What if you could create the supportive peer-to-peer community of your dreams? In today’s episode, I have the honor of introducing you to Jessica Whitaker, creator of the Build + Bloom community and podcast. Jessica is sharing her most impactful social media strategies, her key tips for establishing boundaries in your business, and the impact that comes from growing your own community. 

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

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Today’s episode is brought to you by the FREE Book More Weddings guide. Learn how to easily capture behind the scenes video for organic referrals, local followers, and increased brand awareness. You want to make sure you have this before your next wedding! 

Review the Show Notes:

How Entrepreneurs Are Wasting Time On Their Phones (2:54)

Creating Healthy Boundaries To Stop Scrolling (5:16)

What To Prioritize To Start Making Profits (12:27)

Growing A Community Online (17:18)

Offering Mentorship (22:12)

Monetizing An Audience (24:51)

Go Viral Locally (29:06)

Key Tip From Jessica (31:10)

Connect with Jessica:

Build + Bloom 

Youtube 

Podcast 

Instagram 

Review the Transcript:

Quianna Marie

If there’s ever a time when you feel like something is missing from your industry, you wish something existed to help your business grow, or there was a safe space to ask questions. This episode will share a ton of encouragement and inspiration to not just accept an invitation to grab a seat at the table of business peers, but to build your own table. Many thanks to my photography bestie Amanda Rose of AGS photo art for introducing me to today’s guest of honor. I’ve had the privilege of being a guest twice on the build and bloom podcast hosted by Jessica Whitaker.

Today’s connection call with Jessica will leave you feeling inspired with action steps to help fuel your dream career and make your wildest dreams become your reality. Jessica Whitaker started teaching digital photography on YouTube in 2016, and is one of the first woman to fill the gap of more representation of female photographers business and film educators on YouTube.

With a large following and growing community Jessica also runs a nonprofit photography community called Build and bloom, offering education and encouragement for photographers of all ages, fostering local communities of artists. Jessica is a trailblazer paving the path for photographers and artists to not only take better photos, but to help empower them to take control of their future.

I love Jessica’s ability to share tangible business advice that ignites action with clarity. I’m beyond grateful for this connection call to hear more about social media strategies, creating boundaries with life and business. moving the needle forward without spinning your wheels, and the power of growing your own community. With a warm welcome. I’m proud to introduce you to Jessica Whitaker. Welcome to Kiana Murray weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins big or small by dancing in the kitchen photographers who are excited to serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase really, really big dreams.

You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode at QuiannaMarie.com/podcast. Join me as I share weekly motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party. Ready? Let’s go. All right. All right. And welcome to the party! Jessica, I’m so so thankful you could be here today.

Welcome Jessica Whitaker

Jessica Whitaker
I am so happy to be here. Oh my goodness.

Jessica Whitaker
Yes, girl, you inspire me daily. And I’m so so thankful that Amanda rose connected us so long ago, and I’ve had the opportunity to be on your podcast. And now I finally get to have you jump on mine. It’s gonna be so much fun.

Jessica Whitaker
I am so excited. Yes, thank

Jessica Whitaker
you. Well, let’s dive into these questions. Because we have some juicy ones for you today, you are very well established. And you have so much going on. And I just want to get to the questions. Let’s do it. Yes. So please tell us, Jessica, how are photographers and entrepreneurs wasting their time on their phones.

How Business Owners Are Wasting Their Time On Their Phones

Jessica Whitaker
So when it comes to wasting time on your phone, I feel like most of it revolves around social media usage. And whether that’s you get on Instagram, with the intention to post but you don’t have anything queued up I know that you teach all about and how to organize and plan out your content. But you go on there with the intention to post but you end up just continuously scrolling for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. And when you have all these other photographers that you’re following, which is great to support your community, right.

For some of us, it can be like you’re comparing yourself against other people’s work. If they’re posting that they just got a new mirrorless camera, your posts or you’re comparing yourself about their equipment, or maybe even where they’re at financially. You’re seeing their editing cues, and you’re seeing them out shooting weddings every weekend.

