Jasmine Star
Jasmine Star dropped out of law school, picked up a camera and pursued her dreams, later being named one of the top photographers in the world. She built an internationally recognized brand from scratch and leveraged social media marketing to build a wildly successful business in her first year.
Before I get to the simple steps to making money on Instagram, I want to share a little bit of my background. I do this not only so you have an understanding of how I developed this “paint by numbers guide” but more importantly because even if you end up deciding that Instagram is not for you, I want you to know this – if you are not happy with what you are doing, and you are an entrepreneur, you may want to think about doing something else. I’m a passionate business owner, and I love to share what I know.
Building a following and making money with Instagram can be done with simple steps, but it is going to take time. You need to engage with people, and lead with to lead with generosity and empathy. If you don’t love your business, it’s going to be hard to engage and build trust.
So, it’s 2015, and I’m standing in the middle of UCLA Law School. And I look around and I realize that so many of us look the same. Most of us are holding cups of coffee. A lot of us have dark circles under our eyes. And a lot of us, more than it should be. I remember someone recommended carrying these dorky roller bags. These rolling backpacks. Because the books they gave us to read were too heavy to carry.
And I remember distinctly standing in the quad that day, and I looked around. And I thought to myself, “Is this it?” This that I have worked so hard for. My family, as immigrants. I’m a first-generation student to go to college. First generation to go on to pursue higher education. The entire barrio was behind me “She’s going to law school.” And I thought “This is it?” I’m sad. I’m directionless. And I am wildly unhappy.
Around the same time, I got a phone call from my father. And he said “Jasmine, your mom received a phone call from her doctors and said that her time has come.” After an 8-year battle with brain cancer, they were going to stop chemotherapy. They were going to stop the brain surgeries. They were going to stop all therapy, period. And I thought to myself, “I thought it was bad then, but this is really bad now.” And I knew one thing, I was going home. I walked into the Dean’s office and I said, “You know what, I know
I’m on full scholarship. And I know that if I leave school, I lose my apartment housing and I lose everything else around that. I know that. I need to be at home.”
In 2005, I realized that my life had changed, entirely. In a matter of a week, I looked at the calendar. 2005 was when I moved home. 2005 was when
I spent weeks and months staring at my mom, listlessly on the couch not moving and not talking. 2005 was when my boyfriend proposed because he knew more than anything, he wanted my mom to see us get married.
And in 2005, I sat across from my newly minted husband and he ask me, “If you could do one thing for the rest of your life and be happy, what is it?” I said, “I want to be a photographer.” And he said, “You don’t have a camera.”
“I know, but if I had a camera, I really think I could make it work.”
And most people would hear that story and think, “Girl, you’re back trash crazy. You’re gonna pack your bags and go back to law school, like the big girl that you are, and do the dang thing.”
But instead, on January 1st, 2006, I opened my very first camera as a gift from my husband. I didn’t know how to turn it on. I put the battery in the wrong way. I started taking photos, and guess what, they were terrible. But guess what, all amateurs eventually become professionals if they’re willing to work hard at it. I wasn’t talented, I wasn’t rich, and I was gifted. But dog gonnit, I was freaking determined.
And the thing that I realized was that, life was short. My mom was 50 years old and I was 25, and I realized, I’m like “God I’m having a mid-life crisis.” Because if I die when I’m 50, I don’t want to die a lawyer. I don’t want 25 years after my life spending pushing papers. I want to create. I want to do the thing I was made to do.
And against all odds, the doctors had said “Uh, your mom’s life is going to slowly get slower.” That was a polite way of just saying what was going to happen. But we gathered around her, and day after day, and week after week, that wasn’t happening. She started talking, she started walking, she started driving, she started cooking. And her cooking was even worse than it was before, but we ate it so happily. Mom’s cooking again.
And we realized, that at that moment, she had a second chance at life.
And from the periphery, I looked in and said, “I have a second chance to re- invent myself.” And it was at that time that I had got my camera, that I
opened it up, and I just started doing the things. I don’t know how to make it work. I don’t know how to make it work, and then I slowly started to learn how to make it work.
