How to Be an Influence in Business

Jenny actually has an awesome podcast and so we've chatted before, but let me tell you a little bit about her. She's a former reading specialist who and I say this loosely, like retired because she's super young. From her teaching career and when her blog, teen income really started to exceed her salary. And so yes, like you can do your passion and make more of an income based on what you didn't go to school for because I've ended up in that exact same boat. And so through lots of hard work and dedication, her lifestyle blog, which we'll talk about that later, you guys will have to check it out. It's called the male rose family. It's awesome. It really became regularly sought out by nationally recognized brands and I'm not talking just like brands that you haven't heard of like Neutrogena, smuckers glad Costco, Stanley Steamer Sara Lee and like a ton more. And like I actually know all those brands, which I live in a rock sometimes so it's just A lot. But she's a content strategist. And she helps other entrepreneurs better understand their messaging, and unique positioning in the online space, which by the way, y'all I'm still learning that it's like you got to focus and have one message or you just confuse the consumer. And like, that's been my whole business career. So I totally appreciate that. But now she's combining her passion for teaching. With her extensive experience in creating strategic content for online business owners. You can like check it all out, Jenny melrose.com. We'll put it in the show notes. And she and again, she has a podcast influencer entrepreneurs with Ginny Boras. And so she's also an author, influencer entrepreneurs, the four step framework to building your audience growing your business and making more money online. Again, you guys, she was a teacher. So if you're thinking of completely like banning your nine to five, don't think of it that way. Think of it as using your experience to elaborate on something more. And that's what Jenny's done. So Jenny, welcome
to the show today.
Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to talk to you, Angela.
Yay. I'm
excited to just catch up on things. And so first before I know all this, but before we dive in, and for listeners who have never listened to your podcast, or been on your blog before, take us down that road, that journey of how the heck Have you gotten to where you are today? Of course, so I started the Melrose family, when I had a six month old, I had lost kind of myself as a new mother. And I needed a creative outlet. I just needed something that was my own and made me feel like I was back to my normal self. So that was back in 2009 is when I started it. I had it for 10 years, it created quick and easy recipes and projects for busy parents. I was a full time teacher at the time in the inner city. And I was a reading specialist. So it was always interesting. I teaching and getting I always tell people, you know, whenever I speak in front of people, I say, just don't feel like you can't ask questions, because I'm used to dodging chairs. Um, I was very much doubting my gosh, yeah. And you just kept on deep. So I loved my kids, and I loved what I did. But it just got to be to a point where they changed the teaching and distri. And there's so many more requirements and expectations. And I just started to feel like I wasn't making a difference in these kids lives anymore, because we were just set up to lose. And I realized that will this side hustle that I've been doing, it's starting to make a decent income coming in. What if I really started to like push, especially over the summers when I was home, I'm trying to figure out how I could truly, truly monetize it. And the way in which I did that was working with sponsors. I was never a huge blogger, I never had 10, even 10,000 I didn't even have 10,000 followers on Instagram. And I had less than 200,000 pageviews. But I had an audience setting gauged with me. And I knew my audience. So I could pitch that to brands to show them how my audience would be the perfect fit for their product. And I was able to put together a strategy that worked well in getting these contracts with local businesses, as well as national brands. So from which is amazing.
Amazing, thank you.
Um, it was definitely a process, but it was something that we were able to do. And once I was able to replace that teacher salary, we decided that I was going to retire. I was 35 at the time on and I came we actually moved from New York down to North Carolina. And I was starting to get asked by a lot of bloggers How did you do it? How did you replace it? How did you make sponsorships work for you. And that's when I started Jenny Morris calm because I was getting asked so often about how to do it that I created my signature course Pitch Perfect pro which teaches the entire process and then just started falling in love with the coaching side of things. And I sold my lifestyle site for six figures back in 2019. So I had it for 10 years and sold it and now I just focus on the coaching side of my business. That's amazing that you like how did when you sold it? Was that your mindset and your intention when you which I know it wasn't because like you said it was just an outlet for you to like feel human rather than just like tending to a six month old but how is that as a woman who started something and grew it like Are you like hell? Yeah, I'm selling this, are you kind of like,
Oh my gosh, this
is my baby and I'm going to sell it like, how was that relationship? It was a little bit of both because at that point, I was doing a lifestyle site. And I was doing my coaching business and my coaching business was exploding because, of course, that it was taking so much of my time that I felt like I was ignoring the Melrose family lifestyle site, I had a team that was working on it, but my hands weren't in it. And that site had been so much of me and my family, that, yes, it absolutely felt like my baby, but I felt like I was neglecting it. So we decided to accidentally time to sell it. And during the process, I was all gung ho. And then probably a week before we closed on the sale of it. And I had told her in the beginning that I wanted to take all the pictures down to my girls, and she was great. She was also a mother that bought the site and said, Absolutely, of course. And I went to go do it. And I couldn't. It was 10 years of like the journey of my family and my kids and seeing them as babies making recipes with me. There were pictures of me like standing on top of a table with a newborn in one of those swaddle things on as I shot standing over the food. Um, it was just it was so much my life that I couldn't do it. So yes, it was a bit of both. Leave them up. I did leave them I couldn't take them down.