It can just feel very discouraging. Instead of getting on Instagram with the intention, like it was kind of created originally for inspiration and community, it’s having that opposite effect on you. I know that’s true for so many users but especially for photographers, the same can go for any social media app that you have on your phone, tick tock or even if it’s Twitter or Pinterest, these apps that we don’t really use on the mobile phone, but we still pull up and we scroll through even if it’s procrastination from other responsibilities in life. There are so many hours that we are wasting and it all kind of falls into the comparison trap.

Quianna Marie

Oh yeah, I can totally relate to that. And I actually used to call that photography lala land where I feel like at one point, I was scrolling next to my best friend and you know on her feet is all these cute dog videos and all these cute things about fashion and really fun travel videos. And then you look at my feet and it’s all weddings and On portraits ad, which of course, like we get sucked up into the algorithm of what we’re looking for, but that can easily just be a time sucker instead of actually make your business move forward and create that engagement.

Jessica Whitaker
Yeah. 100%. Yes.

Quianna Marie
So please tell us what advice or tips or systems do you have in place to help yourself create those boundaries. So we don’t just waste our time scrolling, and we can start producing instead of just scrolling.

Creating Healthy Boundaries With Social Media

Jessica Whitaker
So there’s a few different tiers, you could go at different levels, depending on how extreme you want to go. And I think you should start at the very, very easiest to entry and instead of jumping to an extreme, so I recommend to mute Instagram accounts, whether that stories and posts or just posts or just stories, I wouldn’t do both. And then when you get on Instagram, you don’t have to do every single person. But I would recommend if you have the time, maybe when you’re watching TV for the next seven nights, go on for like 10 minutes and start muting.

So that then when you’re on the app, you are less likely to get distracted in that way of infinite scrolling. And what I would do is I would go on to my own profile and click the following. So I can see everybody that I’m following. When I want to intentionally spend the time to catch up or to engage, because that’s important for a business is to interact with the accounts that we’re following. Then I’m able to do that more intentionally. And it’s less likely that I’m going to spend an hour or so scrolling and comparing. So that’s kind of the easiest way to do it.

The other suggestion I would also have, in addition to that is deleting the apps that you can easily use on desktop on your computer. So Twitter’s a good example. Pinterest is probably the best one, I don’t know how many people who use Pinterest for business, who open it on the phone and actually are pinning things for fun for leisure.

So any app that you can use on the desktop, remove Facebook is also a good example too. And with that, if you want to even remove Instagram without deleting the app totally, you can actually go into your settings and I believe on iPhone, it’s under theory. And you can have toggle each individual app to actually be hidden from your home screen and hit it from search. So in order for you to actually go on Instagram, it’s you’re jumping through multiple hoops where you actually have to go to the App Store, type in Instagram, and then it will let you open the app.

So if you are somebody who kind of has that habit of you see on your home screen, you pop it or it’s in that suggested app when you when you tug down and you pull up the search bar on your phone, that’s another way to be able to kind of eliminate usage a little bit. And then the more extreme would be to delete Instagram, when it’s not your office hours. And this would only really work for people who have the ability. I would say even full time photographers, when I was working in an office and I was working in warehouse, I was doing two jobs and I was in college, I basically would fit in my social media like posting when I would be on my bathroom break at work.

That wouldn’t work for me back in when I had a traditional job. But now since I am self employed, I have that freedom to actually have a nine to five or I mean, okay, ideally nine to five. For so many of us, it’s more like 10 or 11 hours. But the idea is that I can have more freedom and choosing when to post. So I could not be on Instagram in the morning and not be on Instagram at night when I close my computer. And then the more extreme version. This is something that I recently adopted was I actually got a second phone for work. It wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be it was $10 additional to my plan.

With this phone, I’m able to have a separate Apple ID. So I can even use that for clients. If I was somebody who was open to clients texting with me, I could have that phone number as your business number. And then you can also have all of your social media apps on the phone. So haflong can live at your desk but doesn’t come with you when you go and hang out with your friends when you go on a date or even when you’re running errands.