And by 2009, I was voted one of the top photographers in the world. And
in 2010, I was voted one of the most influential photographers. And it 2012, I was voted the top 10 most socially influential photographers, and this is about the time where somebody says, “Wait, wait. What? How in 3 years did all of that happen?”
This is the question I get most often. And I’m going to be very, very, very honest. I don’t come before you, thinking I’m great, or I’m amazing, or I’m cute. All I basically did was I looked around at the market place, and I said, “What’s free? I’m gonna do that.”
In 2006 it was blogging. I started blogging. I started writing. I started posting photos. I started creating valuable content. And shortly thereafter, this thing called Twitter came out, and I realized that the one-on-one conversations that I was creating on my blog post, I could do it in a scalable way on Twitter.
And then suddenly, Facebook came around and I thought to myself, “Oh, I can have one-on-one conversations across different mediums on this platform.”
And then, oh my gosh, Instagram came along, and I said, “This is the land of endless opportunities. This is gonna be my opportunity to build my business. Yes! And Amen.”
But, it wasn’t always like this. Because for a while, I did not know how to make
Instagram work specifically for my business.
Now at this point, I had already created a successful business. But none of the revenue, none of the new inquiries, none of the attention was coming from a platform that I saw as having endless opportunities. I knew it was working. I knew people were making money. I knew people were monetizing. But I had no idea how to do it.
So then, being the proud homeschooler that I am, I started to analyze. And I started to study. I was like, “What are those people doing?” I wanted to know the secret of their success. What magic potion did those people have that I don’t?
And for months and months and months, I studied those who were using Instagram effectively, and then I had the cold and stone cold sober
realization. And I had to ask myself a very hard question. And that is going to be the question I ask you right now. Because the way that we answer this question determines our success on this platform.
So, friend the question is — “Are you on Instagram, or are you using Instagram?”
You cannot possibly monetize, you cannot possibly make money, you cannot possibly grow your business if you are not using Instagram. Because in 2014, I was just on Instagram. I was there. I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t have a strategy. I really didn’t know who I was talking to.
And what you’re looking at right now is an exact 9-grid for my Instagram in 2009. And by looking at that, you would not think that I was an internationally recognized and highly successful entrepreneur, and creative. No, by looking at this, you would think that I like Ryan Gosling, and I like reading teenage novels.
And in 2014, it just looks like I was using Instagram as a box to check for marketing. I’m doing it, see guys, I’m doing it. And it’s not working. See, it’s Instagram, it’s not me.
Except for the fact that when I made the hard decision in 2016 to stop being on Instagram, and I was going to use Instagram. I was going to show up with a plan, with a strategy. I was going to know how to create content that was valuable, that was visually appealing. That put my business in the sight and line of the people I wanted to work with.
And in 2018, I am hell-bent on creating valuable content that siphons the direction of followers. Because new followers will then transition into customers. And it is done in a highly and strategic way.
Which brings us to where we are today. That’s the back story. Now you know where this crazy girl gets her oomph from.
Okay, now we are going to talk about we can get money on Instagram. But the best part is that it’s going to happen in just two steps. My personal goal is that when you finish reading this, you’re going to say, “I can start making changes now.”
If we are going to get money on Instagram, it happens in two ways. Number one, they come to you. And number two, you go to them.
Step One – Getting Your Customers to Come to You
Let’s break this down into actual tangible action steps that you can start applying today. So, in this idea of people coming to you, I want you to put yourself as an Instagram user in this moment.
When people get to your account, what is the first thing they see?
Think about it, somebody leaves a comment on your Instagram and you click
on their profile. What’s the first thing you see?
Their bio or profile. Now what I want you to do is to think and use your bio as a way to prep perspective followers, perspective customers. I want you to use your bio as a prep for sales.
So, before we get to this point of the conversation where many of you are probably like, “A bio? Jasmine this is basic. This is Instagram 101. Get it together.”