And she was very well, I
think that's good.
Yes. Yeah. Awesome. That's awesome. So like for people who are either new at building an audience, which there's a difference between an audience and a target audience? What can you tell them about where to start? And if you have an audience, but it's not really targeted, and it's not your audience that's going to listen to you and it's not going to convert? What would you say to people about that? Yeah, I would say the first thing, even before you go into the audience, you need to figure out what is the problem that you are going to solve for people? Because that answer is going to then matter who the audience is. For me, at the motors family, I created quick and easy recipes and products, so parents could have time to give back with their kids to create special moments. So my target audience became obviously a lot of majority of them were moms. And I wanted someone that was busy, that needed to do things quickly, wasn't looking for gourmet meals wanted something simple to be able to put on the table, and would love the stories that kind of went along with it. Um, so when you're creating that audience and thinking about, who am I trying to reach with this, it often I always tell people, it's create kind of like an avatar. And I know the word sounds funny, because you think of like Disney and the avatar, movie and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, like that. What I mean is an avatar is that like, ideal person that you're trying to talk to. And a lot of times, what I found is that that avatar is you probably from three years ago, because you're always talking to someone from that is farther behind you. So I always give about three years. And then it also normally involves a little bit of your best friend, because your best friend is that one that would call you out and tell you, you would never say that you wouldn't talk like that you wouldn't work with that brand. So she's the one that's going to keep you in line and make sure that the content you're creating is meant for the right person. So I think really creating that avatar can be so helpful knowing who it is you're reaching for, you should go into like socio economic status, like, do you want them to be middle class? Do you want to be upper middle class? Do you want them to live on the East Coast, the West Coast, and sometimes that seems silly to create that. But your content that you're creating is going to be based upon that the things that you say, I talk like an East coaster from New York, I now live in the south. I don't see things they do on the west coast. So for me, it didn't make sense to try to have a West Coast person. We also don't have as a food blogger. We don't have seen fruits and vegetables at the same time a year as someone on the West Coast stuff. So for me, I needed to know that she was East Coast for sure, um, in mine was actually someone my avatar for the Melrose family. I worked in Manhattan and commuted in from New Jersey. I mean, I could go in, I was so specific about this girl that I was talking to that was my ideal audience, because it just made it easier to create that content for her and then attracted so many others like her. And it's like if you have different products and different revenue streams, you want to create an avatar for each of those, right? Yes, and a lot of times that's going to be based upon like experience level, right or interest level, especially depending upon like what nice you're talking about. Whether that is events or organizing, you're always going to have people at different levels of experience, you definitely want to decide if you want to work with beginners. Or if you're looking to work with more advanced, I knew for myself as a coach, I create content for beginners, but personally one on one, I want to work with someone that has a little bit more experience under their belt, so that I don't have to go through like the basics of building a site. That's not in my like tool belt of what I am good at doing.
