Today we’re talking all about personal branding on Instagram and beyond. Our guest is Jasmine Star, a business strategist, social media expert, photographer, influencer, keynote speaker, and so much more. She helps entrepreneurs grow their social platforms and personal brands, especially on Instagram. Jasmine teaches others how to use social media to connect and engage with followers.
Star’s journey began when she decided to pick up a camera with no experience and became a photographer. She went to the internet, learned skills to thrive, and as she became established, she shared key tips on her blog. This led Jasmine to develop a personal brand that has amassed close to 400,000 followers on Instagram.
FIRST STEPS FOR PERSONAL BRANDING
Brandon Birkmeyer: When people are building personal brands, (basically when they’re building their reputations for something) one of the things they have to figure out is, “How do I find my thing?”
That’s a difficult thing for people to figure out. “What am I? I don’t know what I’m passionate about. I don’t know what my purpose is. How have you helped people figure out how to tap into their thing and start steering towards that?
PERSONAL BRANDING COMES FROM YOUR PASSIONS
Jasmine Star: Stephen King wrote a book called On Writing and it simply documents his journey. It’s somewhat autobiographical and somewhat educational in some ways.
I’m not a writer, I’m not an author, but I found it fascinating. One of the things that he had said was the Active Discipline. Far before Stephen King was Stephen King, he was a nobody, but he knew that he liked to write.
If you’re somebody, you like to do something, (I don’t care if it’s video games, walking dogs, or watercolor.) There is Stephen King who said that if he practices with consistency, even if nothing else comes of it, he will become better at his craft.
He would wake up at four o’clock in the morning and would write for an hour; he would set a timer, take off his shoes and sit in front of a typewriter. Every single day.
This is if you like softball and you go to the batting cage every single day. If you really want a six-pack and you’re a hundred pounds overweight, how do you get the results? Every single day we make an active decision to apply discipline and not apply discipline. It is an active decision.
GO ON A SELF DISCOVERY JOURNEY
We talk about, “How do I find what I am passionate about?” Steven Pressfield in his book, Do The Work, often writes that muses (he calls them muses) will visit in the act of creation, not when you’re struck by inspiration. Inspiration comes in the act of doing.
If people think, “I don’t know what I’m passionate about,” my advice is to make a list of what you like to do, truly, and then start doing.
Let’s say you come up with a list. “I really like seven things.” Great. Start doing those seven things. Then a month later, if you’ve practiced them consistently, a few are going to rise to the top. Maybe you think, “Well, these three things I really like.”
Great. For the next month, do just those three things in any excess time you have. You’re going to cut out Netflix, you’re going to cut out happy hour twice a week. You’re going to take whatever time you have and practice those three things.
DIVE DEEP INTO YOUR #1 PASSION
Over time, you’re going to see one rise to the top, and guess what? You’re still going to suck. It’s still going to be terrible and there’s not going to be a business there. People are going to say, “Why are you wasting that time with crochet?” You will reply, “I am trying to find what I’m passionate about.”
It is only when you crochet, you walk eight thousand dogs, you write ten million words and you make three movies in a matter of month that you will be able to start having ideation around monetization. Not any time sooner.
PERSONAL BRANDING TAKES ACTION
Brandon Birkmeyer: I believe that. To your point, Marie Forleo (I love the way she says it) says it’s not in thinking that you find clarity. It’s through doing, through action. She says it more eloquently than I do.
I think that that’s true. You have to be in the middle of doing things to feel that creativity that you’re talking about. That really resonates.
Jasmine Star: I think the same and slightly different is Marie’s quote is “Action is the antidote to fear.” Often times we are fearful so then we don’t do.
One of the things that I found pretty intriguing (if I can tap here for a second) is you said that oftentimes when you talk about stuff that you like, you start knowing. You start talking and it comes easy to you. You find it invigorating.
However, one thing that’s ancillary to that is that the more you talk about it, the more you will find a small group of people who are interested in your topic. They will follow up with questions or ask for your opinion on something else. Content ignites content.
ACTION COMES IN CERTAIN STEPS
We must be patient throughout the process of creating content, where we’re finding our voice. People are saying, “But Jasmine, I’ve done it for four months and nobody’s talking back.” I say, “But you don’t actually know what you’re saying quite yet.”
That is truly like my daughter. She’s going to be one next week. All of a sudden, if she starts walking and she says, “But Mom, I can’t run the New York Marathon,” of course not! You haven’t taken a few steps.
When we create content, it is the same thing to give ourselves patience, to give ourselves grace, and then do it again and again.
BRAND YOURSELF THROUGH EXPLORING CATEGORIES
Brandon Birkmeyer: I love that. For someone who feels that is still too vague, you could at least choose a category. Look through iTunes at the subjects like business, health and wellness, or finance. Choose one category and just talk about things in that general category so that you’re not literally all over the place. Then try a different category if that didn’t work for you.
Jasmine Star: I like that. I got the segmentation and thought, Steve Jobs and his disciples knew what they were doing to come up with those categories. They did the heavy lifting. To choose from that I think is brilliant.
DON’T OVER COMPLICATE YOUR PERSONAL BRANDING
Brandon Birkmeyer: I want to admit to people that it’s hard to take that step, figuring out what are you all about and what you want to be known for. Those kinds of things are big questions. What do you think keeps people from starting and taking that step?
Jasmine Star: Asking those big questions. You’re out here, you don’t even know what you want to do with your life, and you want to ask yourself, “What do I want to be known for?” That’s like squeezing water from a rock.
First and foremost is Elizabeth Gilbert (she’s an author). I’m going to pause here because I believe business owners are creatives. They might not classify themselves as that, but let me just tell you, having a business is nothing but sheer and utter determination and creativity. That is what it is.
BEING CREATIVE AND MONETIZING ARE DIFFERENT
Going back to one of Elizabeth’s quotes, she says that one of the travesties that she sees creatives do is to try to monetize their creativity too early in the process.
We come to expect that we should be making something from something that gives us joy. When did this happen? It was a recent advent now that social media is here. Let me put stuff out, and why am I not making money in this?
Since when was that a thing? It is okay to have a job and have something on the side that brings you passion.
If over time there’s a possibility of monetization, great. However, you’re expecting to find your life purpose, find something that makes you happy, find the thing that’s going to take you out of your job. I say you’re putting a lot of pressure on a tiny little kernel.
GROWING YOUR PERSONAL BRAND TAKES CONSISTENCY
Brandon Birkmeyer: As we’re coming to the back end of the show, I want to get some tactical advice, because you’re a creative genius. You’re awesome. I want to give some people some tips here. If I had to have a sequence to follow to get started building my personal brand, what would you like to lean into and discuss with us?
Jasmine Star: Number one is consistency. If anybody has ever heard a podcast with me, they’re dang sick of that word, but I can’t say it enough.
Consistency is the only path to growth. I don’t care if you have all of the hacks and all of the secrets. I don’t care if you have a massive ad budget.
True growth, organic growth, conscientious growth, engaging growth, comes on the back of consistency all day, every day, no matter what digital marketing hack there is out there.
If you can’t make the commitment to be consistent, then don’t hold yourself accountable for not growing at the rate at which you aspire to.
Number two is the minute you decided to be consistent, choose the parameters of your consistency.
I’m not out here saying that you need to be posting on Instagram ten times a day, but if you’re going to be saying, “I’m going to be posting on Instagram every day,” well then walk in integrity. Post on Instagram every single day.
BRING YOUR PERSONAL BRANDING TO THE WORLD
Number one is consistency, number two is defining your consistency, and number three is to give what you want to get.
Oftentimes people say, “But people aren’t talking back to me. I’m not growing as fast as I want.” Yes, but it’s as if you built a house in the mountains and then you wonder why people aren’t knocking on your door. They don’t know you exist.
How do people actually know that you exist? By going out in town, meeting people, and saying, “I live up on the Hill.” That’s what engagement is, by you going and leaving thoughtful comments on other people’s posts.
It says, who is John X? By you are going and participating in somebody’s poll, saying, “I too, like pizza instead of ice cream”, as silly as it sounds, you’re letting know they exist.
TRUE ENGAGEMENT BRINGS GROWTH
However, when somebody’s going on vacation or reading a book or looking for a show on Netflix and you offer a very kind and thoughtful response about what your recommendation is, you build trust. You are giving what you ultimately want to get.
Those three things–consistency, setting the parameters of your consistency, and then giving engagement–you must give tenfold. I call it the 10X rule. Ten of whatever it is you want.
Do you want ten comments? Go and leave a hundred. Do you want ten likes? Go and leave a hundred likes. That is truly the foundation of social media.
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO BE CONSISTENT?
Brandon Birkmeyer: When people who have succeeded look back, and they think, well, I was consistent. However, there are some who have been consistent with personal branding but haven’t seen success.
They are often told, “Well, just keep being consistent,” but let’s get into the why. Why do you think consistency ends up being the secret ingredient that helps people? What is it about consistency that is going to unlock that thing for people?
Jasmine Star: I love this question so much. First and foremost, we must define what length of consistency people are expecting. When you say, “Be consistent,” I can have somebody say “I’ve been consistent a month.” Then you have somebody say “I’ve been consistent five years.”
SUCCESSFUL PERSONAL BRANDING NEEDS DATA AND INSIGHTS
There isn’t a golden rule, but the longer you’re consistent, the more data, the more insights and feedback that you have to judge on and assess the quality of the content that you’re producing.
For the sake of this conversation, we’ll use Instagram. You’re sitting here for three years, every single day, rain or shine, hell or high water you posted on Instagram and you didn’t miss a day, and you say, “I haven’t grown.”
That is when I will come back with a couple of things. It could be the medium, the message, or the methodology. Perhaps visually your photos just aren’t captivating. Perhaps the message you’re saying needs to be disseminated differently.
For the methodology, are you only doing photos? Maybe you go live or do more stories. Do a reel. Curate helpful Instagram guides and you’re known as the person for Instagram guides.
I just saw an update releasing a feature that looks very close to Clubhouse. Perhaps audio is your jam and you could build an audience there.
TRY DIFFERENT TACTICS AND TEST THEM
You can’t keep on doing the same thing. Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. If you’ve been posting consistently for six months and you’ve seen no growth and no engagement, let me just tell you, it’s the message, the medium, or the methodology.
I don’t want you changing all three of them at once because scientifically, you don’t know the thing that was a factor. You’re just going to be testing first and foremost, adding a different type of tool on Instagram, like stories or IGTV, or lives.
If you’re still doing that and no one’s engaging, now let’s focus on the message. If you change all of that and people are still aren’t engaging, then you’re going to go for the methodology.
Testing by way of consistency and iterating is going to be the thing that actually leads you to the success that people want.
FIND OUT WHAT DOES AND DOESN’T WORK
And you have data telling you what won’t work. Let’s just say you have a post and you’re getting maybe three likes on average and maybe one comment a week. Then you start going live every day and you get no likes and no comments. That piece of information is just as valuable.
Knowing what doesn’t work is great. It’s a process of elimination. Maybe you should stay a little bit away from that and try something else.
Positive and not so positive feedback are worth the same, and they’re worth their weight in gold.
Brandon Birkmeyer: I love that. There are a lot of fluffy statements like “Be consistent,” but that nugget of the why behind that I think is huge. It’s going to help a lot of people.
PERSONAL BRANDING MEANS BEING REAL
Can you give us some of your favorite tips? You pick the medium. Give us some tips for how to create things that people are going to like resonate. How do you get out of your own mind and start creating better?
Jasmine Star: This is like asking “Jasmine, can you please take a sip from this fire hydrant?”
Brandon Birkmeyer: I was thinking ‘sprinkles’ to tease them so that they could go find your stuff. Your content is out there, they can go find you. Give us a sprinkle.
Jasmine Star: If I boiled down to one thing (looking at all the platforms, everything from Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, back in the day,) when I think about what this is, it’s truly being real.
So often we jail ourselves from waving our weird flag, our awkward flag, our vulnerable flag, because we want to be a carbon copy of what we think people want us to be.
In doing that, you walk around in a half state. I would rather people not like me for me being one hundred percent of who I am than me walking around 50% of who I am and people still not like me.
YOUR PERSONAL BRANDING SERVES YOUR PEOPLE
People are going to have an opinion about me either way and twice on Sunday, so why not be me? This is what I encourage people. Be okay with not everybody liking you. You are here to stand in your purpose. You’re here to serve a small group of people extraordinarily well.
Those people are going to be the people who tell their friends and their friends and tell their friends. That is going to be how you grow your business. Not on any other hack or on the back of a social platform.
You show up real, you show up as yourself and you show up authentic and a place to serve on any social platform, and that’s going to be how you grow.
CONNECT WITH JASMINE
Personal Website: jasminestar.com
Social Curator: socialcurator.com
Instagram: @jasminestar
MORE ADVICE AND INTERVIEWS
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Talk soon!