the bossbabe podcast - 212. How To Make Money On Instagram With 500 Followers

Episode Date: April 5, 2022

“I don’t have enough followers to make money on social media.” If you’ve ever said that sentence – this episode of The BossBabe Podcast is for you.  Make Money On Social Media As A Micro-Influencer We invited Kari Renaud and Bethany Olson – two of our Influencer School alumni – to share how they’ve hit major milestones in their businesses from Instagram. Think: things like making over $40k dollars, locking in brand deals + gaining recognition in their industries. All in under 12 weeks + with only about 500 followers each.  Yes, really. If you have a smaller following and want to figure out how to grow to the next level – while still making money in your business right now – you do not want to miss this! Highlights: How to grow your account on Instagram from ZERO.  Practical tips to overcome imposter syndrome + stop caring what your friends/family think. Why failure is essential + how to use it to your advantage.  What it really means to be an “Influencer” and what that means for your business. How to make money + lock in brand deals – regardless of your follower count. Links: The Influencer Masterclass Join bossbabe CEO, Natalie Ellis on a free, 90-minute training to gain full clarity on your personal brand, learn how to create easy, consistent content, build an audience of raving followers + generate revenue, without the stress. Done For You Viral Reels Take the guesswork out of what to post on social media with 30 days of done-for-you content. Your Personalized Instagram Audit Get BossBabe CEO, Natalie Ellis’s secret system so you can audit your own IG account, figure out what’s working + what’s not and take your account to the next level. Influencer School Reviews Influencer School Our 12-week, guided coaching and certification program designed to help you gain full clarity on your personal brand, learn how to create easy, consistent content, build an audience of engaged followers and create a full-time income from social media. Follow: BossBabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie Danielle Canty: @daniellecanty Kari Renaud: website + @lilydesign_studio Bethany Olson: @divinvesther

I had a lot of people in my world that would just love me into failure and so their fear around how I could fail in social media because they love me so much was stopping me from actually stepping into this actual passion that now I love and have so much fun on and have created a full community with and like found my people. A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own version of success. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, the place where we show you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, teaching performance and learning how to balance it all.

I'm Danielle Canty, your host for this week's episode and also the president of Boss Babe. Now, we love bringing you stories of billionaires, multiple millionaires, and what they've learned on their journeys. And we love bringing you stories from women just like you and me, building businesses, trying to figure it all out and do it all at the same time. And today is a really special podcast episode because I'm actually joined by Carrie Raynard and Bethany Olsen and they're actually students of our Influencer School Program. They were nominated for awards this year by their classmates and by the professors

because they really showed up and they took action on the things that we were teaching and have applied that to their business to not only understand how to monetize it but see new streams of revenue and as a byproduct of that they've gained confidence which I know first and foremost is one of the key things that I grew when I started showing them social media but I also recognize that's not always the case for everyone. It can be really, really difficult. So this interview is for you. If you've kind of been like, oh, do I go on social media? Don't I go on social media? And it's also for you if you know you really should be on social media, but there's just something standing in your way. They're going to tell their stories of exactly

what they overcame. I know you are absolutely going to love this episode. So when you do, please share it with us. Tag myself at Danielle Canty and also tag at bosswave.inc. And whilst you're there, let me ask a really quick favor. This podcast is about getting the word out to more women that they can do it and there are different ways they can build wealth. They can do it traveling, they can do it at home, they can do it while raising a family, all the things. So if you love this podcast, please just take a minute to share it on social media. I really appreciate that. And also subscribe. Subscribe so you don't miss episodes from the likes of Payal, the first colored woman to build a unicorn business in this decade, from women like Jamie Kahn Lima talking about confidence and why she was inspired to start

at cosmetics in the first place, and a whole host of incredible speakers that we've had on here. So subscribe, that's all you need to do, just hit the subscribe button and maybe just share it with a girlfriend that you know might be in need of this message too. Thank you and I hope you enjoy this episode. bethany carrie welcome to the boss babe podcast it's such an honor to have both of you here thank you for having us thanks nice to be here i'm really excited for both of you to share your journey on social media because you know the audience knows me well we have natalie on one hand who was straight onto social media, absolutely loved it as a platform, whereas I was really insecure about it. It took me a long, long time to even show my face on social media.

And I remember the first time doing a live, I was in and out before anyone could get on. One thing that I've realized in teaching social media and teaching content creation for the last few years is it's really the 80-20 rule. And I think 20% is skill set of showing up on social media, but really a big portion, that 80% is mindset. It's the mindset around the ability to put your face on there, to talk on there, to show up and do content even when you don't feel like it and really be consistent. So both of you are students of Influencer School and I'm really excited to dive into your journey around your mindset on deciding that social media was the right path for you and then how you went about it. So Bethany, let's start with you. What inspired you to be like, right, now is the time for me to show up on social media?