That’s it a little bit that’s more extreme, but I was surprised at how affordable it was. Now granted, I already owned the phone. It’s an older iPhone. Now I know with a lot of carriers, you basically are renting your iPhones but it’s something to consider or even if you’re open to a different type of phone to buy or something. But those are the three different tiers. And I think it’s best to start at the very first one which would just be muting the accountants.

Quianna Marie
Yes. Well, I feel like you dropped so many words of wisdom here and I definitely want to kind of revisit that fact that you’re being really intentional about your social media. And one thing that like I’m already going to start doing right away, is actually going back into my Instagram and going to my following. And like seeking people that I want to see and that I want to engage with. I don’t know why I feel like that’s mind blowing information just because I feel like I feel like sometimes we are just kind of caught in that rabbit hole of just scrolling.

I know, reels are so fun, they’re eye candy, and they’re funny, but like, how much more intentional and how much like, better use of your time would it be if you can actually just go to someone that you love, a friend, a fellow photographer, you know, family member, and go through their reels that they’ve just posted? And like and laugh at those right? Instead of just like, being at the whim of the algorithm? I love. They’re being really intentional about that.

Jessica Whitaker
Thank you. I found for me, yes, I get addicted to reels once I’m on the real page, but I find most of my time is spent going onto stories, because that’s really that continual hole to the rabbit hole. But with when I go over to my following, sometimes I don’t even click into the profile, I’m more looking at who actually has a ring around their profile photo. So who has posted a story. And that’s the best way for me to be able to engage because then it’s way more efficient.

I kind of get tired after like 10 minutes, but it was 10 minutes spent engaging. And so I think that’s like that’s one of the easiest ways to begin. And I know it also if somebody is scared of like, oh, it muting like why that sounds so mean. Well, nobody knows that you’re muting and you’re not muting, because you’re consciously you might be subconsciously jealous, right. But like, you’re muting for your own efficiency, and also for your mental health as well. But more so that when you’re on the app, you can use it like a business tool, rather than for personal use.

Quianna Marie
Yeah, I love that. Well, now that we are all going to be really strategic about getting those apps either off of our phone. I love how you mentioned the tears, like you could take a baby step or you could just jump in, like headfirst, right? And so I love that you’re giving us those options. So now that we have maybe taken some apps off of our phone, and we’re being very strategic about only tapping into them during office hours, or even like you suggested, just get a whole new phone, you just get a whole new system. I love that. So please share with us what would be your advice is like now that we are, you know, not walking around with social media like in the palm of our hand. What would you suggest business owners prioritize first to start making profits?

What To Prioritize First To Start Making Profits

Jessica Whitaker
This is the answer that nobody wants to hear, because it’s very boring, but your website, your website, optimizing it for SEO. So SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s how Google ranks your website. So for example, if you search Seattle photographer right now on Google, that first page, those websites have been ranked by Google. And it’s because of all of the work they put into the back end of their site. So there’s lots of different ways you can use SEO, it’s like endless as well. But I think the best way to begin would be on your platform, Squarespace. For example, you can actually do little SEO tweaks on each page, you can add additional information, it’s like a its own separate popup window, but also through blogging as well. So all of your sessions, you should be blogging that, in my opinion, where you have, what state you’re based in what city you’re based in, or where the session took place, and a beautiful gallery of images.

There’s lots of amazing tools out there. Now that also can help you blog the images faster than just individually dragging them into the websites that form I like narrative. And that will upload everything as individual files the code instead of a big collage, so people can still use it for Pinterest. I actually recently did a website review video, I tried to do it about once a year on my YouTube. And I noticed a lot of people who submitted their websites for reviews didn’t have any blogs, they just had separate gallery pages that would either be a carousel or a big collage. And that’s really inefficient, because you’re not you’re not doing Google any favors.