Yeah, so
it's, it's funny that all this is coming up again, because we are working with a company to re I would say like a kind of a facelift of just like my personal brand. And so when we looked at the different income streams, and all that we had, you know, where my heart is, is like helping women that were it was me like 15 years ago. And so we created an online course for that. And so exactly what you are talking about, and her name is Carol, which is like a totally fake person. But we made up Carol as if like, literally, we're BFFs. And then we have our client avatar, which exactly what you're just saying, which is Conrad, who is a man. And he has been in business for at least 15 years. And he knows that he needs a productivity shift, he doesn't need an online class, because that's not where his head is, he owns multiple businesses. And if he doesn't get a productivity shift, it's going to be hurting his outcome, like with his revenue. And so it's two totally different avatars and people but until we went through the exercise with the consultant, you know, at first it did I'm like, why are we doing this? Like, I know who my target audience is. But do you really, you know, okay, so it was very, very helpful to sit down and like do it for yourself. And so if you haven't done that, and you're listening, like, go do it, like do it tonight, like sit down and like literally list out like exactly what you're saying, like, Where do they live? What do they drive? How many kids do they have? Are they married? Do they have a partner like all of these questions? Where do they shop? Like, ask yourself all those things? Is that something that they like? The questions to really, really drill down on your avatar? Is that something that you talk about in your four step framework book,
it is,
like jobs gotta go good. Absolutely true. And there's actually a free workbook that goes along with it that has that kind of like, laid out for you so that when we ask you the questions, rather than you trying to remember that you can just fill it in, follow along with the book, and be able to really create this and hone in on it. It's absolutely it's just so important to really, truly understand your positioning in the marketplace, and who you're going to be able to reach with that. I love it. So for people listening that already have an audience and they have a target audience and the engagement is good. Like you like the first sponsorship that you got, like, I mean, these are huge like Neutrogena glove, Costco, like I'm assuming these are things that you used in your everyday life that you talked about, or shared, like on your blog. And so did you talk about these products first, and then you had data points and then you reached out to them or like what was the first relationship like If so, if someone wants to do that, like how would they even go about that? So it's actually so much easier now than it was back then when I started because Instagram Stories makes it so easy. You don't have to do a full blog post and incorporate a product now in to get data points. All you have to do is talk about it on stories do quick poll and see who uses it and then provide that data to the brand showing they're having the proof already that hey, my people want to learn more about this. Um, it does and one of the things I love that you said is the piece about is it things that you already use, and my main thing is things that I you know, that are around the house, that's how I start with trying to figure out who I was going to pitch. It's always things that I like and love to just use at home. So you within your niche are looking to see what works. Some of them like Neutrogena is a great idea. sample, I have one that actually reached out and wanted me to do something for free. And that's one of the big like, whoo, no no's you hear about amongst bloggers if you've never worked for free, and it's what blog I have seen bloggers reply back is, I can't pay my mortgage in court, you know, in product, can you and that of being able to negotiate and say, Thanks so much, I'm so glad you're interested, this is actually a perfect product for my audience. Because I have two little girls with two different skin types, because they're at that time, they were pushing their suntan lotion. And I signed you, in order to cheat to keep the integrity of my site to my readers and the previous brands. I only work on compensated content, love to put together a proposal for you that would be specific to you and show you what I could do as well as here's my media kit to go along with it. So you know, all my numbers I'm in that resulted that in over $11,000 over the course of like one bow. Wow. And it was them are initially asking me for to put up a video on Facebook for free. That's how it all started. Wow. So if if someone doesn't have a media kit, can you just give us a quick rundown of what a media kit should have?
Yeah, so a media kit is going to have your information about you a little bit. And then it's going to really hone in on your audience and your site, it's going to give your stats as far as like page views. And then it's going to also give social media numbers. So they know how many followers and things like that that you have. You also want to on there talk about any like awards or any kind of things that you've been featured in so that they know that there's obviously traffic coming to your site, it's just more proof. Of course, you are not the number one thing you are not doing is you are not putting how much you charge on a media kit. And a lot of times I will get people push back on that and say, but what's the Why wouldn't I do that. And the reason is, because if you instead put together a proposal that's specific to that brand, that gives a package price, not an individual, I charge this for a blog post and this Instagram story in this for your when you have that package price and the deliverables that you're going to give now when they come back, and they're going to come back and say they can't afford it. Even if they can they I have had brands at conferences in front of 500 bloggers say we will cut you in half, because we're trying to get you for the lowest price. That's their job. It's not because they're trying to be mean to you. It's just what their job is to they're going to negotiate you down. And then what you're able to do is take some of those deliverables out that still make it valuable to you. So you know the value of an Instagram story or of a blog post. But you're able to play with that package price so that you still sit at a price that doesn't go below your hate rate.
And that hate rate.
Yeah, I like that.
It's one of my favorite things to talk about. Your hate rate is that price, which not only are you going to hate the client, but you're going to hate yourself in the project for having gone below that price. It's that price, you're like I'm just spending too much time it's not worth it. And then what ends up happening is your, what you actually deliver probably sucks because you are resentful at the price that you're working at. So now it's going to be impossible to try to get a long term because you're not gonna be able to deliver that with the same results. So having a heat rate, knowing that price that you are not willing to go below for a blog post and Instagram story is just so important. So how do you how would you tell people to even arrive at a price because, I mean, I've heard all kinds of different things and like a formula, an industry standard of how many followers times your engagement rate equals bla bla bla bla bla, like, what's the lowdown? Like, what is the legit formula that people should be asking for? So I am actually part of influence. It's an influencer marketing Association. And there unfortunately, as much as people like to say there's an industry standard, there really isn't. It's still the Wild Wild West. And the reason is because Instagram grows, goes out and puts together a new program and then all of a sudden we're scrambling to figure out how to do reels and how to incorporate in your sense. So there's most people will think First Instagram in particular, it's easier to kind of give a number. So for every 10,000 followers, you can normally charge $100 for a post or story. So in other words, if you have 30,000 followers, you're going to be able to charge that $300 for one post to your feed. That stays Yes. Even even an Instagram story, though, tip, anything, Instagram reels is still something that's kind of if been back and forth. But even a real, you do one reel you have, I would still go with that industry senator, that for every 10,000, you can charge 100. So if you've $30,000, you can charge for one real, you can charge 301 Instagram story. So one of the things that I always teach people to do is Instagram Stories are great. And that's where you truly get the engagement, because you have to remember when you work with a brand, what matters to them is their ROI. They want to see their return on investment. And if you can't prove that with numbers, they're not going to get into a long term contract with you, which is the purpose of doing sponsored content on purpose is not to do one and be done. You want these long term contracts, that'll be for three posts, and then they extend it again for another six months, or whatever it might be. So when you're looking at it with your stories, because you can do something like a poll, and then get into their DMS and get more information that's really valuable for you as an influencer, and also for the brand, because it provides them with data that they probably couldn't have found on their own.