Yeah, thank you for asking that. So the main thing for me was it was something that I wanted to do for a really long time. And one of the things that like kind of pushed me was I just been talking about it, wanting to do wanting to do it. And then last year, I had a like, tragic event happen in my life. My brother took his own life and that was kind of just, and I'm going to get emotional today. I was kind of just like a wake up call to me that like I needed to stop living my life in a way that made other people happy and continue to live it in a way that like connected with like my heart and my peace in my mind and the things that I wanted to pursue and do.

And he was like my biggest cheerleader and supporter in all the businesses that I run. I'm a mom of two young kids and I run five businesses with my husband. And I always wanted to run some form of a social media account that shared the story of what I was already doing. But I just didn't know how to do that. some form of a social media account that shared the story of what I was already doing, but I just didn't know how to do that. And I had all this judgment around myself about social media and like that it was selfish of me to want to do that. And my brother's death really just showed me that like life is so short. Like I need to just go after the things and stop judging myself. And I had a lot of people in my world that would just love me into failure. And so their fear around how I could fail in social media because they love me so much was

stopping me from actually stepping into this actual passion that now I love and have so much fun on and have created a full community with and like found my people. Let's just focus on that a little bit more. That's kind of like loved into failure because I think this is actually a real challenge that a lot of people come up against when they're wanting to do something new. And I think this is like a social media challenge, but also like an entrepreneurial challenge when like you have maybe security of a job or you have security in what you're doing already. And then you're like, you know what? I want to do something a little bit different. And people around you love you and they don't want to see you fail. They don't want to see you like hurt or

disappointed. But I think this like concept of being like loved into failure is actually really real. So Bethany, do you want to share your interpretation about that? Yeah, I think it's, I mean, you're so dead on in the fact that like people just don't want to see you hurting ever. And when you jump into something new, you're not going't want to see you hurting ever. And when you jump into something new, you're not going to be good at it at first. And so you are going to fail, but it's that idea of like, let's constantly fail ourselves forward because you know, that's where the learning happens. That's where the journey is, is when we do fail and like, why is failure a bad thing? Failure is what actually propels us to the next step and where we're going to have

the growth, the mindset change, and all of that learning is going to happen right there. And so people are so wonderful. And I have wonderful people in my world who just are scared to step out because their mindset hasn't shifted yet, right? Their mindset is stuck in a place where they can't, they haven't grown into accepting that failure is just a part of life, right? All of us do it. You know, like my kid is 10 months old and learning to walk and he falls all the time and then just gets right back up and acts like nothing is a problem because nobody has told him

and his programming isn't that he shouldn't or he should be ashamed or should be embarrassed by it. His programming is that, oh, I fell, let me just do this again. Let me try again. And so we have this programming in us that tells us that something hurts or there's a pain point in our world. So let's stop. When you push forward and you push through that, that's where the change happens and your mindset is expanded and great things happen past that pain point.

I could not agree more. And I love the child learning to walk analogy because it's so true. Like when a child falls over or toddler falls over, you're like, oh, don't try, you know, don't get up back up again. You fell a couple of times, right? No, you can do it. And I think that's definitely something that we lose sometimes if we're not surrounded by the right people and we'll come to community later on in this call. But I do think that's really powerful is like when you are doing something new, it's really important to surround yourself with people who get it and are not like, oh, you fell down, like give up now. It's like, oh yeah, that's part of the learning curve.

Jump right in. Like you had that social post. Absolutely flop. No worries. Like we've got you like post again. We'll come and cheer you on. And Bethany, I know you have stories around that in a minute, but before we get to that, I want to talk a little bit about where you were at in your businesses. Cause you were actually very similar

to me because I'd grown a bit brick and mortar businesses and I never really harnessed the potential of social media until I wanted to go online. And that was because I didn't want to be confined to a set place at a set time. Like I wanted location independent.. And that was because I didn't want to be confined to a set place at a set time. Like I wanted location independent. And so that's where I came at it and was like, okay, well, how can I grow or how can I change industries? And yours is similar in the sense that you have businesses already. They were doing great without social media, but what were you struggling with that made you realize, oh, I need to be on social media? Yeah, it was this,

like, so my husband and I run multiple businesses and they all kind of work together. But the problem came from so many people are on social media all the time that other people were telling their story. And I was losing out business. I was losing out on business because I wasn't telling my story. And so it became this issue. And I struggle to say issue. It more became this awareness because the business came. And I have a big abundance mindset that the business is going to come when I need the business.