Listen, I do this professionally. I literally look at hundreds of Instagram accounts a month. And I can say that the vast majority, I’m talking about 90 plus percent, do not have a bio that is prepping people for sales. I believe that prepping people for sales in a bio happens in 5 ways:
- Description
- Benefits
- Who is it for?
- Contact information
- Give a party favor/gift
Let’s break that down and look at each one, and why it is so important.
Instagram Bio – Description
Number one, I want you to get focused with your title. How do you want people to describe you? And I want you to use this in the most basic terms possible.
Because if you are a photographer, I do not want you to use in your bio “I’m a purveyor of fine memories and first family heirlooms” when what you are is a “photographer.” What I say again and again, is explain it me like I’m 5 years old.
If your bio is confusing, you will have a hard time getting customers.
Let’s look at an example of what your bio should NOT be.
Here’s Claudine. She says she’s a dietician, she’s a foodie, she’s a moderator, she’s a speaker, she’s a human productivity strategist. Join my nutrition and health community here. Oh wee, she does a lot.
This description is far too dense because we need to think about how our human behavior interacts, when you tell your friend “Hey, go follow him because he’s a chef,” or “Go follow her because she’s a fashion blogger,” or “Go follow him because he’s a great marketer.”
We want to start prepping people to position our businesses in their minds, as to what we sell, not all the fun things we like to do on the weekends.
Now if you notice Claudine’s bio says, “Join my nutrition and health community here,” which leads me to believe that she’s trying to monetize her following on Instagram based on her nutrition and health community. If she’s trying to make money on her community, her description should really be pointing to just her community. And in my opinion, it should be “dietician” and “foodie.” That’s it.
Instagram Bio – List the Benefits for Your Followers
Number two, list the benefits for your followers. Why should they follow you? And I really mean this in the most basic sense. Because often times we think “Why wouldn’t people follow me? I’m great. My mom said I’m a special snowflake.” Guess what? In the world of social media things are benefit driven.
There’s too many people who are doing the same thing we do right. There are too many Claudine’s in the world. There’s too many foodies. There’s too many nutritionists. There’s too many photographers. There’s too many marketers. What is the benefit? The benefits will set you apart.
If I was Claudine, I would list very specific benefits. What can they expect? Weekly recipes, tips for meal planning, healthy homemade snacks, on-the-go cleanses. List the benefits. Why? Because your Instagram account isn’t about you. Your Instagram account should be about what your business can do for your followers. If you have a personal Instagram account, rock it out. You post all your pictures from Cabo, and your kid with cheerios all over their face.
Cute, do that. If you’re using it for your business, what are you doing? My business is a place of service and value to you.
Instagram Bio – Who is Your Account For?
Number three, who is your account for? I want you to be as specific as possible. Why? Because in the land of Instagram, we go back to know that there are too many people who do what we do. But when we niche it out, I think it was Pat Flynn who once said, “In niches there are riches.”
It’s so true. Carve out your ideal customer and talk specifically to them. Will you attract other people in your orbit as a result? Yes. But the minute you put a stake in the ground and say – “My account is for these people” – watch what happens. Because so often we’re so concerned about getting the numbers and the metrics. We need more followers. We need more followers. No, you don’t need more followers. You need more customers.
That’s it. I mean, if you want more followers just for metrics, this article is totally not for you. If you actually want to make money, then keep on reading. Because I want you to identify, if I was Claudine and I had healthy meals on the run, it should be healthy meals on the run for busy moms, young entrepreneurs, single dads.
What happens when we position our description, position the benefits and we tell people specifically exactly who it’s for, it then feels tailor-made. And when an Instagram account feels tailor made for a very specific person, there’s a higher chance of converting them into customers.
If you want to learn how to increase your numbers, first get your foundation right. Because if your foundation isn’t right, the house that you’re building on sand will completely crumble. Get this right, then the monetization will happen.