There’s tons of free resources on optimizing your site for SEO. I have a lot of just website videos available on my YouTube channel. And even though it’s not as glamorous, if you just took the time that you were spending on Instagram, doing Doom scrolling and put that into the website, then it’s kind of done you do have to update your site every now and again and like tweak it and as new features come out and new tools especially with AI but it’s kind of one and done and then you can focus on the fun stuff like Instagram and Tiktok and Building a strategy for that a little bit later on, and you still definitely need to be posting to Instagram for consistency. But eliminating the additional hours you’re spending comparing yourself against other people. Yeah.

Quianna Marie
Oh, no, I love that so much. And I feel like, I feel like that’s something that people have so many different opinions about, right. But like, oh, no, like, you should jump on social media right away? Oh, no, you definitely need to get the SEO and the backend of your website done. But I love how you actually explain that, right. So it’s not just highlighting and showcasing your work, but it’s, for me, the best way to describe SEO was like creating almost like little spider webs, right? Like little pieces, little like connections that are just on the World Wide Web, literally, a web guy is like pictures. You’re just a piece of it, right? And that’s what’s going to help either people that are actively searching for the type of photography or the city or the state location that you’re in. That’s how you’re really going to get those organic looks.

Then I feel like people then after they’ve discovered you on Google will then go on to social media and be like, okay, is this girl real? Like, you know, what is she? What is What are, you know, him or her like, what do they sound like? You know, are they really that legit? And gosh, they’re charging a lot. Let me look at their Instagram and see what’s going on. Right? Like, that’s yeah, full circle. We need it all.

Jessica Whitaker
Yes, you definitely need it all. It’s just about, okay, how much time are you really spending on Instagram using the app? And how much time are you scrolling and distribute that time into real estate that you own, which would be your website and social media, amazing tool, but it’s rented. So we have to be able to we want to use both. But you really do want to focus on building your house first, right?

Quianna Marie
Yes. Oh, I love that analogy. Oh, my gosh, well, Jessica, you clearly are already just like schooling us over here. You’re sharing so much information, so many words of wisdom. And one thing that I really, really admire you among the many things about you is your your heart and your hustle for community. And you have truly built very, very large audiences, and just incredible communities, whether it’s your built in bloom Facebook group for photographers, and entrepreneurs, as well as your thriving podcast, and I just would love to know, What decisions did you make early on to help grow such a large audience?

Growing A Community Online

Jessica Whitaker
Okay, thank you so much. So the first decision I made was differentiating my built in bloom, Facebook group community from all the other groups at the time, I believe building bloom came out in 2016. I think it’s been so long, I think 2016 I was still in college. And so I was probably 20 or 21 at the time. And I was a part of other Facebook groups that were like, all boomers who were super rude kind of thing. Like, they were not welcoming of younger beginner photographers, it was more of that traditional, older man, landscape photographer, which is amazing, but we don’t think about it.

Yeah. So, um, there wasn’t really and that was it, like, and then you had a bunch of people who were more like, hipsters, and like, Too Cool For School in that community, because that was also the only thing that was available, just kind of became this breeding ground and of just super weird pretentious, a lot of men too. And so just not beginner friendly, not female friendly, and not friendly to be like silly. So sometimes I would troll the groups to, and I would post and I would have like my photo, because at the time you posted one photo and you know, share your settings.

I’d post my photo, but I would like type in all caps, because I knew their reaction would be like, What are your technical catch cops about getting engagement, you know, so I love to troll in the groups. And so I started my own community that was just going to be the polar opposite, like younger beginner photographers, more female focused in Philly and so at the time Facebook Live had also just come out and so I would do Facebook Lives where I would be in like facemask and my childhood bedroom with like my buddy and my dog, and I would just do I would be myself and it would be the opposite of these very traditional kind of old school groups.

With that I it just started to grow rapidly because it was also the only thing available at the time. And now it’s cool to see how you know more people are creating communities for different levels, and it’s evolved so much, but at the time that was really It had my YouTube channel is time so I would always like tell people at the beginning or the end of the video, almost like a little ad read to go check out the Facebook group and not just say join my Facebook group, but explain the benefits of joining.