But it became an awareness mindset of there's an opportunity here to share more about what I'm already doing in order to bring credibility to what I'm doing, right? Because if people don't know what you're doing, how are you credible for it? If you're not saying this is what I do, like I am a realtor, I flip homes, I invest, I have a credible investment portfolio, then how will they know that you're the person to talk to about that? And so it's like, I'm this quiet person over here just talking with this small group of people and realize that I can make a bigger influence on the world and the people around me if I'm more vocal about it. And so I saw the power and the tool that social media was and was like, okay, I have to do

this. And I have to, like,'m a busy, I'm a busy mom and a busy business woman. And I need to find somebody else who's already done it. Success leaves clues, right? Like who has been successful, who's led the way and just plug into the system that they've already created instead of like making my own wheel out of Play-Doh that's going to fail. I love that. So let's talk about that. So you were, okay, I want to post on social media, but what was your feelings at that point? You were already saying like success leaves clues. So did you instantly look for mentors to support you? Or were you like, oh, I'll try this on my own. And then I was like, oh, actually this is really hard on me. Like talk to us through that.

So I did not want to waste my time. Like I, I say this all the time, like on my Instagram page is like your, um, DIY, your ROI. And because I do DIY and I'm looking at my return on my investment. And so I knew that I needed to like, in my DIY world, I go find YouTube videos, all of the things that intake all the information. And I knew that social media, there is like 30 million different ways you could do it. So I went and found the accounts that I liked, that I was like, I see what they're doing. I see their success rate. And I went and honestly, that was the first time I had found you guys. I hadn't even heard of Boss Babes before. And then I was like, wait, this is fun. Oh, I love this community. Oh, I love what they're doing. And I took your master, your guys' master class. And Natalie, I was like blown away by just the giving abundant attitude of just like what

she was sharing. And I was like, boom, that's it. Like I had taken a couple other master classes and it just, it felt more like a bait and switch type of an idea. And that's not what you guys were, right? Like you can tell when something's going to bait and switch you, but you guys were like nailed it with the type of content you were offering and you weren't holding back. You were like, Hey, you're going to have to do the work. You're going to have to show up. You're going to have to. And that, that type of realness of like, I knew it was going to be hard work and I knew it was going to be this, but I needed to find people who were going to be honest about what we were looking for and, or like what I was going to have to do and had proven methods that work

because I didn't have time to waste my time. I could not agree more with not having time to waste your time. And that's why like, yeah, you're right. Our masterclasses, we always make sure this is the type of thing that we go through in-house. We're like, right. Are they no fluff? And are they no BS? Like we don't mean wasting anyone's time. And if you come to our free trainings, you are going to have a notepad full of notes before you leave, because we really, the main thing that Boss Paper is here to do is to help and empower women to build their wealth. And we know that we can, we live in abundance. And we're like, look, these tools are not just for us. Go and use them and apply them. And we also recognize, like you said, that it really does take work. So this whole conversation is around, look, there are all these skills.

We can teach you formulas to create virality. We can teach you formulas which are going to have call to actions on the end and get someone to take action on the thing that they're reading and to go and follow your business or to sign up on your business, right? In some ways, that's the easy part. The biggest challenge is actually getting someone to have the confidence and to be able to post and post again when their last post failed and to learn from it. And I really want you to share, Bethany, a little bit

about your attitude around that, because I noticed this with you. First of all, in our cohort that's just gone through with Influencer School, you were voted almost like the biggest cheerleader to everybody else. Like you showed up and you were supporting everyone. And I want you to share why, like what was important about Influencer School regarding to the support that gave you to your mindset? Like what did you get from that? Yeah, I just knew like going into it that in order for me to be successful,

I had to 100% commit. Like it is a financial commitment to do this. And so to get the ROI that I wanted for my investment, I had to 100% pour myself into the course and what I was doing. And I knew that in order to not surround myself with people that would like love me into failure, I had to create a community around people

that understood and knew what was happening. And so through our like boss babes group, I just started going through and finding people that were like-minded that had businesses already that were like their, their intent was to create, like already tell the story of what they were already doing as well. And so then we could collaborate together, cheer each other on and just really like love on each other because there's so much like my, one of my number one values in life is fun. And so if things aren't fun, I'm not going to do it, but I can make anything fun. And so this was one of my ways of making it fun so that I would do it was by finding other people who also like want the encouragement, who want that back and forth, who want the collaboration,

because you can feel like your own little island on social media, right? Like you're just like posting and like hoping people will like it and like trying to figure it out. And there's a whole algorithm and then there's like 30 days of content and then there's the best time to post. And then there's this and then this and this and it can become so overwhelming. And so then having the people to be like, oh my gosh, I don't know what I'm doing over here.

