got one more and that is that when we were at the mastermind you taught us that you don’t want to speak to your audience but you want to grow your audience. As you know, on my podcast we like to make it really tactical and ask, “What do you do to get the results you want?”
I know you’ve got some tactical strategies here that you can teach.
Jasmine: Absolutely. The “how” is always the hard part. When I have attended conferences or have heard other podcasts people say, “This is what you should do.” But they leave out that component of “how.”
I want to just start the conversation about the how. In your blog comments, if people have questions about how to further it or tailor it toward their industry and what they are doing, I would be more than happy to tap in later for that too.
First and foremost, what could pertain to any creative entrepreneur is to create a list of daily activities. If you go to my business website www.thepathtoprofitability.com you will be able to sign up for a free social media marketing guide. In that guide you have a list of activities. You are going to list your platforms (for instance, my three platforms: Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter, in that order) and then I create a list of activities that I have to do for each of those platforms every day.
Every morning I need to check my Facebook notifications. If people have written on my wall I need to respond. Overnight people in Europe will participate and I need to make sure I am responding back to them on Twitter or if people have liked my photo on Instagram I try every so often to create a list of three to four people who have recently liked a photo. I will go over to their profile and like their photo or leave a comment. It’s always about reciprocity when it comes to social media.
Also, in order for you to create conversations with your followers, it is important for you to actually start the conversation. If you’re always just making a statement when it comes to social media like, “I am walking my dog,” people don’t know how to respond because there isn’t a response.
But if you were to say, “I’m walking my dog at sunset and I’m debating whether or not I should put a scarf on him,” that is inviting people. I know, my dog doesn’t have one, he has four scarves. And we live in California, Amy. There’s no need for a scarf. And you know what I’m doing right now to your audience? I’m doing one of two things, Amy. I’m attracting or repelling.
There are people who are listening to this and are like, “I cannot stand this girl. Who puts a scarf on her dog.” Then there are other people who are like, “Where do you get your scarves?” Boom, there you go!
Amy: A lot about you saying that, I think you are a really sensitive girl. I feel you are so sweet to everybody and you’re so approachable but then you’ve got a bad ass side to you and are like, “Love me or hate me.”
I think we all need to get there. I don’t think I’m there yet so I really respect it in other people. I think it’s so important we can’t please everybody and that is so exhausting when we try to.
Jasmine: Absolutely. And the thing is, Amy, this is part of the reason…I am genetically predisposed to having this attitude because my mom’s a Puerto Rican and my dad was a member of the USMC so I have an attitude and I’m hard working and am super loyal. Those things are already there.
But what I learned the hard way, Amy, and I’ll be extraordinarily honest, for a while I started my business knowing these tenets, I will attract or repel. Somewhere along the line the platforms got much bigger and more eyes were on what I was doing and I suffered from wanting to be everything to everyone at all times.
I stopped adhering to this thing I so adamantly believed and I lost my way. I didn’t know what I wanted to post. I made poor decisions. I was so constantly hurt of what people were saying or thinking about me and I realized I was trying to make everybody like me and the results were the same. There are people who still don’t like me.
No matter what you do you will always have resisters. So why not choose to say this is me, love me or hate me or look the other way? The thing about the internet, this content we put out, by and large is a vehicle for conversations and a lot of it is free. How much do people pay for your podcast? That’s right, nothing. You don’t like it tune away Boo, nothing’s forcing you to come. If you don’t like it go the other way.
But if you are going to say something negative, spell my name right and give me a link because I will take the traffic, thank you. Moving on!
Amy: I love it. I absolutely love it. I think this is my new way of going.
Jasmine: I’m going to send you a bumper sticker, “Don’t like it, look the other way.” Perfect.
Amy: Just say the Boo part. That makes me sound really cool.
Jasmine: Alright. It does. Who are we kidding?