Instagram Bio – Contact Information
Before you say, “Of course I have my contact information listed,” you would not believe how often this is missing, and it’s such a viable and important piece of our profile. Contact information can be easy as something as an email, a phone number or a physical address if you actually have a building. And note, you can actually hashtag cities. And so when people are looking through the hashtag for a city, #SanDiego, #NYC in your profile, they can stumble across your business.
Instagram Bio – Give a Party Favor
Lastly, step five of creating a powerful Instagram bio is to offer a party favor. Give a gift and get a connection. What do I mean by this? If you’re on Instagram, and you’re just hoping, hoping, hoping you’ll get a customer,
I’m here to tell you it’s not going happen. On Instagram, what you get are promising leads. And now you have a two-prong opportunity to convert them to a customer.
So, when you give a top of the funnel, lead magnet, this is an opportunity to grow your newsletter list. But here is where it gets a little bit tricky. Because some people are going to be like, “Yeah of course Jasmine, lead magnets.” My advice to you is to create lead magnets that people on Instagram want. Because if you have a lead magnet that’s slaying on Facebook and you put it over to Instagram and nobody is biting, it’s because the platform is different. People want different things. People want to experience different things differently.
It may take a bit of time to find the match. I created 11 lead magnets specifically for Instagram before I found one that worked. I’m just like, throw mud on the wall, throw mud on the wall, throw mud on the wall. What’s going to work? And then I found it. I found what popped. I’ll get to that in a second.
When we create our Instagram profile or bio, we’re going to be prepping our
followers for sales. To recap:
- Number one, a description. Tell it to me like I’m 5 years old.
- Number two, list the benefits to say: Why should somebody follow you?
- Number three, I want you to tell me specifically who it’s for.
- Number four, your contact information. How can I get a hold of you?
- And number five, your party favor. Let’s break this down as an example
with my bio.
Here’s my Instagram bio. My description, business strategist photographer. Who is it for? Entrepreneurs. What’s the benefit? I help them build social platforms. How do you contact me? There’s my email address. Look at the
lead magnet that works extraordinarily well on Instagram. Get free stock photos and video tutorials at jasminestar.com/freestockphotos. People on Instagram want to show up on Instagram and they just don’t know how. I even give them a solution, and then I get them in a funnel to do what? Build trust, not sell.
Instagram Captions are Indirect Business Conversations
When people are coming to you on Instagram, after they get to your profile, after they get to your bio, what comes next? Well, when they get to your account, what do they read? Friends, they read captions. And this is where the biggest misnomer exists. I believe that captions are indirect business conversations. Did you notice that I didn’t say direct business conversations? Did you notice that I did not say sales pitches?
Your captions are indirect business conversations. Instagram, unless it’s specifically an add-in and noted as such, people don’t like to be sold to. That’s just it. Can you talk about your business in a jovial social way, and then build trust and convert them? That’s going to be the trick.
Let’s look at a few examples of captions I see all the time. I’m using these examples with permission from my students.
Blank, have your cake and eat it too. Affordable options from blank.
Book your 2018, 2019 events today. Sales pitch. Blank is proud to announce that blank now offers photography options. Book us now for your events.
Sales pitch.
Here’s one, Christina and Nikko, that’s it. This one, no caption. Just drop the mic, hashtags.
We laugh if it is not funny. I see this all the time. Buy my thing. My thing comes in green. Holiday sale. Popup shop. I’m launching my thing. My thing, my thing, my thing. How many of us have paid for a cable channel just so that we can watch commercials all day. No, we don’t.
We “patiently” watch 8 minutes of commercials so that we can have 22 minutes of enjoyment, but if you’re anything like me, what’s happening in the commercials, you’re picking up your phone. Right, which is why you advertise on Facebook and Instagram.
Okay, so now that we know that these are indirect conversations, captions should be your golden opportunity to share who you are, what you sell, and why you do it. There are too many health professionals, there are too many bakers, there are too many marketers, there are too many Instagrammers who do what you do. What sets you apart? You. Your brand, your message, your identity. Who you’re attracting.