And then to say like, girl, you are killing it. This is what you're doing. And for me to be able to be that encourager and seeing, and then like, Hey, I see that you did this. You were totally on brand and on message. That was an amazing post. Like, and be that person for other people as well was really important to me. Do you want to share the story about the time that you posted and it didn't do very well at all? Because honestly, I feel like we all have this fear of being rejected. And I think social media really puts that out there. And one thing I've learned on my journey as being an entrepreneur is when you own stuff,

it actually becomes easier to deal with. When I was pretending I was confident enough to go on social media, actually, that was harder to overcome than when I was like, oh, I'm not really feeling confident enough. And then I was like, oh, I'm not really feeling confident enough. And then I was like, oh, now I can go and address this. Now I can understand how do I become confident. And I think sometimes like owning the fear, okay, I'm scared of putting this content out there

because I'm scared that no one's going to like it or it's going to be like, I'm going to post it and there's going to be like some tumbleweed that goes by because no one is actually commenting on it. So do you want to share your experience with what happened? Yeah. So I posted and I like, it flopped. It just like, and I had spent so much time and so much energy and so much like mental

capacity on this like piece of content and was like so excited. And then it got like, I don't know, maybe a hundred views. And I went and like posted in my chat group and I was like, oh my gosh, you guys, like I did terrible. This totally flopped. And they were just like so encouraging and like, it's okay. It happens to all of us post again, get back up on the horse, like just like totally pulling and loving on me. And then I was like, this is not what I asked them to do. They like went to the post and they just like blew it up. And now it has like, I think over like 1500 views, which isn't like amazing, but it's better than the hundred it had in a whole

day. Um, and they like shared it and commented and they like, like privately were like, Hey, this is so on brand. And like, remember, like use this as your data to remind you that like, you probably just don't have the right people in front of you right now, because this is on brand with what you're trying to create here. So continuing to go out there and find the people that need to be seeing your content and like, not like reminding me not to wrap up my worth in what I was doing. And so that can be so hard because you, yeah. Don't wrap up your worth in social media. I think that is like such a key point that so many people really struggle to differentiate. And I remember when we were also doing Influencer School and you

were sharing and we were talking about this, like when you're posting to grow a business, like a lot of people, two main reasons people are coming into influencer school. And that's either because they want to be growing their business pages and their brand pages, or they want to be growing their personal pages, but ultimately they want to be growing and monetizing it to earn more money, to create freedom, to recreate social freedom or money freedom, like whatever that is. And we were talking and I remember you like saying, well, you know, how can I get emotional about a business post? Like I don't get emotional about my business. So it's really interesting when

I'm getting emotional about my social media posts for my business. Do you think like, what are the things that you've done to overcome that? So that when you post, like it's not a wounding or it'sing or you're not always taking it to heart? Yeah, I think you guys were the biggest help with that because I didn't know how to win at social media. I'm an Enneagram 3. I want to win at everything. I want to achieve at a high, high level. And I know you are too.

I relate. high, high level. And so, and I know you are too. And so when you don't know how to win, you're constantly frustrated. And this like is true in the workplace too. If my employees don't know how to win with me, they're going to be unsatisfied with their careers and their jobs. However, when I figured out like through the systems that you guys gave us, like how do I win at social media? Okay. When my real flops, now I understand the data points that I can now adjust and make changes to micro or major changes, right? Like micro or macro, whatever it is in order to win. And so then it became less of this emotional about me thing and more about, okay, this is what the numbers are telling me. And

here's what I can do moving forward so that I can continue to fail forward. Failing forward is always the key. And like, that's the thing. So these are some of the things that like really helped me understand what I've seen in the community. It's like, if you post every day, so seven days a week, you have seven chances of success versus once a week or twice a week, where then you only have like, you know, or three times, like half the chances of success. And the second thing that you just spoke about is like, every

time you post, you get to learn. Like there's so many big influences that we look up to is actually just listening to a podcast with Mr. Beast, who's like the biggest YouTuber. And he was saying like how many things that he did in the early days that didn't do well and that he utilized those to learn and adapt. And I think like that is the biggest thing with overcoming fears around posting on social media is to take the personal, a lot of it, like a lot of us see it as like a personal extension of us. And so we see it as a fear, like a rejection. If something doesn't blow up, if something doesn't get the views and it's actually not, it's just that that piece of content for that snippet of time that was posted didn't actually

relate to, like you said, the audience who are following you. And I think when you get to remove your personality and who you are from your social posts, that's when it's really freeing to go, do you know what? I'm going to post so many more times. Like if that's a priority for you and your business as well, I will say that. I'm going to post so many more times to really move the needle on this piece of, on my social platform, because I know it's important for my business and I want to grow it, but I'm not going to be upset if something doesn't do well I'm not going to be hurt or take that personally because it's not a reflection of my personality or who I am it's just a reflection of the content let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform Kajabi you know I've been singing their praises lately

because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity which I love not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible.