Amy: I love it. Keep going because you have a few more tactical things: Don’t speak to your audience but grow your audience…
Jasmine: You want to create a list of daily activities. You want to keep yourself accountable and have a checklist to know that, yes, you are on the same page with what your audience is expecting. You want to start conversations not marketing campaigns.
What is happening, you want to just make sure you are listening to what your audience wants, servicing them in a way that they want to be serviced, and then have very jocular, fun things along the way. You also want to be intentional.
I see people go through a flurry. They will post three photos for four days on Instagram and then there is a huge gap of silence. That’s not creating a conversation within the platform in a way that people are accustomed or used to. You also want to show off in being okay. This goes back to the attract or repel. You want to show off the not so pretty. Obviously you want to keep things in a professional way all the time.
But, when it comes across as your life being overly curated with every outfit being beautiful, every cappuccino is beautiful, your child never smears Cheerios onto the floor, and your house is clean all the time, if that’s the thing you’re showing you’re going to create resistance to people starting conversations because online you seem almost unattainable.
Online social media is not about creating levels of distinction. It’s about creating a quality and that you are friends just separated by a computer.
Amy: I have to tell you a quick story that just came to mind. In one of my Facebook groups we had a situation where I posted a picture of my computer with my Steelers coffee mug (that’s all my husband) beside the computer and said, “This is what my workday looks like today.”
I don’t take great pictures so it was not glamorous. I asked everyone to show me their workspace for the day. People in the group were showing fun things. Some of them were super glamorous on the beach taking a day off and others were just in a dark office working away. The gamut kind of ran across everything. That was really cool but one woman posted a picture of a really great little scene with her computer and something on her computer screen with a little coffee mug and a little flower pot next to it. It was adorable.
Right after that a guy posted, “Hmm. You’re computer looks really familiar because it’s a stock photo.” He posted the same stock photo with something different on the screen. She was great and made some excuse, “Oh gosh, what was I thinking, here’s the real picture.”
I am trying to be more compassionate than judgmental these days. I looked at it and I thought what was so sad was that woman felt she needed to show something really great versus what’s really real. If she is listening or if there is anyone else there that feels you should only put out the good stuff that looks like a stock photo or don’t put it out at all, if you’re following what Jasmine is teaching here and you start to not care about the people that don’t matter to your brand (I mean don’t care if they like you or not like you) you won’t be compelled to do something like that.
That’s an extreme for sure and I felt so bad for her. I hated that the guy called her out. But at the same time, if people are feeling like they can only post stock photos and that’s what we all want to see they are definitely wrong. Would you agree?
Jasmine: I totally would. The point in seeing that is I find zero humor and I don’t think he did it to be humorous, I find that my heart just aches with compassion. I see so much of myself, the temptation of wanting to put something out like that.
Amy: Yes.
Jasmine: When you see what other people are doing, the barometer of success isn’t measured by how good your space is. The barometer of success is how happy and fulfilled you are. If you’re sitting with your child’s dirty diaper next to you and a pile of laundry and the smell of burnt eggs because your kids ran off to school and you are happy, rock that out. No matter how beautiful your work space is, if you aren’t happy you are living an unfilled life. I feel bad. I feel bad for that.
Amy: Yes. And it always can change. If you’re feeling like you need to only show the good stuff because you’re not happy inside maybe it’s time to look at yourself and do a little work there. We all can do it so we’ve all been there.
Jasmine: Absolutely.
Amy: Do a little work on yourself so that every time you post you are proud of what you post no matter how sexy or fun or beautiful it looks. We just want to be as real as possible. I love that you brought up Snapchat and Periscope and all of the real time video things because you are right, it really is showing the real stuff.
I feel I have gotten to know people at a level that’s almost uncomfortable sometimes but I love every minute of it because of Snapchat and Periscope and all that good stuff
Jasmine: Right! Absolutely.
Amy: I just wanted to throw that out there more so from a place of compassion that it doesn’t have to be that way and we’re not looking for perfection. Your audience sure as heck doesn’t want it. I think when I am honest and tell the truth, when I am telling you I thought I had my avatar down but I don’t have a story, I think my audience likes to hear that. It’s like, “Good, she’s just like us.”
Of course I definitely am!
Jasmine: I couldn’t agree more.
Amy: Good stuff. I think we’re at a place that we can wrap it up. I have to tell you, this has been so fun. I had every ounce of me knowing it was going to be a great podcast episode. I love spending time with you and I love learning from you so thank you so much for coming on here and sharing all of this.
Jasmine: Thank you Amy. The feeling is mutual. Every time we chat, even if it’s very, very, very short I feel like I am walking in with real hope. I know that’s a thing you can’t can or muster. But because I’m very actionable, like I said, my dad was a Marine and my mom is Puerto Rican so we are going to set out with a little bit of boot camp for your listeners.
I want people to be committed to intentionality. For the next 30 days can we have your audience try something? Can you schedule to be proactive? Can you create and be committed for the next 30 days? You get to set your own terms. If you only want to blog once a week that’s fine. I encourage you to blog at least once a week because it will get people into the habit of visiting your website. That is ideal because you want your website to be indexed and Google searchable.
You have to give people a reason to go to the domain you own. Commit to blogging at least once a week. Then, I want you to schedule social media patterns. You don’t have to schedule the updates, just the patterns. Do you commit to updating your Facebook once a day or twice a day?
What about Instagram? Can you commit to Instagram once every day or once every other day? You figure out what your pattern is. Then, after the 30 days you will reassess your approach. You are going to look at what posted really well. Did people really like the behind the scenes? Did people like a selfie? Did people like a promotional product?
Once you can assess a month’s worth of hard work then you can know that your audience wants to see more of “this” and less of “this.” Then, once you know that, you are going to speak with intentionality because of your ideal client. You will also speak with confidence because you know that’s what you audience wants to see more of. Thirty days, that’s what we want to do.
Amy: Social media with intention. I love it and I love a good challenge. Thank you so much for that. We’re going to do it guys. Jasmine, where can people learn more about you because I know they are going to want to check out your website and all of your social media channels. Where can they find you?
Jasmine: They can find me at www.jasminestar.com. I have an educational site www.thepathtoprofitability.com and that’s where you can get the free social media marketing guide, which is just an addendum to the things we have spoken about today but also exercises listed so you can actually take action. On social media you will be able to find me on JasmineStar.
Amy: Perfect. I’m going to link to a lot of good things in the show notes guys, so you’ll be able to find that. But, again, thanks a lot Jasmine for being here. I can’t wait until you return and add even more good stuff to the podcast.
Jasmine: I’ll hold you to it. Thank you Amy.
Amy: Alright, take care. There you have it. Hopefully you enjoyed my interview with Jasmine Star as much as I enjoyed it. She is such a special girl but even more so, she is so incredibly talented when it comes to social media and, specifically, branding. She is definitely someone you want to check out.
Jasmine actually talked about a few really good articles during our interview. I have linked to all of them inside of my show notes. If you go to http:// amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/106 you will be able to access the article Jasmine wrote about creating your ideal client profile. You will access the article Jasmine talked about from FastCompany about Anthropologie and their ideal client. It’s such a good article.
I am also going to link you to The Path to Profitability where Jasmine has a free social media guide that you can check out as well. Don’t miss those show notes at http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/106.
One more thing before I jump off, next week in Episode #107 and the following week in Episode #108, I am going to be doing a two-part podcast series all about creating online training courses. I’m really excited because it’s almost time to launch my free master class all about creating online courses.
Before I do that I want to teach you some really important content. I’m going to start out with how you should actually figure out the price of your online course. I have an entire mini training all about pricing your products. That’s coming up in Episode #107 so don’t miss it. I’ll see you next week. Thanks, again, for being here. Bye for now.