If you want to be a part of a kind, inclusive community, check out the building bloom Facebook group, I’d be really intentional about my wording so I would not say like my Facebook group, I would say the Facebook group, and give examples. So kind of same thing, if I teach, I started to teach some people how to do YouTube for photographers. And one of the things is like, if you’re asking somebody to scribe subscribe to your channel, which is essentially like following on Instagram, instead of saying subscribe to my channel, it helped me a lot.

I always hear YouTubers say that, and it’s so bad, because it doesn’t give anyone incentive. Instead, I would say, be sure to hit subscribe. You’re the first to know when new free videos for your business come out. So it’s all about changing the wording. And so bringing it back to the community aspect, when you have all of your copy, which is like the wording on your website, or your script, or in the YouTube video, how I’m saying the benefits to you, rather than this is my community, join my Facebook group, your all these little details can help grow your platform, or also if you’re trying to grow community, as well. So that’s how I started.

That’s why I started the Facebook group, and how and then how I just started to build it in the very beginning. And still to this day is on all my YouTube videos, I’ll help people, that’ll be one of the calls to action.

Quianna Marie
Yeah, that’s beautiful. And you’re right, it is just a tweak of the phrase, right? It’s just a reframing, to make it about the user or the student or the other photographer to really gain that access and that knowledge that they’re looking for, right, like people are looking for you and I love it just makes my heart so happy that you found a need. You were like looking around all over Facebook, and you couldn’t find any other groups that were welcoming and inclusive. And the fact that you decided, I’m going to start something new, because I need this, right, like I need this.

I know that others are going to need this, too, is so powerful. I feel like you know, there’s so many things around us where we’re like, gosh, if it was just done a little bit differently, I think this would help someone. And so I’m just so proud that you took that leap of faith and it’s thriving, and like the fact that you’re growing this large audience is just so admire trouble. That’s awesome. Thank you. So many of us are shifting pivoting and learning daily. We’re juggling all these different ideas and all these fun things. What has been your experience with adding education and mentoring to your photography business?

Offering Mentoring

Jessica Whitaker
Oh, that’s a good question. So in 2017, I went full time in my photography business. I had been doing it ever since middle school, like a lot of people my age, if you’re a Gen Z, you probably also grew up like doing photo shoots with your friends and stuff, posting it to Facebook or Instagram just for fun. I went full time in 2017. That took me about a year or a year and a half of planning to be able to make that move. And I had my youtube channel since I can’t even remember 2013, probably 2014 or so.

I had already been creating Photography content on YouTube. But when I went full time in my business, I was offering like mentoring sessions, but not just for photography, it more revolved around social media management brands would come and they would do like, I would almost call it consulting over like mentoring, because it would just be one or two calls.

I would teach them how to use Instagram at the time the platform was very different. And almost like the cheat codes are like, Okay, this is how you should be posting you know, now there’s so many resources and stuff. But I was like self learning all these different things. So I was doing this consultation calls. Also for photographers, yes. But it was this big mix of business owners and social media and photographers and then it just kind of evolved.

A lot of people would see that, oh, I moved from Seattle to New York City. And I have clients in New York, I want to you know, New York is a very aspirational place for a lot of people. And so it’s kind of like, How can I do that? Cuz I had already like the proof was already in the pudding, you know, and so I just started taking in that same format with my consultation calls.

I feel like I started taking the photography consult calls before that, because I can remember being in my childhood bedroom and like doing the calls. But I just always had it available because I was doing the consult stuff. So it has always naturally evolved for me and have has always kind of been there. It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly when I started doing like one on one education, but I just utilize my YouTube to start teaching and then you know, people want to learn more and they want to like pick your brain and so then it’s like, okay, mentoring is the spot for that.

Quianna Marie
I love that. Well, I feel like you just walked right into the next question where I was curious that like with your YouTube and with your consulting, how are you monetizing that? Is that something that right now you’re just focusing on your own photography Yeah, and your own coaching programs like, please share more about how you started monetizing with YouTube. And as your business is growing and all your audience is getting there, you know, is that something that you’re able to actually add to your bottom line.