I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial go to kajabi.com slash Boss Babe to claim your 30-day free trial that's kajabi.com slash Boss Babe what were some of the biggest things the mindset shifts that you achieve from being in influencer school Bethany like what was like one thing that you thought coming in and how has that changed now? Okay. So, um, one of the biggest things I didn't tell anyone I was taking, well, okay. I told two people I was taking influencer school because I had this whole mindset around the word influencer, right? Because there's like this whole viewpoint when you hear, or you're like, oh, there's an influencer, influencers in the wild or like whatever it is, like there's everyone comes up

with a judgment, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, because we judge everything. And so like I had this judgment that wanting to be an influencer was like a selfish thing. And like through the mindset of like, like freshman, sophomore, freshman year, where it was like all on mindset. And it was like, and I do a ton of mindset work in my business. And so like, this was nothing new for me. However, like when you are constantly learning, it doesn't matter if it's new or not, you can still get something out of it. And so like really digging into it and being like, well, what is my big why behind what I'm doing? Like, what is my goal and how am I going to achieve that? And it's like, came to this like mindset shift of like, influence is just impact,

influence is leadership. And like, I am already doing those things. And that is like, what I feel called to do is to impact the world, whether it's my tiny world of my like two little humans I'm raising or my business world or the people around me, like I feel called to impact that world. And like, like I think it's John Maxwell says, like leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. And so why am I putting something so around it about what it means to influence? And once I got through that mind block, it was like, boom, flood, like everything came. It was like, I stopped judging myself about what I was posting. I stopped caring what my hair looked like. I stopped caring what my

makeup looked like. Obviously I had a brand that I wanted to create here, but it became less about me feeling like everyone was judging me and more me being able to enjoy the creation of the content that I was making and the people I was interacting with and the friendships I was making through social media, because that's what it is, right? Like it's a social platform. And so you're like socializing with people. It's just the way that you're doing it. Isn't like at a networking event where you're all having wine, it's through the internet. And that's such a cool thing. And so like changing that mindset really helped me to move myself forward and actually get into the numbers, get into the data, understand it and

not judge myself for all of these things that were ridiculous. Like that was so silly of me. I love this conversation. And I know so many people listening to this will be like nodding their heads right now because you just reflected back to me exactly how I used to think. And I was like, wait, I love meeting new people. And generally I'm like really like, I'm good at meeting new people. I can hold good conversations. Why am I being so weird on social media? Like, why am I like doing things on social media that I wouldn't do in real life? And I think that's really powerful to get over. Like sometimes when people want to like sell on social media and they just come out the gate, like going straight out, like selling something. I'm like, look, if you were like meeting some of the first time, you're not going to be coming out and selling

them. Like we don't apply it to normal life and we wouldn't get upset. Let's say if someone like didn't like as a normal life, that happens all the time. And it's just like this realization that, you know, social media is definitely an extension of like behaviors that happen in person and then they're like emphasized and blown up to the extremes a little bit more but it's just that realization that you know what you can be yourself in social media people I think there's also like if if you try and get everyone to like you no one will like you in a way and it's okay like I'm okay if people don't find my content, the content that they want to see, because that's cool because other people will love this type of content. And I think just

empowering yourself to be you on social media is just such a key thing. And I'm so glad that you just said those points around like working on mindset and doing these pieces and just recognizing that and that it's always a continue. It's like always a continuous process. Like it's something that's always going to happen. And whilst we're on that subject, Carrie, I want to come to you with regards to your mindset when you first started Influencer School, because this is like one of my favorite stories, because when you first joined Influencer School, you came to us asking for a refund and you were outside of that.

So the team were like, like no give it a chance and just talk us through that story like where was your mindset when you came into um Influencer School my mindset when I first joined up I was excited and I had been following Boss Dave for a while and I really connected um because my you know I didn't, I haven't really ever gotten into Facebook or anything. I didn't feel like Facebook was my social media platform for my business. Uh, but when Instagram came along, I thought this is the perfect thing. It's such a visual platform. Um, it really spoke to me.

And then following Boss Dave, uh, I just loved it. I love the content. You guys work, your brand is consistent. You speak to women entrepreneurs, which is very important to me. So, um, I do, I run a successful landscape design company. So I thought, okay, here I go. I'm going to sign up for this influencer school and, uh, dive in. I'm going to learn everything I need to know about how to do this thing. Because up until then I was, you know, just posting randomly. And so I went through the first freshman year and it was a lot of content about mindset and finding your passion

and all these, a lot of business building exercises, which is great. And I realize you have to speak to a lot of different people. But for me, I've had a business for quite a long time. So I was really hoping for the nuts and the bolts, like, how am I going to, how do they do this? So in freshman year, it's touched upon a little bit, but it's, it's definitely more theoretical. And so I was getting a bit frustrated and I did. Thankfully, I was one week late and I think it is a 30-day policy. And they respectfully said no. And I said, okay, so here we go.

Because as Bethany did talk about ROI, I also as a business owner, like, okay, I'm in and so I gotta I have to shift my mindset now and to just I'm gonna do it and get everything out of it that I can that's where I kind of came at that's how I started I love that though but also I just want to like highlight to you and reflect back to you like how good that you're just like you know what I've paid for this I'm gonna make the most of this I'm gonna make sure I get my ROI I came in for a reason and I going to make the most of this. I'm going to make sure I get my ROI. I came in for a reason and I want to make sure I, you know, get the return on that. So like you said, you had business for a long time in the landscaping industry. What was it that you were looking for for social media to support you on? Um, you know, I really was, I originally thought it would just be an on more of an online portfolio where it's more of an up to date and how to do, um, how to show off my business.

But as well, I wanted to grow my business, um, again, from my physical location, because I do do work, um, all over now internationally and things. But so to grow that reach as well, because that's all, it's a fun component of it. And then I wanted to monetize as well, because I know that I'm the landscape design business. It could be more like an interior design business where you reach out into different platforms, even though it's a little bit younger in terms of that. So education for my, for more people on what exactly landscape design is. And those, those are my growth targets anyways. And what were your blocks up until that point? Was it like not really being sure like how to do it, like the formulas around creating content, like what was really like standing in your way

previously uh my blocks were myself I was my own limiting belief um for a couple reasons that I am very I want it to be perfect I want it I spend a lot of time in in my design world making things perfect and so it was it's so limiting to to post something and wonder if it's exactly. So you just, you work on it, work on it. And all of a sudden a week goes by and it's still not posted. So I was my own limiting beliefs as well. I'm not typically, I am great as well at meeting clients and talking with them one-on-one or, you know, maybe a smaller group, but putting myself out there on social media,

I was having a fear of, you know, doing a video and talking to myself. And would anybody listen to what I had to say? Those types of things. Those were my two biggest stumbling blocks into how, and also like how to do these things. I saw all these cool things on Instagram and I'm like okay well I'm pretty limited in terms of my technology and capabilities if you will I'm 48 so when I went to school back in the day like 25 years ago the internet wasn't even

around it didn't exist so but I realized this is where it's going and it's fun and it and it can be social so I think I've worked myself through the influencer school like the the student lounge was amazing because I I wasn't actively posting but I was actively reading um just because of time constraints and things like that. And so it, it did shift my mind on how social media can be social and it doesn't have to just be, you know, putting things out there. So, so yeah. Isn't that a thing there as well? Because I, social media gets such a bad rap and i think that it can be and if used incorrectly it can be like really toxic and you get like trolls and hear that side of the story and i

just released a podcast with amy actually thanks to his one of our professors in infancy school talking about that side of it but what's really powerful is like for me like social media has brought so many amazing women into my life. So like just sitting here with both of you and I know that like Bethany, you particularly have made so many friends within Influencer School. Carrie, I can't speak for you. But that's my understanding. Like we've created like this community.

Like we have our calls twice a week. Everyone's there with their cameras on. Everyone's supporting. And it's like nice to have like women who are the similar growth mindset like they want to be there to not only like learn and grow um personally but professionally as well like okay well how can i become better at social media what is the mindset that i can utilize and then also the other aspect of it which is like that support system like the people who get it, who you're like, hang on a minute, Carrie, I know for you, video is really intimidating.

And then you're like, oh, you can ask questions to people who are doing that part of it. Like what the technical questions on this, but then also like, okay, I'm having this, I posted this, I feel really shitty that this didn't do very well. No one else in my family is going to get it because they're not utilizing all social media like I am and then you've got loads of people are like oh I get it don't worry you've got this you can do this and and that's like the really powerful thing about social media like you know we wouldn't have been able to even bring influence to school together if it wasn't for social media so I don't know I just want to always want to reflect that to myself in some ways like I'm so grateful for this medium and this platform. So with you, Carrie, like I would love for you to share a little bit about how, like,

obviously you had an amazing business prior to coming into influencer school, but what has that actually meant for your business? Like on the ground, like what's happened with your engagements and studying and since learning and, you know, what, what is that? Where do you see this supporting you in your business growth? You know,

