Transcripts
1. Introduction: question what? Having a strong instagram presence that really represents who you are, what you care about in the world, help you grow your business, build a community and elevate your personal brand. I bet you know that the answer is yes. But then when you Google how to grow your instagram, all that comes up Is this different tips and tricks that just don't align with the level of authenticity that you're committed to? And then there's all the geo tag filters and hashtags. Where do you even begin? What ends up happening? You get overwhelmed, you keep doing things, you, the way you've been doing them, that does not get you anywhere. I completely get that. To be honest, I've been there even though I've been in the social media world for the last 15 years from having a block back when I was a teenager, to building social media communities to friends that have millions of followers, I still always felt like there's some secret special sauce I just have not been told about . And then I found it, and it has to do with the right might set. Once I shifted my mindset, I ended up creating an INSTAGRAM account that grew from 0 to 80,000 followers in the last year alone. I have got my own cereal cover box with Kashi. I've traveled from Bali to Nicaragua, Colorado, of California, making money blogging. I work with brands like Vita Mix, Google and Instagram headquarter itself. My passion is to empower mission driven companies, creatives and entrepreneurs. People just like you to create a real impact using social media. Some of the things you'll learn in this class are How did you find your message? How to create a killer bio, how to build a community, or people who really care how to master those hashtags with once and for all and how to avoid social media burnout. I'm very excited to share with you everything I know about social media in a clear and powerful way that will actually leave you feeling excited to share yourself to share your message, to authentically connect with other people. Ultimately, social media is just a tool. It's a way to manifest anything you want in any area of your life, even faster than you thought it was possible.
2. Define Your Message : welcome to the first segment of the hashtag mindful class. In this video, you're gonna learn all about defining your message, connecting to your why and getting very clear on what exactly it is that you want to get from this class. What is your Why? Why is it important for you to have social media presence? What kind of opportunities do you foresee it giving you? A lot of people assume that having popular INSTAGRAM account will give you everything they have ever wanted. Yeah, in some ways, that's true in other ways. It takes a lot of work at the end of the day, unless you first connect to what's really within you and share from that place, it's just gonna see exhausting being powerful at connecting with others. Start with really connecting with yourself. I'd like to invite you to pause this video, take out a notebook or open up a note on your computer and answer a couple of questions that are really gonna help you moving forward in this class. First question is why social media important for your friend? Whether we're talking about personal Brenda or your company, pick one and answer that question My second question is imagine that you've taken this class. You are live their side of it and you get the most dreamy outcome beyond what even imagined . The instrument was incredible. You're connecting with people. Your business is growing. Your personal brand feels very authentic to who you are, Bruns. Air reaching out to you because they want to work with the people would hire you. Take a moment to close your eyes and imagine when you get everything you've ever wanted from social media. What is that gonna look like? See, the thing is a lot of the times we don't think it's riel. So we don't take the time to visual lights and set those goals and intentions and put it out there in the universe. But that's why it never happens. I'm gonna buy you. Just think of the most dreamy outcome taking this class and having powerful social media presence. What is that gonna look like? What is that gonna feel like? What kind of friends are you working with? How much money are you making? What's happening in your life? Right and down in your notebook. How'd that go for you do that? Help you clarify your gold a little, but great to move forward. The natives believe that each and every single one of us has what they call the original medicine. The original medicine is a set of gifts and talents. Their unique Onley to you. Once you find your original medicine and get the courage to presage the rest is details. That's where this first video is one of the most important ones. But how you discover it? I recommend checking out the book called Transformational Speaking by Gail Larsen. That gives you a lot of great exercises. In the meantime, there is a hack that give you a fast answer right now. Think about it this way. It you had on Lee one message you could share with the world. What would it be? What is the one thing you want to be known for and that want to leave behind as your legacy ? For example, the message of my brand breakfast criminals is start every day would love the whole idea. Behind it is I started account when I was broken hearted. I was single, I just lost the job, and I was looking for a way to reconnect with myself to find a daily practice that would ground me and just help me get through some really difficult stuff in my life by making myself a delicious, nourishing breakfast and a beautiful red heart shaped hole in sharing it with inspiring and uplifting messages. They were really meant for me. Ended up reaching tens of thousands of people around the world, helping them with their own journey off, connecting with their hearts. Think about what your message is. It doesn't have to be perfect. Doesn't have to come to you right now. Just pose that question and let it be given to you. When you're ready, you might be asking yourself, But why does my personal message matter? In this contact scares the truth. There's always a human on the other side of the screen To connect with that human. You need to show you a humanness yourself, even if you're doing socially. If we're Brende, it's the personality behind the brand that really creates the power and establishes through connections with your Ryan's. It doesn't have to all make sense right now. Just keep jotting those things down, and it will all come together. Promise
3. Bring Value, Baby : Okay, let's switch gears. Trump what social media can give you to what you can offer social media and your potential . Bowers. See, if you come to anything with the perspective of what can I get from this not going to go very far? In the end, it's all about contribution, and there needs to be a healthy life cycle to this. Given you take. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen bloggers get into the Social media game gets, um, followers started working with brands and then get just completely burned out. You know why? Because their instagram accounts we're never on authentic expression off who they truly are in real life. So creating and crafting all these posts in this content wasn't actually part of their daily routine. They had to really go out of their way to craft all these beautiful instagram images. That cereal There's a lot of noise out there. Thoughtful and high quality content is more in demand than ever. What is the value that you can bring people for their lives with the social media content with an instagram post that you're gonna share to give you an example? Some of the value that I bring into my followers. Life with my breakfast criminals account are healthy recipes, mindfulness practices on how to start their day, and with my personal account, I share travel tips and my learnings behind the scenes being a full time blogger and its social media entrepreneur, all that goes into my personal brand instagram account. Another value that offer people, is that I really strive to show, for example, that social media can really open a lot of doors for anyone. If you are committed to determined and you do your work, you can create anything with this powerhouse tool. I want everybody to do two things first. Each time before you post something, ask yourself. Is this going to add value to at least one person's life? The answer is yes, posted. If the answer is no, and you're just posting because you're stressed out, haven't posted for a long time. You feel like you should post not the right content to share. Remember, even though you may not know everything about a certain topic, there is still a lot that you can share. There's a lot of lessons you've learned in life. There's a lot of stories your brand has accumulated that you can really share to create a difference for someone. There's always millions of people who are a few steps behind you who know a little less and would love to hear from you. I want you to pause this video, take out your journal and write down three things that your social media community, your instagram followers can learn from you through the content that you're going to share . What is the value that you can add to their lives?
4. Pick A Niche: in this video, we're gonna talk about picking your niche. It is a very important thing to do. Early on, it is okay to experiment in the beginning, post different kinds of content and see what resonates with your community and what you can consistently put out there. But in the end, it's important to pick an issue and stick to it to give you a better idea what I'm talking about. There are a 1,000,000 of food bloggers out there to stand out. Gotta have a niche. You gotta know exactly what kind of audience you're speaking to and what kind of content you're creating. To really stand out, you need to create the specific thing that you want to be known for. If you're a yoga teacher, you want to make sure that there is something in every piece of content you put out there that shows what makes you unique and different. If you're interested in sustainability or I better or travel or you Onley be 99% dark chocolate, whatever different interesting quirks are. They're part of your brands that needs to go in the forefront so that when people come across your instagram account without looking at your name, you're gonna recognize exactly who it was posted by because they know you for something specific for food Blogger, you can try to post recipes of breakfast and lunch and dinner snacks war like I did. You can pick one thing which was, at the time breakfast and just share everything that has to do with it. Recipes and mindfulness tips, rituals, journaling, meditation, everything that has to do with mindful Morning. Think about being niche that you want to occupy something that really excites you, that you could do every day. And that really is authentic to who you are. Maybe you want to be known for creating recipes that are seven ingredients or less. Maybe your account is all about yoga stretches you can do at your desk. Or maybe your excess. Reviewing equal friendly candles. You get a square G and different. It's possible things that make your different is that's gonna help you pick your niche again. You don't have to have all the answers, just dropped down a few things that come to mind, and we'll move forward
5. Optimize Your Profile: Nail That Bio: in the CEO. We're going to be looking at your most valuable real estate, at least when it comes to social media. And that is your instagram bio. The fact is, this in very small area of your instagram profile has an enormous potential to achieve so many goals to show your credibility, to show your sense of style to show your expertise, sell your services and give people a chance to connect with who you are. Also, that is a huge opportunity to give people an idea and a glimpse into what kind of content you post on what kind of value previous lesson we can offer them. I'm so excited to share with you five steps to really nailing that instagram bio step number one. Your instagram bio should include your message, for example, going back to my Brent breakfast criminals. It is start every day with love. Your instagram bio has to reflect the message of your brand. Call it your mission. You can call it your message. Whatever you name it. It has to be something you believe in, and something that really represents the kind of content you put out there and kind of values that are behind all of it. This is also your opportunity to show what makes you different and unique and to really stand out. Number two. Your instagram bio is an excellent place to give your potential followers a glimpse into what kind of content you post and what kind of feeling your brand evokes. And to create that feeling, you can use both words, and you can use emojis every instagrammers favorite weapons CNN thing is, you can't really show your tone of voice through your messages of instagram. And that's why emojis come in to give flavor towards and to express your personality on a deeper, a little more playful level. Number three. Your instagram bio has to have a great profile picture, and when it comes to profile picture, is there a different approaches to it? One way to go about it is a great hand shot that is not too professional, not lengthen. It has to be a photo that really supports the rest of your content once again gives people a glimpse into what kind of personality is behind your account. If your brand is promoting product, I would recommend not using the logo, but using a beautiful editorial shot of your product. Logos just aren't as engaging, and they can appear cold and less relatable and a little bit to corporate number four. A call to action going back to a message and white and creating your instagram account and why it's important, period. Which people? The next step of that is what action do you want people to take? Is it booking a session with you? Is it buying your product looking a spot on your retreat, Buying a book no matter what it is, it has to be very clear. The very last line of your Instagram bio has to end with a call to action. Right now there are various tools. The one that I use is this that allows you to have multiple links in your profile. And that's a great way to pure ate the most important content and pages from your website and put them all in one place on your bio, for example. In my bio, I have multiple links and they include some of my most popular recipes, brand collaborations and campaigns that I'm working up in any special offers. But I know that my followers will appreciate knowing about it could also include a link to your newsletter, because the truth is your instagram page doesn't belong to you. Ultimately, it belongs to Instagram. Well, it's wonderful to investor time into building a community there, and you can reach so many people. It's always very valuable to keep driving people back in building your newsletter because your website and your email list is something that does ultimately belong to you. Number five. Your instagram profile should have an indication off the best way to reach you. One way to do it If you're looking for brand partnerships or you are into the payday emails from clients, you can always put your direct email or your customer service email right in your instagram bio. I'm everything you can do. If you have a website, you can have a contact form on your website and you get a link to it. Or if you're a business that has a brick and mortar location, make sure that the address is indicated in the bio, and the way to do it is to link it with your Facebook business Page. One Very important the way to have tax separated into different lines and not have it. Just be one blob of overwhelming text, Right? Your bio in your Facebook cab is if you're creating a Facebook post and then copy that text and paste it into your instagram bio.
6. Create A Visual Aesthetic (Edit Photos Like A Pro) : Here's the thing if you have the most brilliant message, the most wonderful, beautiful, captivating instagram bio and the most outrageously amazing product. But you don't have high quality photos to support that you're not going to go very far in instagram. Chances are very low that you can truly create a strong presence on Instagram if you don't post high quality photos on instagram. Visual storytelling is king. And in this class we're going to talk about the importance of creating a beautiful visual aesthetic that represents your brand and supports your message. First things first, you to have to start with high quality images, and by that I don't mean that you need to have the most expensive camera with different lenses. IPhone seven will do. I started my INSTAGRAM account four years ago, and I was using iPhone four or five. Since then, the standards have really gone over the roof with instagram photography. But with the advancing technology off smartphones, you can never own a camera, and you can become a famous instagram photographer. How do you actually create high quality images? I'm gonna share a couple of tips first, Like daylight is best especially indirect that's the most important thing. The second most important thing is having a good eye, and some people think that that's something you're either born with or you're not. I think that to some extent you can actually develop that. Just commit to start taking more photos in your daily life and seeing what creates the most beautiful effect. Trust me, you will find your style. Here's another fun dip that you may have never heard about before. Take your iPhone and before you take the photo, clean the lens of your camera with your T shirt to this. Every time before you're about to take a photo, it makes an enormous difference. Okay, you have, ah, high quality photo. It's great light sharp. What do you do next? The next step is editing your photo. This is where it's important to find your style and find a uniformed filter that you can use for all your images so that your visual storytelling is really cohesive. You know, when you look at someone's instagram profile and everything just flows and it pleases your eye, there's two things that create that effect. The first is using consistent filtering and photo editing and the 2nd 1 is laying out your great A grid is what is below your bio. How your profile looks like from your profile page. Let's talk about filtering. I personally used to up snap seed NVs CEO. Other people call it Disco. V S CEO is the most popular app that professional bloggers and instagrammers used to edit their foes. The cool thing about buco is that it comes with preset filters, and then you can either subscribe and get access to all their other filters, or you can buy the specific ones that you want. Personally, I always use the A six and a four filters, and I also used tools like Sharpen brightness. Contrast doesn't think the most, and as nap seed is an app that I used to increase Zambians to create the most beautiful food shots and the most gorgeous landscapes and also snaps. It is incredible for using the brush tool Brush tool is wonderful when you want Teoh increase saturation or brightness or lightness off Onley, certain parts of your photo and not the whole image here some before and afters with via CEO and snap see once you really get the flow of how the editing goes. It won't take you more than five minutes to complete editing one photo And the cool thing about VSC Oh, is that you can save your presets. Once you've really found the kind of editing that you like, you can save it and you can copy and paste that onto other photos so you don't have to mainly due each action again. It's awesome. And going back to the grid, how do you actually create a powerful grid? A beautiful grid that has a sense of look to it is created by first of all, looking at how different colors of your photos are going to look like, just like with anything there, different ways to do it. One is to really match all the colors and make sure, for example, if you're posting a few photos with white background back to back that the whites really matched, that's gonna create beautiful and professional effect. On the other hand, other accounts posed contrast ing photos, and that's just another way of doing it. And it can be very beautiful to you. I'm gonna show you how migrant has a bold since I've started my instagram to now. This was three years ago, and this is today on an important thing to keep in mind when planning your grid. Don't post images that are too similar back to back. For example, if you're posting to images of your outfit back to back, sure that it's different angles, it's different background because it looks too similar. A just doesn't flow. Just like to images of landscape that are too similar in their structure. They just don't look great next to each other. Think about images complementing each other and creating a fuller picture of what your content and your messages about. For example, with criminals trying not to post two images of similar bowls next to each other, one could be an image of the bowl. Another one could be a beautiful photo of coffee and a journal, and in the 3rd 1 could be me cooking something in the kitchen. Do what I mean, different types of content that really contributes to a strong grid. You might be thinking, but how do I actually create a visual aesthetic from my instrument profile? Here's what I recommend, and this is your homework for this class. Go either on Pinterest or going in scrub. And now the Instagram has a very handy save button on the right bottom of any post. You can actually create folders, the Onley you see with images that you like, which can guide you in creating your own unique style. I used to screen shot all of that, but now it's much more easy to save that with an instagram. So, for example, when I was moving into a new place, I created a folder that is my home inspiration, and any image I would see would fall under that category. I would bookmark and save in the album. So now it's all in one place. Same with my instagram account. I have rebranded my personal account, and I'm about to re brand my business from the account. But I've created a folder I've been saving different images that represent the kind of feeling and colors and angles that I want my visual storytelling to include, so that when I really sit down to hone in on what kind of image I want to portray from a visual storytelling, have it all in one place and I can have a sense of direction what kind of images I want to create and then just a quick note. On the other hand, messed around story is something much more informal. We can have much more fun. I don't focus on the best fight or the best angles when I do instagram stories from me. It's just a way to bring people into my home to give them a glimpse of different experiences. Cooking recipes It's just a more raw content gives people more of a human side of me and my team. Fun tip. For your instagram stories, Try curating music for your instagram stories before you start filming it, you can put on a sewn on your phone and start playing, and that's gonna be the background of your story. It's great, especially for the ones where you're not doing your voice over. Also, one more thing about creating the visual aesthetic, especially in the beginning. You don't have to be the owner of all your photos. You can actually curate content from other accounts that you admire. Just make sure to give photo credit to the owners, for example, one of the most popular posts or actually them most popular posts I've ever posted with the re Graham from an artist, and it got 10,000 likes within 48 hours, while normally I was getting about 1000. At that time, it blew up. So keep cried for interesting and creative photos that could fit into your message and your instagram and feel free to repose them, especially when you're running out of original content.
7. Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan: plan your work and work your plan. Personally, I have never been a fan of planning until I realized how much value brings into my marketing strategy instead of seeing it as something that is too structured and serious. I know. See it. It's something that actually creates freedom in my schedule, because there's a lot of content that you can plan ahead of time so that you can have state present in the moment and not have to take out your phone every minute. Two posts or check is going on this right fun fact, and they're 700 million active monthly Instagram users is crazy. An average instagram user opens and closes their instagram app 54 times every single day. Do you want to be that person? I don't We're gonna talk more about that in the last section of this class. How to avoid social media burnout. So planning your work is about two things. Number one is consistency. If you have high quality content, you have great copy to support that you have a beautiful profile, have wonderful product. Can you connecting with people? There's Commons, There's cm's. There's all this engagement and your proper hours alive, and then you disappear for two weeks in don't post. That's not gonna work first, because the algorithm what's probably going to downgrade your account and your followers will start seeing less of your content day by day. And second, if you have already put all this energy building your community in building content, people are used to getting a certain type of content from you and the interaction with you . But you disappearing. There's no room for those relationships. Continue being nurtured. That's why I recommend doing a couple of things. Number one when you have a massive photo opportunity and you happen to take more photos than you have to post that day or can post that day, added them all in a batch and creative folder in your phone and save them for later. Or maybe you have similar photo but different angles. You can easily repurpose that, and we use that on the one hand to make sure that you're saving photos already pre edited, but it to go for times when you get too busy. Or maybe someone is helping you make those posts while you're away. And second, my personal rule is that I only share when I truly feel like there's something that I have to share authentically connect with people and start a conversation. The truth is, I don't feel that way every single day. That's why on days when I do feel inspired, I feel connected. I feel like I have so many ideas and messages to share. I open up a note on my iPhone, and I save either already pre written captions that I can share later, or I just save and jot down ideas of what I could use as the basis of my future captions. This may sound crazy, but I'm a true believer that whatever energy we put into our posts, the person on the other side of the screen is going to feel I don't pose those posts when you're in a bad mood. I want to mention one of my secret weapons. For Instagram, Mastery is using tools that help me plan my grid. The coolest thing about it is that you can see what you've already posted, and then you can pre plan which images you're going to post next. You actually can lay it all out and see ahead of time before posting it. How is going to look together? How it's going to flow together and you can move things around with your finger and just find the most optimal way to curate your grid. Some of the apse I like our plan plan Ali and previous. Some of them are free, and some of them charge you after you've used a certain amount of photos per month.
8. Become BFFs with Hashtags: How the hell do I use hashtag? It's like a secret code language that you never learned in school. How do you go about? We're gonna get into this right now, So there are plenty of ways to automate your hashtags. There are actually specific websites dedicated to you putting in one hash tag and then it gives you suggestions on what the most popular hashtags and that niche are that you can use . I don't support that kind of automation. I see it. As you know, if you want ice cream, are you gonna go to a cheap deli or on the corner and buy ice cream? That may have been in freezer for three years. What are you gonna go to? A mom and pop soul ice cream shop that you know, is committed to making every single scoop with their hands and with love and with care. It's the same with hash tax and the way you can do it with more mindfulness and more soul and more care is by doing manual hashtag research. First, let's back up for a moment. What are hashtags? Hashtags are a tool. The main purpose of them is to really discover different communities and also reach certain communities and people with your content by attaching certain hashtags to your content. The way that I do it is I haven't note on my iPhone with different sets of hashtag that represents different categories of content that I post. For example, I have a whole set about yoga content. I have another set about coffee. Have another set about breakfast bowls so that I have it all ready to go. Whenever I'm making a post, I just grab the proper set of hashtags, and you can have 30 at a time in one post and then I add it. This is a fun pro tip instead of ending it at the bottom of your caption, opposed it as the first common to your photo so that when other common start coming in, it actually becomes hidden and you don't look thirsty. Another way to use Hashtags is to actually come up with brand hashtag that are unique to your business. Or they can become invitations for your customers and clients to use your hashtags to share content that has to do with you and your business. For example, when I started breakfast criminals. Pretty soon after, I started putting hashtag breakfast criminals at the end of my copy. And yes, it's okay to put a couple of hashtags within the copy of your Instagram post for use a good number. And since then, there's over 25,000 posts around the world by hundreds of people, maybe thousands of people that have been created with a hashtag breakfast criminals. When I right click on hashtag breakfast criminals, I see all this content that has been created over the years in chronological order, and I can really connect with my community and also engage with them. So how do you actually research hashtags in? Find the ones that really help you represent your brand and grow your presence. One thing here is to not use hashtags that are too general. For example, hashtag love or hashtag food. Click on them. You'll see how many coasts have been created with those hashtags n. It's in the millions. Your content pretty much is doomed to become lost. So think about more specific and creative Hashtags. And I just started my account and I was obsessed still him with us. Abel's, I would add, hashtag us able to my posts, and then I would actually go and click on it and see what other people have posted under that and then go engage with them and through that, really groom my account in a big, big way. So hashtags go both rights to use them to bring people to your account and then to discover other accounts. That's the most powerful way to use it. But how do you research them? First of all, go through breath that you love that are in a similar field of business, go to the account of different bloggers. They're in the same leash and see what kind of hashtags are using. And then you can pick and choose and curate the ones that speak the most to you. And another fun thing to do is you can actually click on each hashtags that speak to you. And then at the top of the pedo instagram, there's gonna be a suggestion of what other similar hashtags are out there and popular that you can use once you have collected a good amount of hash tags that represent you to save them in your notes and have them accessible when you're ready to make your next post. See, hashtags are not complicated. You got it
9. Engage & Build A Community: So we're more than halfway through the class and I want to know how you're doing. Do you have questions? Are you doing your homework? Are you planning award? Been working a plan, or are you just going over the whole class and then taking notes and planning to come back and do all the homework? You do it, however, it works for you and know that I have more videos coming out on my YouTube channel. So if you have any specific questions, just comment on this class and I'll be responding to as many of those questions as it possibly can. This could be one of my family parts of this whole class, and it has to do with building a community. See, Social Media is a two way street. Unlike traditional advertising that was just a TV screen or radio. Put information out there and hoping that will reach people and put them in action. Instagram is a place where you put your message is out there and you get instant feedback. It's a place to really connect with another human being, create a real conversation that will add value to people lives instead of a marketing push . And again, even if you have all the previous things we've talked about in this class in place and then you're not responding to any comments you're getting to any direct messages you're getting , that people are slowly just going to lose interest and following you. So it's important to stay in the conversation. And the way to do it is to respond to comments to respond to direct messages, to use the hash tag trick that we just went over in the previous class. And then it's also important to engage with the brands and their accounts, maybe his potential friend ambassadors for you that you really like whose message you resonate with. Do you really want to establish a relationship every single day, set aside at least 20 minutes to do all those things to both respond to inbound enquiries as well as do outbound outreach? It's trying to sound serious, but really it's just human to human connection and conversation, really go to other accounts and acknowledge their content. Comment on it established relationship young building a brand. I have also met people who have become some of the closest people in my life through Instagram because your instagram profile has this capacity to really become like a microcosm off who you are, what's important to you and what kind of conversations you wanna have in life. It becomes a really fun opportunity to find like minded people and connect with them and create awesome things together. And that goes both to individual accounts and to breath. Another thing I started doing very early on is I started reaching out to brands that I admired, like LaBianca to Dion and Sweetgreen. Basically, my email would say something like, I'm a huge fan of your brand and I would love to find a way to support you, really hard to say no to that. Even though I was just starting out on my journey because there was such an alignment between my message and their brand, I would get yes, most of the times, and I ended up hosting several events in New York City in D. C and other places where I had an opportunity to connect with my followers and my community in person in real time. And there's real magic behind talking to someone on social media for months or maybe years and then meeting them in person, and especially if you are brand, your community is really going to appreciate those opportunities and experiences that you can really create for your followers to experience the world of your brand in person. And again, if you're a blogger and you have a very specific niche, it's a great opportunity to reach out to brands that are in a similar niche and pitch yourself and ask them to support you and offer your support in return. Don't get stuck with how many numbers you have. Trust me. The alignment between the masters is much more important, especially with the rise of micro influencers. Another thing I started doing very early on as well to grow my community to collaborate and increase the impact of everything that I was creating is I started reaching out to like minded bloggers and influencers and figuring out ways we can support each other. Some of my biggest professional growth as an entrepreneur and blogger has happened when I have reached out to someone like that, someone who I admire who have similar interests with and we would just get together and would brainstorm would find points of alignment and then figure out a way we can work together, exchange knowledge, exchange expertise, exchange contacts with brands you can only get so far in your own. So collaboration is the way to go. You know, when you go to a party and there's a one person who just comes up, introduces himself and talks about himself the whole time. You don't want to be that person. Be curious. Ask questions, respond to comments and be in conversation with other humans.
10. The Magic Dust: Authenticity: First of all, I want to acknowledge you for making it this far in the class. It means the world to me. And your commitment to using social media to create really impact is amazing. High five. Are you ready to talk about this secret ingredient to social media success that magic dust that pulls it all together? Authenticity Being authentic is the on leeway to create riel long lasting success on social media or anywhere else. Really, it's so important to be sharing what's Trujillo hard. What you're really passionate about what you really care about. People on the other side of the screen are gonna sense it, and they're gonna be magnetically drawn to how real you are. And here's the thing. We also tend to think that social media is this curated thing that needs to show only the best and most beautiful aspect of your life and your business when the truth is the real connection and the rial impact happens when you share your imperfections, just think about the older girl. She is the first Yogi that got really famous on Instagram ended up during the world writing a bestselling book, and her instagram started with her posting really, really and vulnerable stories about her insecurities, about struggles about very personal things in her life. But the captions were just so riel and brought that they magnetized a following us now in the millions. So if you listen to this class and you're thinking to yourself, well, do great. But I don't have this part of my life together yet or my business. So I'm not gonna start posting until that's in place. That's like living in the illusion off the £10. You know, the illusion of the £10 when you lose £10 everything is just gonna miraculously turned into Disney. Movie doesn't happen like that. You have to start putting yourself out there. Now, even if you think you're not ready, this is your time. The world needs your message in this unique way. And don't let anyone, including yourself, stop you. Your voice is important. And if you think that you don't have the right look to become successful or instagram or your wardrobe is not great, and I've got to stop it and focus on the message that you were here to share and start putting that out there and your commitment to sharing and to connecting is ultimately going to become so much more fulfilling and important than all the little details that do fall into place with time, start behaving yourself and sharing what you know and being really being humor. That's what we all are drawn to at another bonus point of being authentic on social media is that you aren't going to find yourself stuck or stopped by comparison or competition. You actually are going to see other people being in their element and sharing their message as an opportunity to learn, grow and maybe even collaborate, even on energetic level. I remember one blogger that's in a similar news to me. She posted this collaboration with a brand. My first thought was, Why did this friend not choose me? I'm so qualified, were so lined. Why did they choose her and not meet one for a little walk? It kind of shook it off. Let go of that comparison. And then I asked myself, What is it about this situation that has triggered me? And I realized that first of all, the fact that they chose her for this campaign doesn't mean that something was taken away from me. There are plenty of opportunities for all of us to be supported, self expressed and hired. That is a fact. So instead of going down the rabbit hole of comparison and maybe I'm not good enough, maybe my brand is not strong enough. Instead, I chose to be happy for that person. I looked at that collaboration. I studied it. I asked myself, What can I learn from it? Magically. The next day, that brand reached out to me and asked me to collaborate with them in a similar project. But that aligns more with me. Sometimes magical things like that will happen once you let gold that grip and that attachment. But what's the underlying foundation of all of it is just remembering that your message is unique and it's important to be expressing yourself in your very unique, authentic way, and the right people are going to be drawn to you, be yourself on. Instagram is a great space to practice that and just be the most unstoppable movie star self express version of yourself. That's pretty much the hidden goal off this course that I'm the most interested in
11. Social Media Burnout? Ain't Nobody Got Time For This: it's important to take the necessary steps to really grow your digital presence and your brand and leave a footprint where you can't get hung up on it, and you can't let it dictate your life as a full time blogger who gets to spend every single day on my phone on my computer putting hashtags editing photos, I'm gonna share a couple of tips that helped me establish healthy boundary with social media so that I am still able to be present for people in my life and, frankly, for myself. First of all, I am big on morning and night routines, and I highly recommend not checking Instagram first thing in the morning and before you going to sleep. Otherwise, you're letting your whole day being dictated by what you just saw in your feed in your whole night. What's supposed to be arrests, dictated and influence, but what you just saw other people posting by yourself a good all alarm and leave your phone out of your bedroom. Trust me, if you do just this one thing, it's going to make a tremendous difference and help you avoid coming, overwhelmed with the responsibility that is being active on social media. Second thing, once you start getting more comments and followers and likes, what you can do is going to your instagram settings and then edit your notification settings to not have your phone buzz or light up every single time you get someone engaging on your conduct. I learned this from another blogger World Wonder List for a long time ago, and before that my screen would just be constantly blowing up with comments and likes, And I felt like it's my responsibility to go and interact and see what's happening. And since I've turned all of that off, my life has just so much more calm, and I actually check my instagram less, and I can get more things done. So turn off the notifications. That's a big one. Another thing is often times we see something on Instagram, and it triggers, and it brings different side of us, not always the best ones. There's two ways to deal with that one. Go and then follow the accounts that don't lift you up. Why waste your time on something that does not ignite yourself vision? No place in your life for that unfollowed. That's the beauty of it. You get to actually curate who you get to seeing your feet, who you get to connect with. Do a massive cleanup of your instagram so that every time you end up on your home feed, you only see things that elevate you that inspire you that motivate you, my Jew, who you really are and what kind of connection you wouldn't have with other people. And if you're noticing that certain people in your feet for some business or personal reasons and you can't follow them and they keep popping up in your feet and triggering something in you do an inquiry and look inside yourself what is triggered in you and why, perhaps instead of comparing or judging, you can ask yourself, What can I learn from this person? Or what can I learn from this post? What can I learn from myself feeling this way? And I don't mean to get all psycho analytical on you, But the truth is a lot of the times when I I found myself beating myself down because of something I saw on social media, I was disconnected from my essence and from my heart. That's why I do my full of three mornings. I do my phone free nights. I have my practices and a life outside of social media. That reminds me what I'm committed to, what I won't create in life, what values are and the importance of human connection. I face to face one last note. Don't expect your numbers to go through the roof immediately. Don't expect anything from your numbers, Really. The truth is when we're attached to it and we're constantly checking our instagram accounts drying, see only, well, ours we have how many comments and legs and keep updating the feet. It's like a vicious cycle that is just wasting your energy artists. They create something that put it out there, and then it has a life of its own. You have to, in a way, share yourself and then give it up and give up your attachment to the outcome and just let it create the impact that it's meant to create in the world. And you set back and you reconnect with your essence and you take on other things that are important to you. Just think about all the time and space you would free up if you would stop constantly checking your instagram or expecting something from the numbers. He will be a miracle. Try it. And hey, I'm not saying that I'm always following this 100% of the time, but having those guidelines to go back to you when I sense myself feeling out of balance or being overwhelmed by social media, I just examine it and I look at what have I been doing that does not support me and takes me away from while creating. It's always super easy to pinpoint where the disconnect happened and bring myself back. Also ultimately, on instagram the number of followers and open some doors. Impressive people and companies. But in the end, it's the engagement and the human connection that really matters. And the end of the day, it's not the numbers. It's not the likes that create a real difference, but it's going to bed at night and feeling like you've really connected with another human . The really impacted someone. You really move someone that's the whole goal off social media And I'm so grateful that you took the time to take this hashtag mindful class and can't wait to see what you're creating . Please posed your updated bios. Your grids. I want to see all of it. Asked me questions. I hope you got a lot of value from this class. I hope you got the value you didn't even know you could have gotten. I hope you're inspired. You feeling more connected with yourself and you feel a little more ease around this whole social media game. Cheers. I'll see you on Instagram. Follow me there.
Ksenia Avdulova, Mindful Social Media Expert