Gotcha.
So do you have a lot of people that come to you for your coaching and your consulting? And they're like, Can you teach me to do this? Or do you have people that say, here's all the stuff that I use? I have this many followers, can you just do it for me? Like, do you guys offer that service? I don't offer that service, just because it has to be so specific with the pitch. It's something that I was working on, after having created my course and legal Why don't you just do it? And I was like, No, thank you, I'll teach you how to do it. But it's a process. And for each person, it's very individualized, like, you have to know the ins and outs of their business to be able to talk about their audience, when you do put together a pitch. Um, so really, it should be something that they're doing or if you're going to go, and you're you know, there's those huge influencers out there that have millions of followers, they might get someone like that as kind of like an agent, that's going to try to pitch them to bigger brands and get a cut of that. But when you're starting out, you're better off just pitching yourself. Like I said, I was never huge, but I was making $10,000 a month, just off sponsored posts, and that's amazing. So it's okay, people put your media kit together and do it yourself. Like all they can do is say no, or not get back to you. Right? That's That's right. And the big thing too, is, it's a process like a sign like, unless you get a no, it's still a maybe it's all about the follow up process. Like you got to think about how busy is your inbox, there's just as busy if not busier, so you have to continually follow up. And that's in my course, I walk you through the entire process of like the follow up and give you spreadsheets and things that you would love Angela, because I know that you're very much productivity and making sure you're organized. Yes, that really makes sure that you get through that whole process. One of the things that I do offer is I have a pitch guide that's actually free. Um, that gives them a my swipe copy of what I use to initially pitch it gives them a checklist of all the things that they want to make sure that they have in their pitch. Um, but that is normally where most people start with me and it's just Jenny Melrose comm forward slash pitch dash checklist. I love it. So I mean, guys, girls, you can have a real business out of this.
But you got to build your audience
first. That's the most important. And so talk to us more about your strategy on Instagram and I know you specifically mentioned stories and selling to your audience. So is this something that you post a story every day? Do you put it in your highlights and like how do you go about it, so it's not so like salesy, I guess like what's the strategy for Instagram stories? Yes.
So,
insert stories. If you can be consistent with them. I'd recommend posting to Instagram Stories three to five times a day. That's not three to five times a day with a pitch. That's three to five time of day telling the story of your day. That's what people are looking for, it gives you a chance to become known to them for them to decide, do I like this person? Do I trust them Am I willing to give them my money, because ultimately, when you sell something that is what you're trying to build, and stories provides you that opportunity to be able to do it. Now, the way in which I make a pitch is I actually will use the poll feature. So for example, when my book came out, we did a virtual book launch party, because of course, it was during COVID. So I had it planned that we were going to do it virtually. And I wanted to make sure as many people were there as possible. So I put up a story with me like holding the book and doing like a quick Boomerang of being something doing something silly, and asked in the poll, um, are you who signed up to like, come to the virtual event. And then in the poll part, I said, already signed up, and need to save my seat. And then those that said, already signed up, you can see inside your insights, so I then dm each one of them and said, thanks so much, I'm so excited to see you. And just kind of left it at that. And then the ones that said, I want to save my seat, I dm them, and sent them the link to be able to make sure that they were signed up for it. So they would be there. I do that with my programs, I do that with my opt ins, I do that with all like podcast episodes. That's how I get in front of them. And the reason I'm doing that is because now I get to continue the conversation with them in their DMS, I'm sending them to a direct link that they're going to be able to click on rather than trying to say to them, swipe up or go to my profile for the link. Just make it easy and give them it in dm so that it's clickable, and then continue talking to them about do they already have the book or whatever corresponds with that. And the reason you're not only just trying to continue the conversation, but by getting into their DMS, you're affecting algorithm, Instagram sees those that you whose DNS you get into as people that you're closer with, especially if the conversation continues. So now what ends up happening is Instagram is going to be more likely to show your content to those people whose DNS you've gotten into stories, reels, posts in their feed, from like weeks ago, all of a sudden, all of these posts will they'll start seeing your content, whereas before, they may not have been seeing it that often. So it's really important to just create an easy poll so that you can continue a conversation in DMS. So it's interesting that you say, use DMS versus swipe up. So
what's your thoughts?
Like are there is there I guess the out like you said the algorithm is better views DMS versus the whole swipe up is are the swipe ups.
trackable.
So what ends up happening with swipe up is think about what you do when you're inside Instagram, you're swiping up all day long. That's what you do when you go into the Facebook app on your phone. That's what you're doing on Instagram, it's a passive action, when they actually then fill out that poll and you've given them the link, they truly want to be there. Because I'm sure if you were to go back and look at your data from a swipe bop, if you were to look at like, let's say you're taking that swipe up and you're sending it to a landing page, if you were to look at that landing page coming from Instagram in your analytics, it's probably a crappy conversion rate. Because it's not. It's again, it's just that passive action of swiping up, and then will they actually fill it out. Plus, once you're on there, it is so easy to accidentally come off. I cannot tell you how many times I have I follow fashion and beauty bloggers love seeing what makeup they use because I was a total jock in high school and just didn't didn't understand that whole makeup thing. So I will if I'm watching and I see them talking about certain makeup, I'll swipe up because they're using a referral link. Well, then I'm getting there. And I really don't want to just a $12 thing I want to get more. All of a sudden I'm totally out of the app, I've lost my what I had in cart and I got to start all over again. And oh, I'm not gonna go back to that. Unfortunately, sometimes if I know the person will definitely go back to give them a referral. But other times it wastes so much time that I'll just go and Google what it is that I saw them talking about.
They know That's terrible.
I totally get it. Right. Instead if I that beauty blogger was talking about the mascara that she uses All of her Brides, she had side want the info on the mascara? And she put a poll that said hack yes and already have it. Notice I didn't say no. I said already have it, do you want to show social proof for showing that they already have it. And then the ones that actually said hack gas. Now I'm going to dm those girls with the link referral link to that mascara. And then it opens up in a new Safari or new window, depending upon what platform you're on as far as your cell phone, your laptop, whatever. And that's going to make it much easier for them to actually use and purchase. And that makes total sense. And so I'm assuming you would say your number one converting strategy for sales would be to use to dm people if they interact with your story. Is that right? Yes. And it has to start with the poll feature. You need them to raise their hand first before you just randomly dm someone. I've gotten too many of those sleazy messages where it's like I liked a picture. And all of a sudden I've got a DM from them asking me to do Beachbody or Rodan and Fields or whatever it might be. And I've never once spoken to that person. You want to make sure they've raised their hands, they've said they're interested. And then dm them. I do this even on my actual feed as well. So if I post a picture, I'll normally do by story, and I'll give a call to action something like, um, leave me your favorite emoji in the comments. And I'll send you the link for the latest podcast episode. And then anyone that leaves me their favorite emoji, I will then reply and say sending it over and dm right now. And then I hit there next to their name and dm them the link to be able to go to the podcast episode.
I love it.
So how many polls are healthy per week? Like, y'all don't be like doing like five posts a day, right? polls. I mean, you can do some polls where they're maybe not fix x, you're not expecting to you're not going to dm them like links, it's not necessarily a pitch, I would see you can get away with I pitch a day. And the pitch sometimes is for something free. Sometimes it's to send them to a podcast episode for me or to send them to content. Other times, it could be for signing up for one of the masterminds I run or a coaching spot that I have open on I've pitched coaching programs that are 1500 dollars and people have signed up breakthrough. It's often growl I have one of my full time clients actually that was dm on Instagram. And she's been with me, she just signed a contract for another six months. So she'll be with me for a year. That's amazing. So when people say you can't get business through Instagram, DMS, you know that they don't know what they're talking about. They don't know you don't know. Yeah, they are cold pitching people then because you're right. That way they can't there's no way people are going to people that way. Right. But you have to have a strategy, like, like you said, like start with the poll, the people that like and interact, they've raised their hand, as you would call it, and then start the conversation from there. And what are your thoughts on the formula of give value first, before you ask for something? I 100% agree. And I think honestly, a lot of us are ready, like naturally, that's what we're doing. Like I have so many food bloggers that will then decide that they want to create an E book and all along. They've just been creating recipes, but I've never asked for money. And it's always a tough transition for them. Because one their people aren't used to seeing them ask for money into big awkward asking for when they shouldn't. They've given a ton of free content. So it's funny that you say that because a lot of my food bloggers, they'll kind of like push back and be like, but I have to give value and I'm like, you've given six years of value. Come on. Ryan, money for what we're all the work we've put into this, of course, yes. But I kind of got caught in that loop. I would say sorry. No, please.
I got cut back. Like, where? When I was in the wedding heavily in the wedding industry. And I would just give, give, give, give give like I never asked for anything because I love sharing the stories to help other people. And then when we actually started doing online courses and building lead magnets and sales funnels, that current audience was not primed for me to ask for stuff. So I've essentially pretty much had to start over with people that were going to understand, listen, I'm going to give you some value but free doesn't work. You're not going to get something for free and turn around and implement something that's going to change your business and change your life. Because I've done it before. I mean, I, we, as humans do it where, I mean, think of the free samples that you get all the time. And it's like, do I really use that stuff where if I go and I purchase something, it's like, well, I paid money for that. So of course, I'm going to make myself use it, you know, and like a nightly routine or something for face cream. So it's like, you have to, I call it putting on your brain potty train your brain of the audience that like, you have a strategy. This is a real business. And, but you're authentically talking and sharing stories. It's not just about Oh, things that like, I'm not going to use a planner or talk about paper because I don't use paper. So like, that would not be authentic for me to like,
talk about that, and then
turn around and ask somebody to buy it. You know, like, that's just not in the scope of what you're doing. Right? I mean, stay authentic. Um, what are your thoughts on Instagram reels? Like, I know, it's kind of new. And some people have dove right in and they left Tick Tock. And now you know, this back and forth of tic tocs been banned. And now it's not baby. Like, what are your thoughts on that? And can people use reels to also convert as well? Yes, and I see it's I haven't seen yet and I'm still playing with it to kind of try to figure it out. That's it's actually funny. You say Instagram reels because we're covering that next month, my membership site, because I do I feel like, I love Instagram. I love everything about it. And I think that they're smart. anytime they see something doing while they take it over. That's where stories came from. They took it over from Snapchat, and now reels, they're taking it over from tik tok, if they're trying to keep people to just use their app, and let's be honest, that's what we whine about as influencers all the time, I don't want to go into all these different websites and all these different places for social media, well Instagrams trying to make it easier for you. As far as the conversion piece of real, I haven't quite seen it yet. Because there's nothing where they can really like I just stories are like my jam. That is because polls are so easy to then be able to have a conversation and continue it reels because you can put a description, I think you could do something similar, like what I'm doing on my feed, where you would have a call to action, always making sure you tell them how you want them to interact with you. But what I do think reels do is they really give an opportunity for your audience to know you as a person. So it speeds up that process of them being willing to buy something. I have a client right now that's a vegan food blogger, and she did a 30 day challenge where she has done a real every single day. Her reels are adorable, because it's her, it's just her being goofy and like sharing things about her vegan cooking. And that is often hard I think for especially for nished like that food bloggers DIY, they're not used to coming in front of the camera, and normally it's about the food or the projects that they're doing. So now, reels is giving them an opportunity to kind of get to know their personality so that if they do have a product, she just did a bundle that made a boatload of money over four days. Because her people feel like they love her and want to buy whatever she's going to offer. Gotcha. So again, but I'm assuming that like she only uses vegan ingredients she only uses non meat
products
you know so she's
probably also getting sponsored probably from like this food and I know my one of my team members is pescatarian and so you know some stuff can make you actually feel better give you more energy and then some stuff can like make you just feel tired and you know feel like shit. So but if you talk about that and you're being relevant and you're sharing things and you know think of I wonder how many people that she has turned from gone, you know eating meat to not eating meat because it can make you really feel better. We just got done doing a keto digital summit for a large like 3000 people who are psycho but like in a good way for keto, but with a strong emphasis on carnivore and I'm like, What is that?
And then for Amanda's over here, she's
like, I haven't eaten meat in 13 because she's like, grossed out but there's really I started to learn like Like the health benefits and listening to thousands of people's stories, where they were overweight, they had high cholesterol, they were type two diabetes. And they just started to eat the carnivore way. And like, slowly but surely, like all these things went away. And so like, we need to be careful what we're putting in our mouth. But in addition to that, the chemicals that are in like one guy that I listened to the chemicals, he talked about what's in sunscreen, and that's over like 30 SPF specifically. And then the people that come to your home and like spray for bugs. There's like another chemical that they've done all these studies on. And so now I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I should not I should read the label or ask more questions. But as general consumers, like, we don't know these things. And so but like, those are the kinds of stories where like, I'll jump on my story. And I'm like, Oh, my God, did you guys know that? There's been studies on lavender oils, and if you put it on your little boys that it could like babies, like baby infant, little boys that it can like, send them into puberty really early. And then people will be like, Where the hell did you hear this or come up with this stuff? I'm like, I listen to this YouTube video with the scientist, you know, but it's there to they have all the studies to back it up. But like, if you're not exposing yourself to this information, then you don't know these things at all. We I thought I was like, 11, or helped me sleep better. Um, but you apparently you really shouldn't put it on your if you have an infant. Boy, you shouldn't put it on his pillow. I don't know. It's just all this crazy information. But if you can help somebody and talk about it, so so where I'm going with all this, I'm
like, I do have a question.