it has, if you were to look at just the hard numbers, you know, you would just see small little growths. However, when you look at the percentages and the insights, I mean, that that's another hard nuts and bolts type of thing that you, that Boss Bay teaches is how to use the insights and what they mean and how to go back and

kind of categorize all of that and use it effectively in the future. So I have grown my followers, I think like a hundred, my reach has grown 105 percent in a short in the three month time frame so um now I have over I have like 550 followers now and to me the most important thing is like the quality of the followers that I have is um you know it's not just friends and family anymore and it's really specific to who I want to reach and what I want to say um and then my engagement rate is way up I think right now it's like 60 percent just because um I've learned how to engage people with you know it was before I was just kind of putting like a one-way conversation out there and now I've learned that it's it is the two-way communication, the algorithm and how that works and what Instagram is wanting you to do.

And so knowing how you get the best out of it is really impactful. And so it does happen. You guys do teach that. You're just waiting until we figure it all out. Yeah, we make you. I feel like it's like that um gym tour that you have to do you know when you're going to the gym and they make you like show you all the equipment you're like but I know this I've been to the gym before like just let me get on

with it I just want to hear it's like train and then you're like oh no I did need to learn about that piece of equipment a little bit different and I've probably been using it a little bit incorrectly or actually now I know how to use the second app I didn't know that piece of equipment existed and now I can add that in and I think that's one thing that we do teach as well as like the insights and leveraging the insights that Instagram gives you do you think that affects your mindset and your confidence carry like being able to like look those things up and be like see those like because actually like you say you could look at it and be like oh followers like where has that gone but on a percentage wise and if you keep going like you're like wow I've got I've done a hundred percent better like double where is that yeah

so I'm curious how you've leveraged that to help you with your mindset and like how does that keep you going like how does that prevent like made it like less likely of you to give up? Absolutely. My confidence has increased a hundred percent for sure on, um, on social. I think part of it is, um, I also had like a limiting belief that I needed to do videos of myself talking and things. And so that was one of, um, some of the, uh, that was some of the homework that we had to do was, you know, find our competitors and, um, see what they were doing and see if that was working and their posts and everything. And I, and I did that and I, um, it made me more confident knowing that I didn't need to be, you know, having selfies and videos of myself because my brand is, is my business and my work

to show my work. So that, that helped just to steer me in the right direction. Um, I, I do, I've also become, I've gotten a couple of brand deals now with, um, two different companies that are related to my business. So that to me, that is, uh, absolutely worth it it and that's where i'm going with it very specific um brands that um want to work with me as well so i love that that's so cool because like you say there's different ways like we teach this there's different ways to monetize your account it can be like for selling your own product and obviously i know for both of you your accounts are very aesthetically pleasing because of the industries that you're in. And it's very much not necessarily about you as people, but the work that you are doing.

And you can then also sell the businesses that you already have. And then also, I guess this has opened up a brand new revenue stream for you, Carrie, with the partnerships. That wasn't something you were doing before, right? Exactly. And I wouldn't have known how to do it either. Again, I've seen influencers on social media and that they are showing products and things that I would have, I had no idea how to even go about it. I actually, I use the Boss Babe media pitch template

and I refashion that. Yeah, I should send it to you guys because I'm very proud of it. And I've sent that off. That has been my little marketing tool. So it's good. Oh my God. This makes me so happy.

I'm like grilling like a Cheshire cat over here. This is like the most fun conversation because also like you say, like, I mean, we just give you the templates, but also there's like this myth that people are like, oh, I have to have like hundreds of thousands of followers to do brand partnerships. But really like, that's not, obviously thousands of followers to do brand partnerships, but really

like that's not, obviously some brands want to do that, but also a lot of brands are seeing the needle moved with people under 10,000 followers. Like they are, have such core strong audiences and you know, like you're saying, Carrie 550 and you're getting brand partnerships and, um, Bethany, like what are your results that you've seen and how has that impacted your business yeah so the the biggest like tangible result that i can say is like we um through that we've um like grossed over forty thousand dollars worth through business wait well hang on from doing infamous school which like what, 2K if you're doing our like 12 weeks with us, you've made already, because it's only just finished. It's like

literally we've done 12 weeks with you guys. I think maybe a couple of extra weeks because we have the Christmas break. And that's resulted directly in 40,000 worth of revenue. Yeah. And it's honestly the crazy part is that it was like people I already knew, but like hadn't connected with a while because we're living in like a pandemic world and this weird like situations where you're not seeing people all regularly. And then as I like started telling my story more on social media about what I'm doing, people were like, wait, I want to do that too. How can I do that? Can you help me buy investment properties? Can you help me figure out the ROI on these numbers? Can you help me create passive income for myself?

