Being an influencer seems so glamorous, and fun—and it is! But, just like anything else you want to be successful in, you must be dedicated, and you want to be prepared.

Don’t worry, lady—I’ve got you!

Through my own experience becoming an influencer, I was able to learn to do’s and don’ts of the industry and how best to set yourself up for success.

In this episode, I share how my path led to becoming an influencer and what my influencer journey looked like. I also explain why it wasn’t as easy as it seems to be on social media and the challenges I faced. I speak into the struggles I continue to face as an influencer and offer advice to avoid these things early on.

For those out there interested in becoming an influencer, I outline the key considerations to pay attention to and clear steps to follow to help you flourish your influencing journey. I speak into the balance between authenticity and transparency and how these pay such crucial roles in your work and your mindset.

I speak into the time and work it takes to create a strong following and successful business as an influencer. I celebrate your passion and driver with you and can’t wait to see you thrive!

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FULL TRANSCRIPTION BELOW

What is an influencer, an influencer to me as someone who is making an impact in their community and an impact in someone’s life, who is teaching someone, something they don’t already know. There are so many ways to be an influencer and today, or going to start talking about the steps that you can take. If this is a world that you want to jump into, if you want to be an influencer in your community or in this online space. So let’s get started.

Hi, it feels good to be back here on this Monday. I’m here to see if you really want to be an influencer. So we’re gonna just kind of give a general overview of what an influencer is and how you might go about starting the process. It’s no secret. If you are here, you may have figured out that I am in the influencing space, and I think I’m going close to two years here. Um, and the reason really that I started was to escape, escape my, um, business, which is kind of funny because as you also know, I’m here to talk business and here to talk about my business and give you the insights into the knowledge that I have. But at that moment, almost two years ago, I was in a funk and I needed some sunshine. Um, there are stresses that come with a service based business, and I just happened to be in a very stressful time.

So I kinda just wrestled with this idea of how can I escape. And, um, so that kind of entered in Instagram and this influencing life. And there are many other reasons why I, uh, thought I would do it. And you know, community is big for me. And at that point in time, I really didn’t know a lot of people here in my community. So that was another, another reason for me to start this journey. I jumped on to this Instagram bandwagon, not knowing a thing. I saw people post pictures, write some captions. I thought, Hey, I can do this little did I know it’s a lot of work? So my reason was community escaping. I knew that I love to shop. I knew I love fashion. I thought I did okay with it. So I thought I would just put it out there in the world.

That was going to be my main focus, sharing all of the things that I had purchased or that I was looking at with whoever wanted to, to watch. I still actually struggle with the word influencer. And while I know it’s a term that is used, I am trying to grab a hold of it. Uh, it’s still awkward for me to call myself that, but it is what it is. And so my first piece of advice is if you are in the same situation as me and have that same feeling as we maybe start to let go of it now, uh, so you’re not stuck in, in my space, uh, two years from now, still struggling with that word, let it be let’s face it. We are all influencers, even if we are not on Instagram, because what you do in your daily life is probably influencing someone.

So learn to let go of that. It is hard, a high, I am still struggling with it. It is hard for me to talk to people about what I do, but I am working on it. And I want you to work on it with me. What is your reason? Why do you want to do this? Why do you potentially want to be an influencer in an, on Instagram or in a, at blog or on Facebook, or however, you’re seeing this come to life. What motivates you to do this? Start there. Then I want you to think about what you’re going to share and how you might want to share that. And I think it’s important to start with this because what you’re going to hear over and over is that you need to be in a niche that you need to be specific on what you are doing as an influencer.

And while I started off, knowing that I loved clothing and shopping, I didn’t really stopped to think about it first, or like how I would share that I sort of just jumped on and followed what I thought was supposed to be the right way. So I would follow others, see what they were doing and say, Hey, this is how I should do it. Which brings me to my next point of don’t do that. Don’t follow what others are doing. The world doesn’t need to see more of that. They need to see you. So as you’re thinking about what you can bring to this influencing space, think about how you can do it, not how others are doing it. I think this is what’s going to set you apart and help you succeed or grow over the long run. It is so easy to get sucked in to what everyone else is doing.

I did that and what I ultimately had to do, which I find sad cause I enjoyed, but watching other people paying attention to other accounts, looking at them just for fun. I had to stop doing that because I couldn’t get out of that rut of seeing what others were doing and assuming that I needed to do that as well, because they were being successful at it. So I, at one point just got on Instagram and did my thing and then try not to pay attention to the others. Now that makes it really difficult to build your community. So it didn’t last long, but I needed that personally to get out of that mindset. So if you can just tell yourself right now that you need to do it your way and that it’s okay that they’re doing in a different way and it’s okay that they’re being successful in that way.

And then that’s probably not going to work for you. That would be awesome. Get that in your mind now know that whatever they’re doing potentially won’t work the same for you. So do it your way. Be authentic. The other thing you want to know when in the space is that your life is public. People will be cruel and you have to let it go. I struggle with this so much. I take things so personal. That’s my personality, but you can’t let it get to you as an influencer because there’s always going to be someone. But guess what? Most likely 99% of the people are there because they love what you’re doing. They want to see what you’re doing. So you can’t let that one person that 1% or whatever it is. Don’t let them bring you down. No, that your life is public and that not.

Everyone’s gonna agree. And that’s okay. They don’t need to follow. You also make sure your mindset when you start your Instagram account or whatever it is for influencing that your mindset isn’t starting with money. It is possible to make money as an influencer. But what I’ve seen is that having that money mindset at the beginning can actually slow you down and give you bigger hurdles. Start it with your passion and the connection that you’re craving. Start by wanting to give. If you give first, then you’ll be able to take later. This is a process. You will not be a successful influencer on day one. I don’t know that that’s ever happened. I can’t imagine that it’s ever happened. It’s going to take time and it’s going to take work. You will have to make decisions and you have to make sacrifices with your time to move forward.

But the good news is you get to determine what those are. You can work a ton on building this platform and get there within a year, or you can just allow it to come natural, allow it to fill in the time that you do have, and it may take longer than a year, but you get to determine what is right for you, right for your family. Don’t let anyone else tell you that you can get there and X amount of time, figure out what you’re needing out of this, understand that it will take time and that money will come. Eventually allow yourself to make this what you want to make sure you’re not focusing on anyone else and what they are doing. The main purpose of this episode is to make sure that you’re setting a foundation for the platform you’re wanting to create, making sure you understand your why, making sure you understand what you can bring to your community, making sure that you don’t allow dollar signs or other people’s success cloud your judgment, knowing that this will take time.

You can not become an overnight success in this world very easily. And I’m only saying that because I know that some people in quarantine time blew up, but in most cases it will take time and consistency, hard work and determination. So don’t assume that the person that has a hundred thousand followers got there on day one. It takes time and work, but you can get there. You can make this a business, build your foundation. First. Don’t allow yourself to compare and you will be successful. So what I want you to do today, now that you’ve listened to this, find your why, determine what you want to share, what your niche may be. And remember, all of this can change as you progress. It did for me, but determine where you want to start. And then I want you to go out and set up your account or set up your blog that I want you to come and share that with me, send me a DM, come join our business minded momma Facebook group. Let us know you can come there and celebrate the fact that you started your account or started your blog. We want to hear from you. I want to hear from you. So please share with us. Feel free to send me a message. If you have any questions before you get started and I will talk to you all soon.