Monetizing Your Audience With An Impact

Jessica Whitaker
When COVID happened, I had to compensate for all that income that I was losing from photography clients. And so I started like, amping up more than mentoring by doing group classes. So I did this one program called business basics. And it was basically like, all of the boring like, how to start a business bank account, how to find an accountant, all these things that maybe some photographers have put off. And now we have the time to do that, now that our shoots are canceled, right. So that’s one example. And then with YouTube, you know, I’ll have sponsors for videos as well. And then that’ll be like a 62nd, or 92nd ad read into the sponsor will pay to have that but also through, like affiliate links, I don’t make too much through affiliate links. But you can have affiliate links, but then the best way I think, is to just funnel them into your email list.

Because then your email lists can become your photography clients, but they also if you want to pursue photography, education, they can become your photography, education clients. But for me, I really prioritized like the email list would be photography clients. So that’s the way I’m able to monetize my YouTube where even if the book is it from the YouTube video itself, and my views are pretty low, honestly, like they used to be much higher. And now they’re pretty low. But I think it’s just the content I make like I pretty repetitive, because I know it works.

Going Viral Locally For More Engagement + Brand Awareness

I’m not very explorative. And that’s something I should do. But anyways, so on my video, for example, in the upper corner, I’ll have a little watermark almost that says a URL. So it’s like Jessica Whitaker dot CEO slash free gift. And that would go into my website that has two calls to action on that page one’s like a budget spreadsheet, download one’s a preset.

I honestly should also have another one there. That’s for photography clients, but my website pretty directs them clients that they want to. But anyway, so that’s one example of being able to funnel people but that another is by saying in the video, join the Facebook group, because on the Facebook group, in order to join, you have to put your email address. So it’s all about kind of looking at your content from how can I have a call to action in here where I’m I’m bringing value by the topic of speaking on. But also there needs to be next step.

Because if you’re just posting a video, and you have the intention to use it to grow your email list for your business, then you have to have a call to action. Otherwise, it’s it could be the best content and it could perform amazing, you could get 100,000 views, you could get a million views. But if there’s nowhere for them to go, then that’s all it is. Whereas even if a video of mine only gets 1200 views, I’m able to convert that actually to a pretty high, like rate for my email list for my free resources.

Quianna Marie
Yeah, and I feel like that’s the missing link. For a lot of us. I think there’s this kind of vanity metrics goal, where we just think, Oh, we just need more followers, we need more legs, we need more views. And, and I know even with me personally, too, with all my behind the scenes videos and things it’s like sometimes with algorithms, it’s tough out there, like it’s really hard. And it really doesn’t matter as long as you have that call to action or people are, are, you know, like they’re sticking to you, right? Like they want to hang around because they know that that one piece of content was very valuable. They can’t wait for what’s next. So that’s awesome.

Jessica Whitaker
100%. Yeah, it can be discouraging if you look at the numbers, but like you at the numbers that like the vanity metrics, but you really have to look at like your system. And if first if your system is working, then you’re totally good. But it can be discouraging to see like, oh my gosh, this video only got 1200 views. But if it converted really well, that’s all that really matters.

Jessica Whitaker
Yes. Oh, I love this so much, Jessica, thank you

Quianna Marie
Okay to say one thing to you. It kind of goes back to on your podcast with me or when you are out. Okay, you’ve been on a couple of building new podcasts and one of them you’re talking about how stop worrying about going viral on the whole internet internationally. Because if you’re a local wedding photographer, you just want to go viral in your town in your city or in the cities you want to book in. Because most of the people who are watching the viral video may never book you. So that’s like a super low that’s like a 0% conversion rate. Right? But even if one person or a couple people book you from a handful of reels that you did, that’s so successful.