Should people talk about like that one thing? Like, I'm a vegan expert, I'm a cook. Here's my recipes. Or if they have other information that they've learned, like, should they talk about that? Or should they only like, focus on talking about one thing?
So that's my question with all that,
no, and I love that, you know, I love that you told the whole story, like, it gives me a better picture of where you're trying to go with it. Um, I feel that Instagram stories in particular, and and this is not the same for your blog, this is not the same for Facebook, or even the feed on Instagram, but Instagram stories, I think you need to share more of you. Like my kids, even though I, I'm I'm not a teacher anymore, I'll still share some of the stuff that's going on. Because my clients do have similar struggles. They are trying to figure out how do I homeschool my kids now and continue to run my business. So I need them to see that. It's not all rainbows and unicorns, it is harm. Here's what I found, has worked. And here are the days where I just want to go in the closet and cry. And this is why I cried. But then this is how I bounce back in some days. It's not even how I bounce back. It's just, this is what happened. Any advice, please, someone out there helped me with this. Because first of all, people love to share their advice. And they want to connect with you on a human level. I think we're seeing more and more of that right now in particular, that you people really want to just know the real view behind the business. Um, so sharing looking at stories is like it is the story of your day. I have an Instagram story planner that actually like gives you those talking points for throughout throughout your day. And I talk about that you should have a morning and afternoon and an evening kind of like consistently planned. So think about your day, what is your morning look like? Do you start the day off with a spooky? Do you do a workout? Do you go for a run? Do you meditate, like start with a picture of you just doing that and share something along those lines. And that's your first story for the day. Then afternoon, put something consistent that you do in the afternoon you go for a walk, do you have the dog sleeping underneath your desk while you're doing podcast interview, whatever it might be. And then same thing again for the evening. So that then it those other spots where you're trying to fit in other ones. Now you can do a poll and like it be business specific. You've already kind of covered that consistency of the routine. And it's okay if it changes or even It's okay if it doesn't change on when we were pre COVID I had a pretty good good routine because of the girls going off to school and I have an Australian Shepherd that we talked about is like Velcro. Wherever I go, he has to go and I would always share a shot in the morning of like him attached to me no matter what it was. I Doing whether I was meditating, whether I was working out whether I was going for a walk, so it kind of like that my audience expected to see a shot of him first thing in the morning. And a lot of people like that because it shows the personality, the other side, the person behind the business. And I think that's important. Yeah, it's so important. I used to not do any of that. And then one of our interns at the time, she's like, Angela, I had this complete, you know, like, when you you listen to someone, or you follow them, but then you meet them. And they're nothing like what you made up in your head.
Basically, that's what she told me.
She's like, I had all this stuff made up in my head about you. And you're actually not like that at all. And so what I learned from it is, if you don't fill in those gaps, and share with your audience, how you are about lots of different ways in your life, personally, and professionally. People make shit up about you. And again, it's like, I mean, I find my mother doing it. And sometimes, like, I'll find myself doing it. And I'm like, she was driving to a place yesterday, there was a wreck. And so she's like, I'm a few minutes late, because there was a wreck. And I don't know, when the evidence is gonna get there. And me, she just starts telling me this story. And I'm like,
mom, she's like, I
just, I don't know if anyone's gonna die or hurt. And I'm like,
what, like, okay, you
saw a wreck,
I doubt anyone's dead,
otherwise, like, you probably would have stopped and pulled over like that knowing you. But it's like, we as human beings fill in the gaps if the story's not told, fully, like we really do. So that's why when people make things up, I'm like, this is an opportunity as a business owner, for you to know that you have to fill in the narrative, you have to tell the story and fill in the gaps. And if there's gaps, and people are saying things that aren't necessarily true or relevant, some people don't even mean anything by it, they're just trying to fill in the gaps. So it's okay to like, share yourself in exactly what you said, when I started to share more behind the scenes, which I do in my stories of, you know, if one more woman said to me, You don't understand because you don't have kids, I wanted to vomit, because my sister has kids, I help her with the kids. I've raised one of them, practically, the oldest one before she went to college this year, but I never talked about it, and I never shared it. And so people had no idea that once I was done with work, then I would go pick up the kids and now help home school and do these other things. But how would they know because I never talked about it. And I never shared anything. And so now we have some clients that are some women, and they're like, you know, I totally ripped you off in the beginning. Because when you talk about productivity, I'm like, Oh, well, yeah, she's just talking about productivity in your business, of course, you're able to be productive, you don't have kids, you don't understand. But then when they started to see that, like, I run to the gym, I try to go to the gym