And I was like, heck yeah, let's do it. And moving forward toward that, which, you know, selling homes creates money for me, helping people do that. But really, it's that impact that I get to make. And I started a brand new account at the beginning of influencer school. And I have grown that. I think I'm at like 570 today, 575, somewhere in there. And one of the big mindset, as Carrie was talking, that I realized, like one of the big mindset shifts that I had was like when it became, like I was kind of offended by some of the family and friends that didn't come over to that account.

Right. And I was like, why aren't you supporting me? And then realizing like that mindset shift of like, that's OK that they're not supporting me. Like this might not be their jam. They might not be in a place where they want to hear that type of content. And they're curating their social media feed to be what fills them. And I want to get myself in front of the people that this type of information like be what fills them. And I want to get myself in front of the people that this type of information like is what fills them. So like, thanks for bringing that up, Carrie. Cause that was, yeah. I love that because that's a really powerful reflection

because sometimes we interpret it as like, we want permission from people. We want permission them following us or supporting us means that we can do it. And I think often when we want permission or we want empowerment from other people, we're giving away our own power. And I love that you took that back for yourself. You're like, no, I don't need them to follow me to know that I can do this. I don't need that piece of support, which they probably like support you in other ways too. It doesn't mean that I'm supportive. Maybe they just didn't even see it.

And I think it's just like that you guys have just empowered yourselves so much to do this, but it was like, Carrie, like, I'm okay. I'm going to do this. Like you said that I'm going to do this now. Like, let's go. And I think that's just really, really powerful to recognize how we can own our own power and how we can make decisions to do the things and surround ourselves with people who support us on that journey. They're not doing it for us, but they're supporting us. They're giving us advice and cheering us on when it really counts. Because I do think entrepreneurship can be a little bit of a lonely road sometimes. you know, like the buck stops with us and all of our businesses and that can be really hard. And you have to put yourself out there and do some things that are new as can be really challenging.

But I think that's the mindset of entrepreneurs too. Like we always want to innovate, but the key thing for me as well, and what I'm taking away from this call is like, one, how you can overcome fear, but also like social media works for anyone and everyone. Like it doesn't really matter. Like you both are from different industries and you've made this work. And I think that's really, really powerful to recognize like how much you have leveraged

this opportunity in different ways to Aida, different ways to Nassi has, different ways to BossFame. And it's added direct ROI to you and your businesses. So I think that's really powerful. And I'm just so thankful for you both coming on and sharing your stories here. I would love for you to just share one last thing. If you could say, what is one piece of advice you would give everyone who's on the fence about doing influence to school or growing on social media. Um, I would love to

hear that. Bethany, do you want to go first? Yeah. Um, I mean, throwing us curve ball here. Uh, I would say like, I think if you're going to do it, like you have to commit and know that it's hard work. There's not an easy button for pretty much anything in life. And so if you're out there searching for an easy button in social media and how to grow your business, this probably isn't it. But if you're like ready to like change your world and change your life through the way that you interact in social media and the way that you show up on social media, because even the way I take in content now is completely different.

And you have had a desire like to do it. Like, I mean, again, life is so short and like, don't allow, like, don't wait for a tragedy to happen in your life to make a change and do the thing that you want to do. Like let my tragedy and my like sad situation be the catalyst for you because you can like one, one decisions can change your life and allow that to happen through social media. If that is the medium that you're wanting to go, just dive in and like, think about what is it that is holding me back and then push through and make the decision to move forward. I'm sure you can agree. This was an absolutely amazing interview. And if you want to follow Bethany or Carrie, you can agree this is an absolutely amazing interview and if you want to follow Bethany or Carrie you can definitely find their handles in the description notes

Bethany's is at DIY invest her and Carrie's is at lilydesign underscore studio if you are someone who is relating to a lot of the conversations that we had in the podcast today and you want to go on social media, but you're not really sure how, you're not really sure whether it is going to be right for you, or maybe you realize you won't, but mindset they are no fluff, no BS. And we really encourage you to come because then you can make an informed decision whether growing and monetizing your social media is the right action step for you. So the links are in the description to attend a free masterclass. No strings attached. Come along. Natalie is teaching a phenomenal 90-minute training where you are going to make a ton of notes so go to the description now and we'll see you

if you enjoyed this episode we would love it if you subscribed and left us a review let us know what you enjoyed what your main takeaways were and who you'd like to see appear on the show as a special thanks we'll send you a copy of our Boss Babe 25. Now this is an awesome resource. It's the 25 essential things that you need for personal and professional growth. We've included everything from must-have products to books to rituals. This guide literally covers it all and I know you're going to love it so if you want your copy