Now what I want you to do is show that off. Don’t talk about your product.
Talk about the benefits of your product, the investments of the product. Talk about the movie you went and last saw. I often encourage people all the time to, at minimum, once a month, at minimum, post a photo of yourself and an introduction on Instagram. And tacking to that to a bunch of digital marketers is like anathema, something many people vehemently dislike. What? Put my face on the internet? Yes. People want to connect with humans. They don’t want to buy stuff. They want to invest in people. And guess what, it’s even moving stronger in that direction as millennials become active buyers.
Captions are indirect business conversations to engage followers, not sales pitches. This is how it works. So, once they get to you, and they get to your bio. And then they read your indirect sales conversations, and they get to you. My question is this: in order for them to get to you, how are they finding you?
How Are People Finding You on Instagram? Get Creative with Hashtags!
Well, we all know hashtags work. We know that they’re highly, highly effective. But now let’s up level it. Because we’re not at an Instagram 101 class, we’re here to up level.
What I want you to do is get creative with your hashtags. The thing we always need to do is to surprise and delight perspective followers. So how do we surprise and delight people? Well our account, all of a sudden exists in a hashtag that they’re looking through, and they find and say, “My goodness, this is a thing I never knew I wanted, but yet now I realize I can’t live without.”
That’s surprise and delight, but you must be inserting your account into online conversations that are not pertaining to the same hashtags that everybody in this room is using. I want to ensure and encourage you to resist the temptation to be basic. Because if a lot of your Instagram hashtags are entrepreneur, business owner, business minded, marketing strategy, and then you wonder, why are only other digital marketers following me? Those are the hashtags we use too. If you want to get customers, you must go to your customers.
But this is the hard part. This is where the buck stops for so many of us. Because what we want to do, is we just want to sell. Our product’s awesome.
We just need to show our product more. But we have no idea how to do that.
What I want you to do is put yourself in the shoes of your dream customers, and this is hard and this takes time. But do not back away from it if you want to make sales. Are you marketing to men? Are you marketing to women? Are they 25? Are they 35? Are they 55? Do they live in a big city? Do they live
in a small town? What was their most recent YouTube search? Do they have physical subscriptions to magazines? If so, what is that? What are the top 5 websites that they are visiting? Do they have children? What kind of car do they drive? Where did they last go on vacation? Where do they like to shop?
Yes. That is the work you need to do, because suddenly you say, “Oh, I’m marketing to guys. And he’s 33 years old. And he lives in Minneapolis. And he likes basketball.” What hashtags is he looking at? He shops. Where do guys from Minneapolis who likes sports shop?
If you don’t know the answer, and that’s your dream customer, you need
better find out. Is it Sport Chalet, is it Dick’s?
And then you need to insert myself and create conversations around guys who are 33 years old in Minnesota who like basketball and who likes Dick’s Sporting Goods. I would create content that then pointed back to my business in that way. So what podcast does he listen to? How does she spend her free time? What books is he reading? Where does she shop?
Ask yourself these hard questions and then you are totally empowered to create content that points back to your business.
So if I was going to be marketing specifically to a guy, and I knew he listens to podcasts and he wants to start a business, but doesn’t yet have the confidence. So, he listens to perhaps the Tim Ferris podcast, and I can create content that focuses perhaps on taking my own spin on The 4-Hour Workweek. Or perhaps I’ve hired a new VA, 5 tips to hiring a virtual assistant, and you know that Tim’s book is all about virtual assistants. I can create content on Instagram. I can hashtag Tim Ferris. So, when somebody is on the Tim Ferris on the hashtag, and they don’t know about the content that I create, and they go, “Oh, what’s this?” Surprise and delight.
If I was a fitness professional, I do not presuppose that my dream client is on Instagram looking on the #sixpack. If I knew that she was 27 years old. She had just had a baby. She’s on maternity leave. And she just needs to get rid of that stubborn belly fat. I’d go and say, what is she doing? For somebody who’s not very active, where would they go? Maybe try a little bit of yoga. Who are the big yoga influencers? What hashtags are they
using? Oh #yogaeverydamnday. This is just average girls doing yoga in their apartments. I insert my helpful piece of information — here’s a PDF, here’s a video tutorial on postpartum yoga. I’m creating content to insert myself in social conversations to attract people who didn’t know that I was providing the thing that I am selling.
Ok, we have covered the first part of the interaction – number one they come
to you.
Step Two – Going to Your Customers
Now let’s chat about you going to them. Now you’re going go to them, but you’re going to go to them in a way that you don’t necessarily expect. To get sales on Instagram you need to create content. Lots and lots of content.
Now, this is the part of the conversation where people initially, pull back and they ruffle a little bit. I think that is because on this platform, because it is so highly and instinctually visual. You must create visuals that show what your business does.
If you cannot show what your business does, you’ll have a very hard time talking about what your business does. And if you do not talk about your business, nobody else will.
But Jasmine, what if I don’t have the money to invest? You don’t understand. I’m hustling. I’m doing all the things. I can’t just afford a photographer. You don’t get my woes. Okay to those people who are initially coming up with excuses that this is bubbling up, I got you.
Let’s talk about creating dream collaborations using Instagram direct messages. This is a reservoir that hasn’t been tapped. I feel like I was gold
mining in California, and I went back to Boston and I was like, “Ya’all there’s gold in them hills.”
And some of you guys are like “I just don’t know if I wanna do the work.” There’s gold in the hills. “Jasmine, I don’t have money.” Instagram direct message. “Jasmine, nobody knows who I am.” Instagram direct message. “Jasmine, I just need to get discovered.” Instagram direct message. “Jasmine, nobody takes me seriously.” Instagram direct message. “I wanna hustle Jasmine, I just don’t know how.” Instagram direct message.
This is the gift that you have been waiting for. This levels the playing field. And I don’t know if I can sing the same dang song next year. Promise you that. But right now, I am saying there is gold in them hills.
Now, I was going to include a video on how I use Instagram direct messages, how many students have been using direct messages (DM’s) and getting the most amazing results. You can watch the video here at jasminestar.com/dm. I also included swipe copy.
If you’re like “I don’t know what to say on DMs.” I got you covered, you’re gonna have three different options. No excuses. My daddy was marine, he always says “Excuses are like rear ends, everyone has one. Make it work.” That’s what I’m going tell you right now. Okay.
My idea and goal are that you find every reason to collaborate, to trade, to barter, to beg. I need you to create content that will drive your sales, period. You cannot get the sales that you want unless you are producing content.
For example, this is the thing that I always get, “But Jasmine, I’m a service provider.” Let’s use an example, if I was business coach, and I didn’t have the money to get the content that I needed to really grow an account on Instagram, if I was a business coach, I would reach out to not one, not two, I would reach out to 20 to 250 photographers in my neck of the woods. Kid you not. Because 99 people are going say no. But that one person will say yes, and it will change the course of your career.
I would send out 250 DMs to photographers and say, “Would you mind swapping a 1 hour business consulting session for a 1 hour photo shoot, and for you to give me 20 photos at the end of the shoot?” If I wanted to
collaborate with a copywriter because I don’t know how to create a lead magnet that’s going be effective, I’d say “Can I give you business coaching? And you could create a lead magnet for me. And then I go to Fiverr and I’d pay to have it designed.”
Listen, I am not recommending this as a way of life. I’m just coming to you right now and saying, if you have no money and you come at me with
excuses, I will come back at you and tell you that excuses are the reasons that people are not successful. But the people who are successful find reasons for their success. That’s just it.
If you guys want to be seen on Instagram, there’s no joke. It’s seriously simple. Just show up. That’s it.
Now I started this talk about how we make money. And there’s a secret to it that I am going to share right now. It’s trust. If you have no made money on Instagram, it’s because your tribe doesn’t trust you enough yet. And that’s hard to hear. Trust is the digital currency on Instagram. You want to grow a business on Instagram, you have to build trust.
And this is the point in the conversation where people say “I’m trustworthy. How do I do it? I do I gain trust?” You just show up. That’s it. You are un- relentless. You are in people’s feed when nobody is responding. You are
in people’s feed when you have two likes. You are going on Instagram live when only one person shows up. You are going to be inserting yourself in conversations and responding to DMs in a timely manner.
Nobody’s leaving comments on your account, you’re going to go on hashtags that you think your dream customer exists on, and you participate, and you participate, and you participate. You say, “World, I am here. I am ready to show up. My time is coming. Might not be now. But watch out. I’m putting
in the work. I’m putting in the time to build trust one-on-one conversations.”
Because that my friends, is what works on Instagram.
I have done a ton of research. It is what I do. I am passionate about this. Because the business owners who get the most sales on Instagram do one thing. They show up. They post regularly. They post consistently. And they post with purpose.
They know who they’re talking to and they lead with value. They create valuable content. They talk to their tribe. They don’t have unidirectional conversations. They say, “And you. Do you have advice? Where should I
go? What should I wear? What should the new logo be? Do you like these colors?” You bring people on board, so they feel like they have a voice in your business.
And they reiterate their brand message. Who are you about? Why do you wake up and do the thing you do? If you are not passionate about it, let me tell you one thing, life is short. If you are unhappy and then it’s time to do something else. Figure out what you want to do. And then use Instagram to go after the market, because it exists. Why? There’s gold in them hills.
People build trust. And you can only build trust if you are wildly passionate. So, when it comes time to ask for the sale, right, because this is the thing we want to do… “But, Jasmine I don’t want to do all this work.” Do all the dang work, ask for the sale, and because you’ve done all the heavy lifting, and because you’ve shown up, and because you’ve responded to them, it builds trust, and they buy in mass.
One thing, right now, you may be feeling good. Maybe you are hearing the Rocky song your head…dunt, dunt, dunt, dunt, dunt, dunt … “I’m gonna go out and I’m gonna slay.” Listen, before you think I’m talking trash—
because people come back to me “I tried what you said, and it didn’t work.” Instagram is not about the long game. Instagram is about the long, long, longest game of your freaking life.
Instagram is About the Long Game and Takes Time and Effort – But It’s Worth It
Before we move on, it’s time for a reality check…
Lydia writes: “Ouch. I’ve invested so much energy in my Instagram over the last 7 days to find my dream client. I have wrote a new bio. I’m posting twice daily. My feed is pretty. I’ve only gained 35 followers. My reach is down.
I went live and it was so depressing. Only 10 people showed up. Only 1 person asked a question. And then I quit. Oh boy, was that depressing. I hope this will gain momentum soon.”
Lydia, what you did in the last 7 days, you need to keep up for at least 7 months before you feel momentum, at least. I know it sounds depressing, but that’s the only way to carve out a niche. To become an authority and develop an audience.
Never forget one thing, Instagram is about the long game. You’re not here for popularity. You’re here for profitability. You’re building trust, and that takes time. Lots of time. Give yourself grace. Pat yourself on the back. Continue to show up. We’re rooting for you.
That’s what I tell you. That now you know what to do, and now you look at how steep that hill is. Now you are equipped to say, “I’m gonna walk. I’m gonna do this.” And if you don’t want to do that, fine. Good. Stop wasting your time.
Don’t feel good about, “Oh I posted like once in 2 weeks and nothing’s happened.” It won’t happen. It’s okay. Poor your time and energy in a platform where you think your customer exists. But let me tell you something. Instagram is the most engaging and fastest-growing platform on the current market. So, if you’re going to hedge your bets, I would definitely place the money here.
Do you want to make money on Instagram? I want you to prep your customers with your bio. I want you to use your captions as customer engagement. I want you to get creative with hashtags. I want you to create lots and lots of valuable content. I want you to be consistent. I want you to play the long game. And I want you to build trust. That IS it!