I have to remind myself still that when you gave that example on my podcast, because I even get discouraged and like so down about it and sometimes I’ll feel even like pathetic like, oh my gosh, I’m so dumb like, you know, my videos only get 1000 views whatever. From the outside. But then you have to look on the back end and be like, Oh, this is actually converting really well, and I don’t have to have a million views on a video in order to have a successful business. And I think that’s where also a lot of people get discouraged too, and they want to quit, or they quit, like three videos in or something.

Quianna Marie
Oh, yeah, no, I’m so happy. You mentioned that, because it’s so true. It is more profitable to go viral locally, right? Like, that’s like, my favorite thing is like, it doesn’t have to go across the world. You don’t need people booking you across the country across the world. Like, I even know, especially as a photographer, here, like sometimes you only want to work at like three or four venues. Or maybe you have your favorite spots for mini sessions. And like you know where to park you know, where the bathrooms are like, you have a system down. And the more viral you get, the more like, globally viral you get, like people are gonna ask you to go all over.

Jessica Whitaker
Yeah. And for some people, they want to do that. But for others, it might not even be maybe you want to, but it doesn’t end up working out. Or there’s just so there’s so much wisdom to when you said like don’t focus on going viral focus on going like being known locally. Yes.

Jessica Whitaker
I love that. Oh my gosh, yes. So I love asking every guest on Quianna Marie Weekly. In closing, what is your best key tip? What is something that you wish you knew sooner?

JESSICA’S KEY TIP

Jessica Whitaker
What I Wish I Knew sooner was starting an email list. And I started mine in 20, summer 2018. I went full time in 2017. Like in September, so it hadn’t almost been it’s been like a full year. And I remember I had listened to a podcast or two from Amy Porterfield. And I don’t listen to any business podcasts anymore, because it just overwhelms me honestly. But I do if I am gonna listen and listen to her because she was talking about starting an email list.

I feel like now it’s more prevalent a few years later, but starting an email list is really powerful, because that’s how people are actually going to almost guarantee to see your posts essentially. Whereas on Instagram, it’s up to the algorithm. It’s up to if they have social media boundaries, and maybe they have you muted. And they aren’t going to see your posts always. But if you send an email and you’re doing it the right way, almost guarantee that they’re going to see your email, they’re going to see your email. If they open it, that’s another thing, right. But that’s the most powerful way for me to be able to book clients as well, whether it’s for I mean, I’m just speaking for photography, clients, but also for like mentoring sessions or whatever it might be.

The sooner you can start it, the better. And it’s best to just start with a really simple opt in. And so create like a little free. I mean, there’s so many, I’m sure you have podcast episodes on it. There’s so many resources, but create a really simple freebie, and then have that on your Instagram, have it on your website. And that can be the best way to connect with clients honestly, like new and old. Because again, like everybody uses this illustration, but Instagram and tick tock, that’s all like rented, it’s not our own. And that’s great. But with our website and our email list, we actually own that.

That’s like our data to be able to use for our business. And so and make sure that it gets in front of people. So even though again, it’s like I’m giving you any, so most boring things to do like your website and your email list. But once it’s done, it’s done. Like once you have that freebie created, it’s done. And I still have been using. I mean, like it’s a little outdated. But I still have that preset, I made a free preset for a free because I also wanted to make one that would like guarantee people were going to be interested in.

So I made a free preset. And it’s still like, that was from 2018. So it’s several years old. And you know, who knows if it really works, so the new update to Lightroom. But like, that’s how I mean, I was able to grow my list by like 1000s I had to push it hard on Instagram, but I didn’t have that many Instagram followers too. So you’d have to create some Yeah, anyway, okay, start your email list, create something simple for the call to action.

Going back to when we were talking about how to word stuff, you know, on your email pop up box on your website, don’t just use their standard copy that they have, like, subscribe to my email list to receive updates, like nobody wants to subscribe to receive updates, but they will want what’s inside. Have the copy reflect what’s actually inside what the value that they’re getting for exchanging your email. Again, very boring, but I mean, it worked for me. It works for all almost all entrepreneurs. So so definitely email list.