myself, like,
I'm reading kids to a soccer game, you know, like, Oh, actually, you might just get it. So it's not just as productivity in your business. But it's an it's a complete mindset of your entire life and how you run your life, not just your business. So I think that's, I mean, I've learned a ton from that just by people giving me their feedback of you need to share yourself. People need to know, and they like to know exactly what you just said, they like to know the person behind the business. They want to feel like they have a personal relationship with you. Otherwise, it's like, it's, it's not real, it's not authentic, and people aren't going to convert like that they're really not. So tell us a little bit more about your book, where can they get it? And what like what so what are the four steps? So it's a four part framework. So I make it really simple and easy. I do this cute little introduction in the beginning heights, because the framework is Pac Pac K. And I talked about how you're going to pack your bags and go on a journey with me to really understanding how to grow your business. But that pack stands for p prepositioning. A for authenticity, C for confidence, and k for kindness. And this was written last September. So it was before all the things that happened in 2020.
We'll never forget it.
That's right. No, but my point is like kindness has always been a huge part of my business. And I think that in the book, I really walk you through that as you're creating all this Understanding that audience and the positioning, you also need to understand your vision for your business, and what is it that you're trying to put out there, so that you know, what you value. And I think I recently, I'm not going to go political, I promise, but I was having a discussion with my husband about the upcoming president, a presidential election. And I said to him, I said, I just realized why I'm so inclined against him. And it's because I just one of my largest values is trust. And that, for me is just huge. It doesn't make a difference to anything else. But I need trust in my business as a person and in the relationships I have with other people. Um, so that for me, and he kind of looked at me was like, that does make so much sense, because you don't care about anything else. But the fact that this was said, however, many years ago, you lost it, um, because of it. So like that, I think, understanding your values and building that into your vision for your business. We've walked through that in the book for sure. That's awesome. And so guys, if you want to anything we're talking about if you want to start growing an audience, and converting monetizing, go to Jenny, and again, we'll put it on the next Jenny melrose.com slash i g, dash story, dashed planar. We're going to put it all in the show notes. And then you can also go to Jenny melrose.com slash book, just be okay. And can they get the book? Just on your website? Yeah, that'll link to actually outdid on Amazon. It's also like all bookstores, Barnes and Nobles, books and more, whatever they have near them, and then that link will actually bring them to the VA can get the free workbook that we talked about that actually goes along with it, so that they can make sure they're doing the exercises. There's an exercise for each section that I put into the book. Because I am that teacher, I am going to hold you accountable and give you homework. I love it. And I love the cover of your book. It's so you It's so cute. But it's like we're gonna we mean business people. I love it. Um, so we do really fast. I'm sorry, Angela, I didn't mean to cut you off. No, the fact that you brought up the book, my Instagram story audience chose that cover. I offered them multiple pictures, and they chose it. And that was huge for them. Because so many people that have said, Oh my god, I got your book.
It was the one I chose. And they
were so excited about it. So like, it's that simple. Just give a couple pictures and have them help. They'll want to tell I got so much engagement on that story. What a great idea. I love that we're working on a new book. I'm gonna do that. I'm like, I'm gonna do a poll. Thanks, Jenny. I love it. I love it. So what's your favorite platform for people to connect with you on? Definitely Instagram, especially dm like, I'm just an easy, it's so easy to just have a quick conversation on definitely Instagram. So it's at Jenny underscore Melrose. I love it. Well, everybody, make sure you go to Jenny Mauer comm slash book, get the book, get the free workbook to get started. And especially if you are doing something that you love, but you feel burnt out and you have a passion for something else. Don't keep doing the same thing over and over. Because you're going to get the same result. You can do something different. And Jenny's mapped it out and laid it out so nicely for you. So that if you follow the plan the outcome, it works. She's proof you know it works. Jenny, thank you so much for your time today. This was awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Yes. And everybody that's listening. Thank you so much for your time. And be sure to always Tune in next week for another episode of business unveiled. Everybody have a great day. Bye. That's it for this week's episode of business unveiled. Now that you have all the tools that you need to conquer the world and GSD
get shit done.
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And I want to know your
aha moments. Until next week, remember the profitable shifts and structures you're creating in your business. help you be more present in your life. So get out there and GSD!