Quianna Marie
No, I love that Jessica and I love how with your podcast, build and bloom and all of your stuff with built in bloom. I feel like that is like the best analogy for me too with a greenhouse and just like these are things that I feel like we’re as a business we’re actually doing Get in the dirt, right? Like we’re planting these seeds. Yeah, messy, it’s muddy. Because what once it’s done, it’s it just grows, like it’s just blooms, and it amplifies and all those good things. And, and it’s true, like, it’s just it needs to get done to see that growth of an opportunity. And you can even now hire someone to do it for you. Like, you can have an amazing virtual assistant and have be like, Okay, I

Jessica Whitaker
don’t know how to set up my email funnel, but they do. And, you know, maybe it’s like $300 a month for 10 hours of them setting everything up. So that’s another thing where it’s like, at the beginning of your business, we’re always pushed to, you know, when we think like, Okay, we have to buy this new camera and this new lens, or I should get, I should join this mastermind that ends up being a scam or like, I should do this. And instead, if you can kind of delegate and be like, Okay, I could spend three, I could either spend like $4,000, on this whole new camera system that I don’t actually need. And I don’t need right now to improve the quality of my images, or how fast I can take photos instead $300 a month for like, four months or something to have a virtual assistant, be able to optimize the backend? Because maybe for you, but the thing is that stopping you as time from starting an email list, or you just don’t know how to start, and like researching, it is just going to also take too much time and overwhelming. So that’s a great way also to just use your resources.

Quianna Marie
Yes. Oh my gosh. And I love the way because I love analogies too. It’s like, wait a second, where are you putting your time? Like, you don’t need that new lens sister like you have something that works? The best camera is the one that’s in your hands? And how are you going to move the needle? And I love how you shared that. Thank you so much. And yes, well, how can people be your BFF? Like, how can we find you? How can we follow you? Please tell us more about you, Jess.

Connecting With Jessica Whitaker

Jessica Whitaker
I would love you guys to join the Build + Bloom Facebook group, you can search it on Facebook, it’s just built in bloom. And that’s where you can share questions about your specific business. So maybe you need help drafting your response to a difficult client situation or you want to have a free you want extra eyes on a freebie that you want to share. Build and bloom is perfect. And then if you want free photography tutorials and videos, I have my YouTube channel which is just Jessica Whitaker and then also the building balloon photography podcast. And that’s where you have. So you will see Kiana on a couple of times and some amazing lessons there from Part Two.

Quianna Marie
Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I appreciate your time and all your wisdom. You all you have to go stalk Jessica. Okay, so check all of her build and bloom opportunities and I’m just so thankful to have you here. Thank you, Quianna! Thank you. Have a great day, baby.

Jessica Whitaker
Yes, Thank you!

Quianna Marie
Your Jessica is out there baby. She’s recording YouTube videos traveling the globe to host workshops, starting and nonprofits reading a book in a trendy coffee shop in Seattle, walking the aisles and vintage thrift stores or dancing in the streets of New York City. She’s out and about chasing her dreams and waiting for you to join the adventure. I know that your time and energy are important and I am grateful to share these connection calls with you. I go to great lengths to ensure we’re keeping these conversations educational and impactful without all the fluff.

Make sure to follow along with Jessica for more photography, education and business help. It would mean the world to me if you could please share review on Apple podcasts or simply screenshot this episode and share it on social media. If you received any lightbulb moments or any hidden gems in this episode, I’m sure others will want to hear more to please share with your business bestie. As always, I love to say business is business baby.

Making connections learning from other industries and surrounding yourself with ambitious goals make us all glow up. Make sure to check out the greenhouse in the show notes to shop the latest templates, guides many courses and free workshops to help your business bloom. I’m cheering for you babe. I literally am your biggest fan and only want to see you succeed. So thanks so much for listening. I hope you have an incredible day. Keep on dance and baby love you. That’s a wrap on another episode of Kiana Murray weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at Kiana murray.com/podcast. I’d be honored if you show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancing.