If you're an interior designer, watch this video to 10x your income

At first, like, everything I did was content, right? Like, I didn't have jobs to show, so my portfolio was like the art I hung in my living room.

YouTube has the highest percentage of 6-figure-plus household incomes.

And blogs, they were like, even blogs, like, you're better talking than you are blogging. How can some of us regular people, um, you know, take on some of that luxury? Because I think everyone deserves a beautiful home, everyone deserves a luxurious space.

Um, Jasa.

Hello.

Right? Is that how you say it?

Yes, actually. No one gets that right. And I didn't even introduce myself.

I think I heard my wife say it. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to take credit.

I was going to say, okay.

No, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me.

We're live. We're going right now. So interior design.

Yes, interior design.

I don't know that many interior designers.

Really? I guess that makes sense. And it's something that I thought everyone kind of naturally knew what it was. And it's become kind of clear that people don't really know what an interior designer does. You think, well, they decorate interiors, but it is, it is a lot more than that. So do you mind if I go into a little bit of what I do?

Absolutely, that's what we're here to do, so learn.

Okay, well, I want to answer all your questions, but tell me if I'm close to this.

No, you're good.

Um, essentially I got into interior design just helping my friends decorate their houses, so I never did the renovations. I watched HGTV HGTV growing up, loved it, was always designing my own rooms, telling— and my mom is the one who builds everything.

Okay.

She's amazing. So I would say I want like a blue and yellow room because I was 11 and gross now, but— and I wanted to have like a checkerboard wall and then my mom would make it happen. She was amazing. So I kind of did that my whole life. And then as we got older and my friends started getting their own houses, it kind of just naturally like, oh my God, what kind of— what paint color should I choose? What's my paint color palette? And I just kind of, I mean, I'm, I'm nosy and I'll jump in. I was like, hey, let me, let me actually find that couch for you. Let me find that ottoman for you. And it was just this really nerdy, like adrenaline rush from just finding things. I mean, and even just finding individual pieces, it was like, okay, you want this Pinterest picture? I will find you that table and I will find you the cheapest version of that table. And so it kind of became this game of like, how can I make something look really high end? For the best price because I'm on a budget. My husband went to seminary. He's a pastor. I was a teacher. So there was not a big budget for me to do, you know, big things with my house. But it was really fun trying to make that work for other people. So I just kept doing that. And then we bought our own house and I started just doing stuff little by little there. And I just started posting pictures of what I was doing. And it was after work, so very poorly lit. Terrible video quality. I look back now, I'm like, oh my God, okay, you needed Adobe Lightroom, right? Like, and I didn't know, but I started having a lot of people saying, why aren't you doing this? Like, why aren't you doing this professionally? And I thought, well, you know, there's a lot of people better than me. It was one of those like, um, imposter syndrome things, but I thought, okay. So, I mean, starting my business was going to Canva and picking a random business card and then going to GoDaddy and using a template to make a website. Uh, but as far as what I do now, I kind of just let whatever jobs that I got guide me at first. And I got a few Airbnb jobs that just lit me up. Um, I was an English teacher, high school, for 14 years. And, um, I was able to like just go all out, like the Gatsby house, right? Like everything is Art Deco. Navy blue walls, speakeasy. And it just, it was so fun for me to use that creative side of my brain. And so that's kind of when I thought, I can do this. I was getting really good feedback from that. And then since then, I've done— I do individual rooms for people. I select individual pieces. If you're like, I need a coffee table, I do that. I pick paint colors. I kind of do it all. Uh, but now I'm working with builders trying to select finishes for new builds. So that's kind of where I'm working towards right now.

So you just have the idea and do you go like put it all up too?

So that's— I do install, but I do install with like the cutesy stuff. As I said earlier, my mom was the one who did everything. So when I started doing the business and going to these Airbnbs and like trying to hang everything, I was like, oh my God, these curtain— these curtain rods are not going to hold up. I mean, there was a lot of like, Mom, This mirror just fell off the wall. Like, I don't know how to hang it. Sorry, I was going to say the person who I decorated that for. I really was like, Mom, I'm out of my depth. I've hung this thing 4 times. Like, I don't know what I'm—

It keeps getting crooked.

It really just keeps getting worse. Like, so a lot of that and I've gotten better. So I kept pushing myself with learning those skills. But other than hanging things, I like to style. So I'm going to buy all the pieces and I'm going to make sure the art's in the right place. I'm going to make sure the coffee table is set up. I'm going to make bookshelves awesome, make the bed, whatever it is, and I'll hang things. But I hire people to do the install now. So that is—

that's good.

Know your lane.

Yeah, exactly.

Know your lane.

Delegate where you—

absolutely.

Well, that's cool. So one of the questions I had and here at the studio and Howdy Media and what we do for all our clients, we talk a lot about brand building.

Yes.

And so nowadays every single business has to have some sort of brand online.

Yes.

Now you've always had a brand, but now it's like heavily online. And so, yes, whenever you first started a business, you mentioned you went to Canva.

Yes.

Straight off the bat.

Oh yeah.

And which I feel like 99% of business owners do that, right?

Yeah.

And so how was it like, what did you do after the Canva graphics or the Canva— the bus— you got the business card, you got the website. What was your— the next thing that you naturally like evolved to? You're like, okay, this is how I'm going to start getting clients, man.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get clients, but, but, um, I would say at that point I knew, I knew social media was it from the beginning. Um, I was a teacher, um, full-time, and so I wasn't going to be able to do the networking meetings and all of that. I knew it was just going to be online. And honestly, I was hoping, you know, all the friends that I had been doing their houses for free, it's like, hey, now I'm, now I'm charging for this. You want me to decorate another room? Uh, but really, yeah, I just, it started with my only content was what I was doing with my house. Which was kind of a leverage because I was able to say like, hey babe, like, I need a new couch, but it's for my content, like, it's for my business, right? Like, it's, it's content. Like, if I don't, you know, have anything in my house, like, I don't have content. So it started with that, just like my own house, learning how to make reels. And honestly, I've always been— I said I was an English teacher— like, I've always been a learner. I had my master's degree in literature, so I was like a nerd. On, you know, in my past life. I'm still a nerd now, but I like to learn. And I just kind of knew if I was going to do this that I wouldn't be able to do it by myself. So I don't know if anyone knows about Jenna Kutcher, but I bought her Instagram course. She had like a—

Kutcher?

You haven't heard of Jenna Kutcher?

Ashton Kutcher?

No.

Is she related to Ashton Kutcher?

I mean, maybe. I don't know. She has never mentioned that. If so, she is definitely not name dropping.

Okay. Okay.

That one. But she's a huge, like, 7-figure businesswoman, started with a camera. And has built like a multi-figure, like boss woman business. And so her whole thing is like how to do your Instagram, how to do Pinterest. Now it's like email list, which I'm scared of, but trying.

It's terrifying. I know.

And it's like, okay, so full disclosure, I like found a way, I like made a freebie or whatever, got 113 followers or subscribers. I have not sent like a single email to them since then. I'm just so scared. So I got them to sign up and they're just waiting there for me.

Yeah. Okay, so let me ask you, how did you get them to sign up?

Okay, so Amy Porterfield is another huge person in like the women business world, I guess, and they talked about having like funnels. And so creating a freebie where people sign up for, you know, hey, you want this free guide to blah blah blah, sign up here. And so I told you I did Airbnbs. Um, I wrote a blog post on like the 6 things that I think every host should have. Like, these are things that actually make a difference. You can have a cute house, like it can be trendy and decorated well, but if you don't have these amenities, you're not going to get the good reviews, you're not going to get the ROI, the return on investment that you want. So So I wrote the blog, wrote the 6 things, and then the freebie was, these are the actual links that I've used in my properties. You can have them if you signed up for this thing. And I got 100 that first day.

Wow.

So it felt like this—

on a blog, my hands.

Yeah, I'm like so Italian. Um, yeah, just like on this one freebie that I went and posted on like an Airbnb Facebook group. And so it was like, oh, this works.

That's a lot. That's a great lead magnet. We call it a lead magnet.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's— so the answer to your question is I made a lead magnet.

No, that's great.

Also called freebie or whatever.

We tell people to do that all the time. And every time we do it, we get information. I know.

And Jenna Kutcher always talks about like, now you have these people in your inbox and way more likely to buy from you than just seeing you on social media.

Yeah. Instead of a cold lead, now they're warm because, you know, they have some sort of interest. I've never gotten 100, over 100 emails in one though. I mean, that's impressive.

I, I was surpr— I was surprised it was my first one. And so then it just feels like, okay, this was dropped in my lap. I mean, I did the work, but now it's just like, okay, well now I need a weekly email or something. And I think I just kind of get a block of what do I write now? Like, I don't know. That was it.

That was—

I mean, I have more stuff to to say. But yeah, I just— so much work.

It's hard to communicate what you're thinking onto your content. So like, whether it's a video, whether it's a blog post or anything, email, it can be difficult.

Well, making my voice come through.

Yeah.

In the email, and it's like engaging and catchy, and then your, your hook has, you know, in the, the subject line has to like make them open it. It just there's so many things to think about. It's not just like, hey guys, let's— what's up?

What I've seen the most success with, and there's a lot of businesses doing this now, it's— it doesn't have to be long. Like, straight up, you don't have to write a whole blog post for your emails. Yeah, like, it can be like— you can do it like 5 Minute Fridays or whatever, and just like 2 paragraphs, a quick tip, like, this is how you figure out where to put a plant or something. I don't know.

Writing that down.

And so like to make it easier on your part, like just provide them value on the email. That's really quick because they're more likely to read it.

Sure.

And then it's like, hey, this is where you should put a plant. If you're curious, this kind of plant goes here, whatever. I would have no idea where to put a plant.

Okay.

My wife had— my wife did like 98% of this.

His wife is really good at decorating. I tried to work for her and then I was like, you don't need it.

Oh my gosh.

I really, I was just like, uh, do your thing.

And so like, I didn't do this and I have no idea where to put plants or lights or, I mean, I know how to work the equipment and put like cinematic lighting, but like props and—

Yeah, looks great.

Not my forte. But if you were to provide value on an email like that, I think that would be a sweet spot. And like 5 Minute Fridays or like designer something with one of the days of the week.

Yeah, I like that. Be an easy cadence to follow.

Yeah. And then at the end it's like, also, if you want to work with me, boom, throw a Calendly link in there to book a call.

Well, and I started using— I don't know if you've used Flodesk before.

I've heard of it.

Flodesk. None of these people are sponsoring me. Flodesk is amazing though. It's another email management platform. But they have tons of templates and then like a welcome sequence. I had never heard of automations or workflows, or I'm just learning so much every day. I'm like, you're a business person now. This is so crazy. Um, but yeah, like I have a welcome sequence, so anyone who signed up yesterday, they're gonna get 3 emails from me. So, and then it's silence at this point. But, um, yeah, it's like I can do it to where it's set up to my information is at the bottom. I mean, it's, it's set up for me. I think it's just been, as you can tell, I, I actually am pretty wordy. It's, it's making it short that's hard for me, cuz I'm going to— I want to write a book to them and they don't want it.

Do you use AI very much for that stuff?

Oh yeah.

Okay.

I, I write it out and then I say, make this 6 times shorter. Like, make this—

make it like 95% shorter.

That caption for my reel was a blog post. I need, okay, copy paste that to blog and now make that, you know, 3 sentences. Like, yeah, it's trying to get it in a short form is hard for me.

So with that blog that you put up and it got a lot of traction, did you make any other content about that, like on your Instagram or Facebook or anything?

Yes. Um, Jenna Kutcher again, it was like the blog, she has this whole like Pinterest is underused. So I guess this is one of my tips that I had never thought about that.

Designers. Yeah, that's a— that's a good one.

She was saying for businesswomen in or business people in general, because it's a way to get people to your website, which I hadn't thought of. Pinterest was where I went and looked for my, you know, design inspiration. But she was like, when people go to Pinterest, they are looking for a specific thing. And so you already have people that are primed to like, I want to know how to make my Airbnb better. And so I just went to Canva and made multiple blog post like covers or, you know, Pinterest pins that pulled back to that blog post. And I used, um, still learning how to use Tailwind. So many things. Tailwind.

All the softwares.

Yeah. It's just so many softwares. Uh, but Tailwind auto posts these. Blog post covers. So I made multiple, and, um, it posts those on there and it leads people to your website. So it's just supposed to be kind of this, like—

and that's where, where does it go up?

Pinterest. Pinterest.

Okay.

So under my, you know, Pinterest user profile, um, those are getting posted regularly so that when people are searching Airbnb upgrades, that, you know, cute little graphic that says, like, 'Increase your Airbnb ROI today' comes up and it has a link to my website.

So that's helpful for you because you can do that from pretty much anywhere, right?

Mhm.

You're not limited to just Abilene?

Oh no. Yeah. And oh, okay, so that's important. Um, the Airbnb I did was in New York. One was in New York, one was in Denver. Um, so I do a lot of virtu— actually, all of my jobs when I was living in Denver were virtual. I did one Airbnb in Denver.

So you can—

every other job virtually. Yeah, I'm trying to. I'm trying to. Anyone? Yeah, if you have an Airbnb, hire me from anywhere. Um, but really, so even, um, locally, I've started pricing my products to where I have phase 1 design and phase 2 design. Phase 1, I can do the same thing locally as I can anywhere else. Um, I'm creating a design for your home. And I'm sending you, you have all the links to the products you need to make that. A lot of people like that because they can buy things at their own, like on their own time, on their own budget.

Do you use affiliate links for that?

Well, um, I can't. So I can use them for, so if I like post a room I did and I put it on my Linktree and it's like, hey, this is a static thing that you could go back to at any time. Amazon is okay with that. If you send affiliate links to an individual client, they are not okay with that.

I wonder why.

I think it's something about they're wanting marketing for themselves. Like, that's kind of the—

the agreement. I would consider that marketing though. You're sending it and they're buying stuff from them anyways.

I just know I did that at first. I was like, this is amazing, right? Like, I'm— they're paying me to design their stuff and then I'm getting paid from Amazon to give them this stuff. But they actually closed my account at the beginning because they were like, this needs to be something like you're doing affiliate links in a blog post or you're doing them in a Linktree. Like it needs to be something that is repeatable. Like people could keep going back to it, not just that one client that one time.

Hmm.

I guess so. That's what they told me. So what I try to do now is when I create a design, usually for me, cause I don't want to. Someone pays me for design and then I just give everyone else the stuff they paid for, right? Like, I don't want to do that. But for my own stuff, I'm posting what I do and I'm posting links to everything that I'm doing. This is the pendant light I used or whatever. Uh, but yeah, with the designs, I'm sending them the links to buy. And that's one of the ways I'm kind of reaching like the everyday girl, I call it. Like, um, I designed for a woman here and it was really cute because she wanted to decorate 3 rooms. And I have a deal that, you know, the more rooms you book, you get like $100 off per extra. Yeah. And so she went ahead and booked 3 rooms, but she only wanted to decorate 2 all at one time. So she did that. She was going to wait on the bedroom for later. So I gave her the design. She had all the links. Well, her husband messaged me before Christmas and said, hey, like, can you— I obviously can't get into her stuff without asking her, like, can you send me the link to that bed? That was in the plan. And so it's like, you know, you can kind of then decorate with a plan. And that's what I talk about on my social media a lot is like, you don't have to have a big budget, but sometimes when you have a small budget, you end up going to HomeGoods and just buying like a lot of random crap. I love HomeGoods, but just saying like you're— you don't have a plan, so you end up having all this kind of random stuff and you don't have an end vision in mind. So what I'm selling is the end vision. Everything you buy works towards this plan that you've said you love. And so, yeah, it might be a plant from Amazon that's really cheap, but you're not just kind of buying random things and that's— so you're saving money in the long run. You're paying me to do that, but you're saving money by buying intentional things that you know you're going to like.

Yeah. So how long have you been doing this business. Hey, this is Darren. Really quick, and then we'll get back to the podcast. I wanted to remind you, if you're watching this, you're more than likely a business owner or content creator. And that's what we do here at Howdy Media is we help people just like you who are like, I have no idea what to do in order to grow online. Well, today's your lucky day. In the description of this video, there's going to be a link where you can book a free call directly with me. And we can go over a game plan and see how we can help you guys out. Hope you guys are enjoying the episode so far. Let's get back to the video. I know you've been designing basically like your whole life.

Yeah, yeah. I started Jace Russo Interiors. I didn't even mention the name. I started that in 2000. It was April of 2021.

Okay, so 4 years.

No, no, no, no. April 2022. So it's been almost 3.

Okay.

Yeah.

I started this in March of '22.

Nice.

The business. I got the studio a year ago. It's like, nice. I think like today.

That's really cool. The studio is amazing. So where were you filming before?

I didn't have— I was working from home.

Okay. So filming like in your office or?

Yeah. So it was a bedroom with a desk.

Sure, sure.

But in reality, I didn't really make content. At that point. I was still trying to figure out what was going to work, and I still am. But I had this idea. So I was in business for a year and a half, maybe almost 2 years by the time I had this idea.

And I— cool.

Whenever I was just by myself at the house, it was a one-man show. I had one camera. I was going to events, doing some photos and videos. I had one drone, like it was very limited. No lighting. Like, yeah, the lighting, trying to help people with their social media. Like I would, I would go and make the content and post it and everything. And then I had this idea and it opened up a whole other world of like, okay, now we had to invest in the cameras and the equipment. And so now I'm like, okay, we're a video production company. Yeah, we also do like consulting for people's social media. So like if you would consult for a home. Yes, we would consult for a—

cool. Yeah.

Online brand. Like, we could go in and grade your brand, and then we can show you how to fix it, what content to make, that kind of thing.

Sign me up for that. Okay, I'm like, how much does that cost? Where do I go? Sign up.

Okay, so a question, talking about the studio. Yeah, what would you do to make it better?

Oh, okay.

Um, not—

oh, I guess even that side over there is the problem. The part—

so behind the scenes, if you can't see— you can't see it if you're watching. But half of the room is— we have our computers and all of our equipment stored over there, and that's where we like do the gross work. This half of the room is for filming.

I think the bones are great. The only thing I would add just to kind of a cozy factor is I would do a patterned pillow that probably pulls in the black and white graphics from the posters. So maybe Katie would be great. That's like a boho, uh, black and white print of some kind, a little smaller.

Okay.

And then I would do, um, maybe some coffee table books and a plant.

We have books. Oh yeah, we had them. I think they're on that back thing somewhere.

Yeah, guys, don't leave a blank coffee table. That's sad.

Okay, to be fair, to be fair, we usually do have something on there.

Okay, he says we do, right?

Right, Mike, we do. Yeah, he's editing.

Mike's not corroborating this, this story, but Yeah, that's like, those are the big things I would do.

So Katie, she's always like, okay, there has to be something there. You have to add height, all this stuff.

She's so good. Yeah.

And I'm like, okay, do whatever you want. I don't care, honestly. I mean, I want it to look good, but I don't know how to do it.

And that's what my social media is, is that random stuff. Like, um, when she talks about height, when you decorate, you often decorate in triangles, like visual triangles. So when she says height, like trying to get over here, You would— like, how far can I—

you're good. Okay.

You know, you would have like a tall, uh, vase of some kind, and then like a candle that was maybe medium height, and then a stack of books.

Okay.

So you're creating a visual triangle for the eyes that people look at that and they don't think, oh, that's a triangle.

Yeah.

But if you're being intentional, if you're a designer or someone who's trying to design, I teach on my social media little things like that. Hey, here's what's actually happening. Like, it looks random, but it's not random to a designer. There's actually rules we're following. Um, stop hanging your art too high. I mean, there's a lot of— I'm starting a new series called like Things That, um, Things That We Didn't— oh, what's it called? Uh, Things That Fancy People Do That No One Taught Us. Like, just here, they don't use their Bath and Body Works plastic hand soap, you know, and you're like, I thought that was cool. You know, like you see the scent on it and then you go to like a wealthy person's house and they don't do that. And so part of it is like, I'm trying to be the connection between like, okay, this is how the high-end people live and how can us like peasants, you know, like try to take— normal people. Thank you.

Yeah.

Like that's the English teacher drama. How can some of us regular people you know, take on some of that luxury because I think everyone deserves a beautiful home, everyone deserves a luxurious space, whatever the budget is. I just think it means sometimes you don't know how to choose the right things, and so you're not getting the house you want, but it's not because you don't have the money for it, it's just because you don't know how to make the right choices, I guess.

So, so you have all these ideas. Where do you mainly post all your stuff?

Instagram is my main, okay, my main, uh, focus right now.

Have you gotten a lot of clients from Instagram?

No, which is really— I'm a rule follower, right? Like, I was a nerdy kid, I became a teacher, rule follower. And so, you know, I'm following all these coaches, these social media coaches, and even interior designers who are kind of sharing what they do. And all of them, your Instagram is so important. Instagram is where I get majority of my clients. And I really haven't. And it's been kind of weird because every once in a while, like when I was in Denver, I got an Airbnb job in New York because I just posted some pictures of another one I did in an Airbnb host— no, sorry, on Facebook. I went and just like found this Airbnb host group, posted it. They— all these groups are like, don't, you know, promote yourself. So you're like, here's some inspiration. From this really awesome job that I did. And then I got, I got hired to go to New York and then another job from that. So it feels like Facebook keeps working, but I keep being told Instagram. And so it's one of those things where I'm like, at some point maybe, maybe it'll hit me that like Facebook needs to be it. But I think as a millennial, Facebook is just so cringe, you know, like it's just, but I think As an interior designer, who is my audience? Is it 30-year-olds that are broke like me, or is it women in their 40s and 50s who have established themselves a little bit more? And they're on Facebook. They just are. But a lot of interior designers get their jobs from Instagram. So I'm, I'm just trying to figure that out. Like, what am I doing wrong on Instagram? But then I need to focus more on Facebook because Something about posting in those Facebook groups is working.

Yeah, that's where I started.

Really? Okay.

And that's where I got my— I remember the moment it all clicked. I hadn't done social media management before or anything like that. Yeah, I threw a post one day. I was like, hey, I'm thinking about doing this.

Yeah.

In a local business owner group. And I got like 2 or 3 hits and I got one of them to sign that day. I got, I got them to pay almost $2,000. A month, right?

Okay, I need to listen. I need to do what you're doing. What?

And I looked over at my wife, I was like, I'm on to something.

Yeah, because they just paid me $2,000.

I've never even done it. Which— and so, yeah, but I learned, and it sure, it worked out. And I think their stuff turned out great. Um, it fizzled out after a while just because, yeah, their business kind of went down, but That's why I started Facebook groups and they still land me clients today.

You started your own Facebook groups?

Well, I started my own to teach people. So it's called the Howdy Media Insider Group. Join it if you haven't joined it.

I have not. We—

I try to go live like every week and I do basically like a whole 30-minute to an hour masterclass over a specific topic.

Yeah.

And so like one week we'll cover Instagram, one week we'll cover how to use your iPhone to get the best quality or whatever.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, people need that.

And so I, I provide that as like a way to serve the people who are following me. Mm-hmm. But like the groups that I'll post on are local groups, entrepreneur groups, business owner groups, because we have to hit hard on the business owners. That's like our clients.

Yeah.

And so Yeah, that's where we started. How long have you been posting content?

I mean, I started. Yeah, I mean, I started. I mean, even before. Yeah, I guess I've always been posting pictures, even in our apartment. I look back now at the post, I'm like, that looks so bad. But I was like, look at my setup. Like, you know, this one couch with a pillow on it and like, so I've always been kind of documenting the decorating I've done in my house. I just thought it was like me showing what I was doing that I thought was cute. Like, here's how I'm decorating my house. I wasn't thinking about— it was like, if someone gets inspiration, cool, but it felt just more personal. Like, I'm showing what I'm doing, what I like. Um, so I've always put— I've— but okay, so when I started my business, I immediately started my own a separate business account. So that's been kind of strange trying to parse out what am I posting on my personal Instagram and what am I posting on my professional one and trying to grow that one on its own.

Yeah.

So that's when I started doing document or, um, content solely based on the house I was in at that point. I feel like my design style had finally kind of started solidifying and maybe maturing, I guess.

Um, have you Have you grown that business account very much? What is it at?

Okay. It's a big deal for me.

No, it's okay.

Okay.

We all start at the same spot. We started with zero.

So basically I just hit 1400.

That's fantastic.

And it— I mean, you know.

Okay, so who?

Yeah.

Which account do you have more following on?

For sure, my business one.

Okay.

So I think I have like 700, maybe 1000. 700, 800. I'm not sure.

Okay.

My Facebook has a lot more.

So I'm going to tell you a story.

Okay.

Um, and I'll let you do with it as you please, but—

oh, please.

So we had— I had my personal account, Darren, and then I had my Howdy Media account. Um, and we built it up. We almost hit 1K. And then one of my— the people who's teaching me, my— one of my mentors was like, you have more followers on your personal, why are you not just posting on your personal? And I was posting the same content on both for the most part.

Yeah.

And because really, like, during this phase and at the phase that you're at too, you're the only face of the brand. Yeah, I am the face of the brand. And so I deleted my business page. And everything, it makes it more simple for Instagram only.

Sure.

Yeah, it makes it more simple. Everybody goes to one spot. So my advice would just say to pick one that has more following and just go all in on that one instead of stretching yourself trying to do two. Yeah, in two separate places.

Well, and there's things like, I was talking to someone, um, like my mom's like my best friend and that's the reason we moved back here. My husband's and my family's both live here. I went to high school at Riley for 3 years and then I say I escaped, but I'm back. So, um, everyone escapes. Yeah. My mom thought it was so funny to give me a candle that said all roads lead back to Abilene. And I was like, huh, too soon. Like I'm not over, like I left Denver mountains. Like I'm not, I'm not over it yet. It smells like skunk here all the time.

Skunk.

Why are there so many skunks?

It's probably weed.

It's like, okay, maybe. Okay. Denver has a lot of weed. I know that too. Oh, I guess you're right. There's so many dead skunks here.

There are a lot of dead skunks. Skunks. And, and every now and then here we'll get some whiffs of like gas. Not as much as like the further west you go, it smells like oil and gas.

Yeah, everywhere. So I'm struggling with Abilene. That might be that. Maybe it's that because I'm just like, why is the smell? But my point is, Abilene has— I'm still adjusting, but I love being back with my mom and she's ridiculous. Us together, we have kind of a Lorelai Rory— maybe that may be too old of a reference, but like a Gilmore Girls thing, like bantering. And she's ridiculous and thinks I'm dramatic and bougie. And I think she's like, yeah. Anyway, I posted some stuff of us at the gym on my personal page and someone who follows me on both was like, why aren't you putting this on your business page? Like, this is funny, you know? And I'm like, well, it's me at the gym, you know?

Your business page needs to also have like your personal touch. Yeah, personal stuff, because that is part of your brand. Like, sure, people are going to follow you. Yes, you're good at interior design, but like if you have kids, if you are in the church, if you— whatever else, your hobbies, whatever hobbies that you have, that's part of your personal brand.

Well, they told me that. So I post like— I feel like I post more demure things, like it's personal, but it's like outfits, hair tutorials, here's the skincare I'm using, you know. And so I'm posting about my personal life, but the, the like more— what's the word? Uh, um, not elegant— words are not coming to me— but things that feel like they're more that kind of upscale brand. Like, and then there's the funny side of me, and I think maybe that is what I'm not bringing into the business side because it's like, well, is that going to make people not take me as seriously? Or, you know, if I'm trying to be this like serious interior designer who's also fashionable and whatever, and then I'm like joking around with my mom. I think the person I talked to was like, you need to do that. It makes you relatable.

Very good. That I think I agree with that. It makes you relatable. I think about it like I'd rather post something funny and get 200,000 views than post something serious and get 20 views.

Yeah. And so like, yeah, no, for sure.

I, I posted a video like a week and a half ago now. It was one of my first actual viral ones. It was a ChatGPT one. It was hilarious, but it was relatable to like other videographers. It was funny and it's almost at 300,000 views versus like if I was posting like just serious. I'm not saying it won't work, but it won't reach as many people.

It's not. And that's like right now my, my viral videos, like the ones that do really well for me, are like 2,000.

Yeah.

And so it's, you know, and of course you're following all the social media marketers like, do this hook, do this thing, and, you know, use this trending audio. And then you're like, I got 200 views. Like, what?

Yeah.

So, and that's where I think like I was, I feel like I've said this too many times. I was an English teacher and I worked in really low-income neighborhoods. And so I couldn't just say like, read Hamlet, like sit down and do it. I had to sell it and I had to be dramatic or kids were falling asleep. And so I feel like there's a side of me that's like sassy and, um, and that's not coming through. And so that's where this new series, instead of being like, here's how you hang your art, actually like, here's what, like, here's what no one taught us. And like kind of more sassy, like your, like your curtains are high waters and they look bad, you know, just kind of, I would've roasted my kids. And so I always roasted my students. Uh, and so one of them, man, I'm gonna, I'm gonna out this kid. Because the kids I started teaching— this makes me sound so old, but I actually got to see them. I went back to Dallas and they were kids I taught in 2017, so they are full-grown adults now, um, with like jobs as engineers. It's very weird. We all met and had drinks. Oh yeah, it was just surreal. Um, I was like, are you allowed to do that? You know, like 14? Yeah, don't do it. Um, but one of them, we were all talking about social media because they were They were so cute. They're like, we're so proud of you for quitting teaching. Like, follow your dreams. It was just really cute. Like, I motivated them and then them sitting there like motivating me. But they said, um, I was talking about, you know, I'm trying to be relatable or whatever. And this student who always was a smart A in my classroom was like, I mean, you have to remember that we were forced to be in your classroom. Like, none of us chose to be there. And I was like, okay. I was a little harsh. And he goes, but we eventually liked you, obviously. Like, we're all here. And I was like, well, what, what made you like me eventually? And he goes, because you were so sassy. Like, you, like, your real talks, your whatever. And I thought, well, that's not what's coming through on my social media at all because I'm trying to be this serious designer. And so I'm trying— ChatGPT helped me create a 2-month content calendar. It's like those series that are a little bit more quick, easy, like kind of call out slash like what fancy people do that we didn't know about kind of thing. So trying to be a little bit more me. And I'm hoping that that's going to kind of go over better on Instagram. I'm still trying to be that serious designer in person in Abilene. So it's like, how do you work with a 50-year-old woman who's very, you know, like hoity-toity, you want to be serious with her. But then I want to get followers on Instagram. So that's where it starts feeling a little bit like disjointed.

So one of the things that, that has worked well for us and the people that we've worked with, you talk about ChatGPT for getting ideas. It's a good place to start. Another way you can get ideas that is probably going to have a higher success rate is go onto Instagram and search up like interior designers. Oh yeah, go to the Reels tab, see the ones that go viral, like see the videos that already work and people are sharing. Yeah, recreate those videos. Yeah, and that will guarantee to boost all of your stuff.

It's not right now though. I'm following so many interior designers right now.

Are there— is there stuff going viral? Because if there's stuff— I'm talking like, that's a good question.

Maybe not. No, no. Okay, so I'm talking about 13,000 or like the ones that are—

okay, you need to find the reels that are getting like at least 400,000+ views. Okay, ones that people are like sharing constantly. And so, you know, the little paper airplane on Instagram? Yeah, like that needs to be in the 5,000 to 10,000 at least range.

No one's sharing my stuff right now. So, and I know the Instagram algorithm is like basing it on that, and I'm like, anyone share my—

so, yeah, so as soon as people start sharing your stuff, yeah, continue to boost it. So like, if I see a cool video idea that's— I'm like, okay, that's funny, that would work. But then I go to their account, they have like 10,000 followers, but the video only got 8,000 views, it doesn't match up. That doesn't work. And so if I go to an account that has 1,000 followers and they have a video that has like 500,000 views, yeah, there was something about that video that caused people to share, watch more. Yeah, something. And so that's what I— that's just another way to get good ideas.

No, that's great advice. Um, because I think right now I'm paying more attention to the social media marketers. They're like, use this thing, use this hook. Like, if you're a so-and-so, like, welcome to my page. And so you do that and then you get 200 views and you're like, why?

Um, and also some of that stuff, it works for certain people with their personality. You got to find what works the best for your specific stuff. So like, that's going to be— you're going to have to do a lot of testing and you're going to have to find out what the audience wants from you.

Yeah.

The only way to do that is to do like, okay, throw up this video. Did it work? No. Don't ever do it again. Throw up another video.

Yeah.

If it does well, if it gets 5,000, 10,000 views, double down and do more of those videos. Make a series out of it like you were talking about earlier.

I haven't done any series and that's what I think one of the things that kind of threw me off and honestly what I had to do when I started. So I think this is just a big transition time for me. Is that at first, like, everything I did was content, right? Like, I didn't have jobs to show, so my portfolio was like the art I hung in my living room. Like, that was all I had. Um, and so I think I've gotten into that kind of habit where every day I'm like, oh, okay, I'm about to hang a picture, I'm gonna make a reel out of that, which, you know, is probably not that interesting, but I'm spending all my time doing that. Like, okay, I filmed me doing this thing, and now I'm going to show I'm going to do this thing instead of actually having like, hey, I was a teacher, I know how to teach things. Like I want to have replicable, like every day I'm sitting down and I'm doing like a, uh, one of them was like, would an interior designer do this? Like a yes or no. And so having actual like, hey, I can sit down and bulk, um, film these. And I think I have, I've had that push for a long time. I just haven't done it because all my time has been making the reel about, you know, me changing my light bulbs or something, you know what I mean? Like stuff that's not doing well. So I'm having to just stop filming your random stuff.

You know, it could be a good idea. I just— I don't know why I had this thought, but take a picture of, you know, like the green screen features.

Yes.

Like where you can kind of overlay yourself.

Yeah.

Get pictures of like celebrities, like homes in the living room or something and like break it apart, either like make fun of it, like that curtain looks stupid or something, or tell them how they can do it better.

Yeah.

Why did they put a couch there? That's ridiculous. I would never do that because then you're associating yourself with these big names. And if somebody hears I'm reviewing Taylor Swift's house or living room, they're going to probably stick around and they're like, oh, that's cool. That's Taylor Swift's house. Interesting. And it doesn't even have to be their house. Like, you can get a random mansion and just say, yeah, yeah, just kind of like find something that everybody knows about and associate yourself with it in some way. That could be a cool—

that's really cool. Yeah. Because I feel like that, that has the vibe of what I'm going for as far as the tone. I'm ChatGPT. I'm like, make it like sassy, you know? ChatGPT. AI's crazy. Yeah. When I did this, I'm like, it shouldn't feel like my friend, right? I'm like, thanks, you know? And it's like, can't wait to see your reels, girl. Like, literally, it's responses to me. I'm like, I'll let you know. It's so weird.

I use it every single day. Yeah, there's— so I, I recently discovered you can create projects with like project files or folders within the ChatGPT. So like, you can keep things separate. So like, one of them I've been testing this out. It's My Personal Trainer. So I'm like, okay, I told it like, hey, you're my personal trainer. These are all my stats. I want to— this is my goal. Can you give me workouts in order to get that way? I can only work out these days of the week. Tell it everything about you in the context. And it, it's given me plans. It's given me like diet things. So I'm testing it out. So far it's been killing me in the gym.

Yeah.

And then I have a separate folder that's like my business assistant, and then I give it every single detail about our business. I give it like example proposals that I've written.

So good.

Like pricing sheets, all the things. And I tell it what tone I want it to be in.

Yeah.

And so what I'll do now is there's a software called Fireflies. It's like an AI note-taker.

Interesting.

And so all you do is hit record. On your phone and you can just leave it on the table. What it does, it records the whole conversation. It sends you an email and it uploads it to the app. It's a whole transcription, a summary, your objectives, your task to-do list.

What?

I'll throw the conversation into ChatGPT and have it write a whole proposal.

No.

Based off of my tone.

Stop. Stop. Okay, that's what's crazy. Like, okay, so I spent 2 or 3 hours doing this 2-month content calendar. I told you about, but it, it wasn't because it took that long. It was because I kept thinking it can do more. Like I would get it to send me, you know, I was like, make this into an Excel sheet. Like, I don't just want the ideas. I want an Excel sheet.

Yeah.

Cool. I'm like, wait, I don't use Excel. Can you make that into a Google, Google Sheet? Cool. Oh wait, can you actually write the captions for all those ideas and put them in the sheet?

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. New sheet. Done. Wait, can you come up with the hashtags?

So, so you could make a project folder with like, my AI social media manager or whatever. And it'll do tasks for you like that.

So the workouts, it's like it really is sky's the limit of sometimes it's like, what am I not thinking to ask it? Yeah, that's why I kept doing more things.

Yeah. For example, if you're like, hey, I have a bad hip flexor, avoid those workouts. It'll be okay. I've adjusted it. Boom. It's crazy. Yeah.

I'm like, I'm paying for an app to go to the gym and lift weights every day. Sorry, Madeleine Moose, like I'm done doing that.

But the sky is literally the limit. I keep trying to figure out things that it can't do and I can't find anything.

Yeah. Like, oh, something someone told me. This is like off topic, but I think this is interesting. Just like a, I know I was like looking or, it was like, here are all the ingredients in my pantry. Come up with 3 recipes. It's like, and then give me the grocery list. Like, AI can run our lives. Like, I'm just—

it's crazy.

And then the teacher in me is like, but when is it too much? Yeah, Socratic seminar students. Yeah, like, really, you know?

But anyway, it's awesome. So do you do YouTube very much?

I have never done YouTube, and it's one of those things where people have said, one, with teaching, that like I'm better in long form. Being concise is hard for me. Um, and blogs, they were like, even blogs, like you're better talking than you are blogging. But I feel like I'm overwhelmed by YouTube. And like, if it would be a better venue for me than a blog that I'm posting to, are there a billion interior designers? To have cool YouTube channels that like I'm not trying to compete with. But I guess that's everything, you know? I don't know, what's your, what's your take on that?

Uh, I would, I tell everybody they need to have a YouTube channel. So here's what you can do. Okay, it's not going to be overwhelming, okay? Because you have a blog post, it does well, the one you wrote about the 6 tips.

Sure.

That's, that's honestly 6 YouTube videos if you want it to be. So like, you sit down, you do one YouTube video about it, and you just straight up put your phone on a tripod with a ring light.

Yeah.

And you talk about it, talk about what you wrote in the blog.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and you can even reference the blog in the— okay, thing in the description or whatever. So now you have a blog and you have one long video talking about that same thing. Okay, you already have the idea, you already have the content. All you do is basically reading it off to a camera.

Okay.

Um, then you take that one video, okay? And this can turn into like 20 pieces of content. So right now you're at 2. So you can clip each individual of the 6 things. So like you can just take the first tip that you have.

Yeah.

Post that as a YouTube video. Take the second clip. Post that as a YouTube video because some people like to watch 2 to 3 minute sections as opposed to like a 15 minute or whatever.

Yeah.

So now you have your blog, your long video, and 6 short videos.

Okay.

And so you're at 8 pieces of content. There's a program, so another software. It's very easy to use.

Okay.

It's called Opus Clips.

Okay.

Have you ever heard of Opus Clips?

No.

Opus Clips, basically you put a link from a YouTube video or like Dropbox or literally anywhere, and it in about 5 minutes gives you 10 to 20 reels cut up and captioned for you. No, with like, it grades it on viral score and everything. So you throw this YouTube video, the long one.

Yeah.

Into Opus Clips and you have, let's see, Not all of them are good, but usually we get 5 to 10 good ones out of a longer video.

Interesting.

So it edits for you. You just download it, basically. So that's crazy. Now you have 8 pieces of content on YouTube and your blog, plus 10 short-form clips that you can put on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Wow. So you're about 18 pieces of content from this one idea. And that's how you repurpose it.

Look at me. Look at me. Oh my. He made me speechless. It's crazy. Wow. Okay, so to be honest, because I'm a perfectionist, Reels will take me like 2 to 3 hours. Yeah, like it's crazy. I mean, just like, oh, is that the right font? Like, I overthink it.

So you can set a template on Opus Clips like, you know, this font, this color, this is where I want the words.

No way.

Boom, go and save it as a template.

Yeah, I need easy.

That easy. Yeah.

Okay. But I just would like the other problem I had with you, not problem, but hesitance with YouTube was like, is my audience on YouTube? Like, are these older women in Abilene on YouTube?

Which I'm going to read you a stat.

Oh yeah. I like statistics. Go.

And I'm just going to paraphrase because because I can't remember the exact number, but YouTube, if you look at all the platforms, you look at, okay, who's on each platform? Where's my target audience? Obviously age is a factor. And then you can look at household income.

Mm-hmm.

YouTube has the highest percentage of 6-figure-plus household incomes. It's like 60 to 70% of people that watch YouTube. Interesting. Make over $100,000 a year in their household.

Sure.

So like for a service like yours, it's like premium, right? Yeah, that's where you're gonna find a lot of people watching for that stuff. Wow, it's a fun fact. And then the second one is Instagram. So Instagram—

it's so weird that like Facebook keeps working, and that's why I'm so confused that maybe it's just an Abilene thing. I don't know, but it happened in Denver too.

I think my Facebook groups are not bad, like they're a good way because if you find a group with people who are interested in that topic, then those immediately all become warm leads instead of cold. So like, that's a— don't stop Facebook.

I'm not doing that enough because I'm like, that has gotten me so many leads. Almost, you know, I've done it 5 times.

Yeah.

And almost every time I've gotten a lead. So I'm like, why aren't you doing this more often? But YouTube is— I hadn't even thought about that.

Yeah, YouTube is crazy. There's double the amount of users on YouTube than on our TikTok. There's like 5 billion people every month to get on YouTube. That's just kind of to put into context. Like, yeah, if a lot of people forget about YouTube, honestly.

Yeah, I think of it as like 16-year-olds because—

yeah, because it is, it's intimidating at times.

Yeah.

But all you have to do is pull out your phone and just hit record, and then you can upload it straight YouTube.

Yeah, it's not the filming. I think it's just the— yeah, it's not the how-to, because I'm, I'm filming my reels all the time, and I'm starting doing my talk-to reels, and I have the tripod. So like, that's not the problem. I think with YouTube it was more just like, you know, the titles, and do I need a song in the background? I just really rethink, like, is it good quality?

So you don't have to have, uh, music. You don't have to make fancy edits.

Okay.

People have gotten they've blown up off of like straight up no editing. Like they don't even cut. They just take their phone and just talk like from the Photos app and just upload it.

Yeah. Okay.

People like that because it's real, it's authentic. If you mess up talking, they'll see it. That's why people like podcasts a lot. Yeah. Because it's just like, this is your authentic self.

Mm-hmm.

The second thing you got to worry about is you do have to spend a lot of time on your thumbnail and title. So like, find— same thing, SEO stuff, same thing with Instagram. It's less honestly SEO and more, uh, psychology.

Interesting. Yeah. Okay, tell me about this.

What— whenever you're on the home page of YouTube, what causes you to click that video that you watch? That's what you're trying to figure out.

Britney Spears, is she okay? Like, I mean, what— how do you—

you can— like, okay, let's celebrate celebrities, right? You can do a series on YouTube again doing the celebrity houses. Let's redecorate the celebrity house, throw up Britney Spears on the thumbnail, and then you going like, this is awful. And like, you can put in quotes, this is awful. And then the title can be interesting, I fixed Britney Spears' house. Something like that.

Yeah, yeah, no, this is all—

it's a lot of information, but it's good.

It's good.

Um, but what— it's honestly what is working. And so like, study other— same thing like you did on Instagram, find other interior designers who are doing well and going viral. Go to YouTube, go to the most watched interior designer videos and just go down the list. And find the ones that you can recreate and straight up like reuse their title and try to recreate the thumbnail. Interesting, because you already know people are interested in that and they've already clicked on it a million plus times. They'll probably click on it again.

Yeah. Well, and the— what you were saying about it going into reels and stuff, that is super—

yeah. So let's say, let's say you make 15-minute long YouTube videos. You sit down and we call it batch creating.

Yes.

In 2 hours you can film probably 5 good YouTube videos back to back to back just with your phone.

Yes.

So that one from earlier, you had 18 pieces of content.

That's crazy. You multiply that by 5, then you have like almost 200 pieces of content from 2 hours of Um, tell me, that series I talked about being for Instagram, would you actually then start those on YouTube instead of starting with them on Instagram, or no?

If you haven't done them yet, do YouTube videos and then make short form out of the longer videos so you don't have to refilm.

Yeah, yeah, you just read that. Um, that software was Opus—

Opus Clips. I can send you the link to it.

Yeah, this guy's good. Okay, that's amazing. Okay, I'm—

so yeah, and then you can take any of those clips or any of those links and throw it onto your email for your newsletter because you already have it. So like, here's my latest YouTube video, I break down Britney Spears' house.

That's—

and that's it. P.S., if you want to work with me, book a call here. Make it like simple, to the point. You don't have to theoretically do as much as you think.

And I think that I over— always overthink things in general, but like, that's what slows me down on the email list, right? Is I'm like, okay, I'm going to write an email. Wait, I want to link my blog post to it. Wait, I haven't written a new blog post, so I need to write a new blog post before I can write the email. Yeah, but to do the blog post that I need to make this freebie and then I just don't do it because I'm like, I have—

that's so much work to even make it quicker. Is it? So you think of like Start with YouTube video. Say, okay, this is a YouTube video I'm going to make. And if you use something like Fireflies, the AI note-taker, whatever, it gives you the transcript.

Put that on a blog.

You can say, you can highlight it all, throw it in ChatGPT, say, hey, I need a blog post in my tone based off of this YouTube video, and it writes it for you.

Stop.

So then you're just making one YouTube video and it trickles down into a whole, like, 20 to 30 pieces of content that you can post everywhere else.

I'm like, yeah, game changed. Yeah, I'm going to— I need all those, all that software, all that stuff. I think I can go do YouTube.

The only thing you have to pay for out of what I just told you is Opus Clips, which is like $20 a month, maybe $15 a month.

Yeah. Well, right now, since I'm working from home, all my business overhead is just the software I use.

Yeah.

And I probably use too many, but I feel like I need— no, I'm like, that is what—

if I can make things faster, you just have to find the ones that work the best for you. Yeah, because I, I'm in that same situation. We have a ton of different softwares and some of them I forget about and we don't use for months. And I'm like, it's— I see it come up on my statement and I'm like, oh, they've totally taken $100 from me and I didn't even realize it.

I know. Yeah, my little auto scheduler, I'm not even using that. I'm just doing it myself. Yeah. Okay. That— I think you talked me into doing YouTube. If it blows, if it, if it flops though, I'm— Okay.

Okay.

Hear me out. Coming for you.

It's going to— it's not going to happen quick. Like you got to do it for, I'd say minimum 6 months.

Okay.

Before you actually start seeing significant growth. That doesn't mean you can't get leads though, because people are searching up interior design, people who like interior design. What YouTube does now is it finds content that they like and they bring it to them whether they're subscribed or not.

Okay.

So like if you make videos about interior design and they've been watching interior design videos, your video will pop up at the end of the video and in their suggested feed right next to that video.

Nice.

If it's a good thumbnail, they'll click on it.

Okay, that, that is helpful. And I think I'd be mad at you for giving me like another to-do list, but it feels like if I do it that way, it actually saved me time.

A lot of time. Well, yeah, I mean, you're, you're filming for 2 hours, getting 3 months worth of content.

And if that Opus thing is making the reels, the reels are honestly would take me so long.

Yeah. So what it does, and that's what we'll do even for this one, like I'll take this podcast. First of all, we have AI edit the podcast. That's a separate thing.

Do you use CapCut?

I don't use it very much. I use it every now and then. Mike's a big CapCut guy. Um, he edits on mobile a lot.

Yeah, me too.

iPad.

That's all I do.

I'm— I don't know, I just can't get into it. I'm— I like my Adobe stuff too much.

Okay. I didn't learn Adobe very well, but the one thing that really got me on CapCut was the AI cut, because I do, especially if I'm like a story or something, there's all the random gaps and the ums and the whatever, and it cuts all of that. And that has been—

Opus Clips does that too.

Okay. I'm like, that is amazing.

There's like a—

people don't want to listen to me.

Like, it's like clean up. It says clean up and it'll cut out all the silence.

Man, that feature alone, I was like, people do not want to sit there. I have pretty severe ADHD. They do not want to listen to me like, uh, what's the word? And they're like, oh my God, just like move it along.

Yeah. Okay. And the more you do it, the less you will have those, like, awws, like that kind of stuff.

All the slips.

Because I mean, I look back on my first videos just like everybody else, and it's like, that was very bad. No wonder nobody watched. Because I tell people at the beginning, it's not about getting people to see it. It's about getting the reps in. So like your first 10 to 20 YouTube videos probably aren't going to get any views because you're learning how to do the YouTube.

Got it. Yeah.

And so eventually one of those videos is gonna hit and start getting more views and more traction, and you're gonna be like, what was different about that one? And you'll learn what works, and then you'll try it again.

Okay.

And do it better, that kind of thing.

Kind of like Instagram. Yes, just— okay.

Um, another thing about YouTube is if somebody's interested in interior design or they search up because a lot of people use it to search as a search engine.

Yeah.

How to this, what do I do in this situation, etc. If you make a video on it and say it even gets 100 views, those 100 views are people who are interested in the topic that you're talking about. And like they're finding, like the algorithm is connecting with them because they like that kind of stuff.

Yeah.

And they're interested in it or they're learning about it in some way. I said Instagram, it just pops up in random people's feeds.

Sure. And you're hoping that that person wants—

so that 100 views on YouTube is way more valuable and way higher chances of converting into a client than an Instagram video that is going through random people's feeds. Yeah, because it targets these people who like this stuff. So yeah, if you throw in every video too, you need to make an offer at the end.

Okay.

Saying, hey, this is what I do for a living. If you want to work with me, there's a link in the description to book a call, and that needs to be the first link.

Okay. I forget stuff like that sometimes. You're like, who are you and what are you doing and why are you doing this video? Okay. But like, here's what I do.

And don't ask them for anything else. Just give them value and make it feel like they've learned something and they can take away something.

Yeah.

For watching this free video.

Sure.

And you don't even have to always mention it in the video, but always have a link to book. Like, want to work with me? Book a call here.

Do you say like, subscribe to my channel?

I do sometimes.

Okay. Okay.

Because a lot of people forget.

Sure. Okay.

Like they genuinely just like are watching the video like, oh, that was good. Go to the next one. And like, you have to kind of remind them a little bit.

Okay.

That was the YouTube stuff that I was like, oh, you don't have to be like over the top. Like, what's up, guys? Subscribe to the channel. You don't have to do that.

You like this content? Yeah.

Okay. People are tired of it. TikTok made people tired of that kind of stuff.

Okay. That's like, that's not me.

They just want to see like genuinely who you are. And if, and if you make— this is another cool stat by Google.

Love it.

It takes 7 hours of content for somebody to watch before they trust you enough to buy something.

I have heard that before.

So if you have 7 hours of content on YouTube and somebody goes through and binges 7 hours worth of your stuff, they feel like they can trust you at this point. If you go hang out with 7 hours with somebody for 7 hours, yeah, you trust them.

Interesting.

And so it's just a way to replicate yourself.

Yeah.

And get people to spend— like right now people are probably watching my videos and I'm like, I don't know who they are, but you never know. One of them could be like, yeah, I want to use your services.

Yeah, absolutely. I had never heard the 7 hours. Jenna Kutcher talks about people have to see you at least 7 times, like they have to see your offer 7 times before they ever like actually consider doing it. It's like, oh yeah, maybe that'd be cool. And then the next time, like, oh yeah, you know, think about that.

So, but the more, yeah, content you have out there, the higher the odds go up of them buying.

Okay, that's— I'm excited actually, I really am.

Take what you want from that, that's just what has worked for us.

Absolutely.

And for the people we work with, we have multiple people who are in our insiders group who are like half a million plus following. And so that's where we learn majority of this stuff, and we've implemented it and we, we see it work. Um, they are more— they're, they're not necessarily business owners, they're more content creators. Okay, like that is their job. Yeah, but they've figured out how to get views and how to get the audience. So it's like what I'm trying to do is merge it together and take the tactics that they're using and merge it with like, okay, how can we convert it to leads?

Well, speaking of merging, I guess that leads me to one more question, because when I talk about like creating a YouTube channel, in my mind it was for content creators who are trying to make money creating content there. Is that something that you see people— because that work— I'm—

that—

I don't even know how that stuff works. Like, let's say I go viral and I'm like huge on YouTube, which, you know, that'd be great.

Yeah.

Um, then do you just start getting people like ads? Like, do you actually make money if you do well on YouTube?

So YouTube pays you more than any other platform.

How do you—

they pay you 50% of every ad that plays on your video. Okay, so you go to YouTube, you watch a video, two ads play, right?

Sure.

The creators are getting paid for that. Uh-huh. You have to become what's called monetized on your account. Okay, this requires 1,000 subscribers. Okay, and 4,000 hours of watch time, which if one video does good, that covers all the hours. Okay, um, once you're past that point you will start making money on every single view that you make. I have friends who are making $50,000+ a month. Stop.

So that could be another piece of revenue.

Yes. For a business owner, he's just a content creator. For a business owner. Yeah, that's good to have, but I wouldn't bank on it and make that your primary income.

No, not at all. I was just thinking if that, you know, like affiliate links, it makes me like $0.10 a month, right? But when you're hustling, which I'm hustling, then yeah, that's like, if that's a thing, that would be cool too.

Yeah. So, okay, cool. For a business owner, he, he posts twice a day. Like, that's unrealistic for people who have a whole business. Sure.

Yeah.

But you can monetize your YouTube channel without being monetized, and that's through creating leads for yourself, talking about very specific things in a very intentional way to reach very specific audience, and eventually you funnel— it's just a funnel, like it funnels everybody who watches the video down to your business. And so that's how you monetize. So you can do that, leads. You can do YouTube ads, but you have to get a significant amount of views for it to like actually start being sure. Yeah, noticeable. Um, you out? See you, Mike. Uh, and then the third way is like brand deals and sure, that type of ads. There are brands out there who, if there's like a— what kind of companies do you like? Let's say so a company makes a couch or whatever. Okay, yeah, what's a couch company?

Um, like Pottery Barn or Pottery Barn.

Sure, they're like, hey, we saw your videos, you get a lot of traction, I think there would be some of your audience who might want to buy our stuff.

Okay.

Yeah, we want to start a brand deal with you, and as long as you talk about our products in this certain way, whatever the stipulations are, we'll pay you $50,000 for 6 months, whatever. So now you're getting leads for your business, you're getting brand opportunities like with other brands.

Sure.

And you're getting paid from YouTube plus 30 pieces of content everywhere else. So it's like, it's really the king. Honestly.

Yeah. Okay. I mean, I'd love to just have so many design jobs that I don't need to do any of that. But for right now, the leads are the most important thing. I want to design. So the content creation thing, I want to do it well because I want the leads so that I can design. And right now it's just content creating.

I mean, people who follow through and do this consistently for like 1 year, even 2 years. That's whenever, like, they start to skyrocket.

Okay.

And so, okay, I would say don't wait on YouTube if you're listening to this. Don't wait on YouTube.

Okay.

I started making YouTube videos seriously like 6 or 7 months ago. I think we were at 1,200 subscribers.

Yeah.

Which is—

that's—

it's hard to get that first 1,000.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It took me a year to get my first 1,000 on my business social media account took a long time.

And so, and I've met some crazy cool people through having a YouTube channel. And the guy who slid up on my story, the same one you did, yeah, he found me on YouTube.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah. And he's like, yeah, I found you on YouTube and I just followed your Instagram. And I was like, oh, this guy's cool. And I was like, that's crazy.

That is crazy.

I've gone into meetings, so like I'll do I do a lot of teaching about this stuff. I'll go into like meetings with a lead or like a potential client here in town and they'll be saying things that I say normally.

That's crazy.

Like these facts about like the 7 hours and stuff. I'm like, how did you know that? Like, oh, watch your YouTube channel. I'm like, what? I'm like, you don't need me for anything. I'm out.

Yeah, that's really cool though.

But that's really It's, it's impactful. And yeah, okay, long form.

I will try it.

Try it. If you have any questions, let me know.

I will try it. Absolutely.

You need help with anything?

Yeah, we're here. Well, Aveline's— Aveline is wild. I've never had as many— I told— they were like, whose podcast you run? I'm like, well, it's a guy who is the husband of a girl who I did a design consultation for, but I only met her because she she worked with a woman who I did interior design for. I mean, it just— Abilene is so—

there will be lots of word of mouth too here.

Yeah, it's— that was not a thing in Denver or Dallas. So I've actually been really appreciative of like, I've had more leads and networking here than I ever did, and I've been here since October. So that, that's been really—

most of the time people are good at supporting local here.

Yeah, it's been great.

A lot better than other places.

Oh, I've never experienced anything like this.

And so we're in a spot where there's like not as much competition as like Dallas.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, and so people who are doing specific things that aren't here yet, they're going to be way ahead and they're going to be dominating the market.

Absolutely.

There's not very many interior designers, like I can count on like one hand of ones that I actually have heard of.

Oh. Yeah. And when I moved here, they're like, oh, have you heard of— and they're spoken of in like hushed tones.

Yes. Because they're like, they have a monopoly.

Have you heard of Rebecca Gibbs? And you're like, Rebecca Gibbs? Rebecca Gibbs. You know, I'm idolizing her. But yeah, there's these people you're like, well, I want to be Chase Aruzzo. You know, this is— but yeah, absolutely. And I'm wanting to bring more Dallas design. I think that's kind of what I'm trying to bring to Abilene is a little bit more of an elevated style than what we're seeing here, because this is not to cut down Abilene, but design-wise, we're about 10 years behind.

Oh, same with this stuff.

Oh yeah, it's just kind of— Denver was about 5 years behind Dallas. I moved from Dallas to Denver, and then Abilene's about 10. So you're starting to see stuff here like wallpaper that, that started happening 10 years ago. So I'm hoping to kind of speed us up a little bit would be what I'd love to do. It takes people kind of getting out of their comfort zone though and saying, okay, I'll let you do this thing that is not a shiplap wall. No offense to shiplap walls, but offense to shiplap. Stop doing them. Stop doing them. They're, they're done.

Leave them alone. That's exactly what I say about this stuff. It's like I'm trying to move Avaline forward and advance them and try to catch them up at least some.

Yeah, absolutely.

So that's why we started doing video production out the field, like doing commercials and that kind of thing.

That's cool. Yeah.

Because I go to the local theater here and it's like the ads before the movie, they are awful. And it's like, dude, we look like we're from the 1950s right now because— Yeah. Anyways. All right. Well, any last remarks?

I think that's it. I feel like I have— I wish I would have done your recording. Yeah. What was this?

The Fireflies.

That records our meeting. Okay. Like, I wish I just need to have everything you just told me. I guess it's on a podcast. Yeah, I can go watch my podcast.

You can throw it into Fireflies if you want.

Okay.

You can watch the podcast. You can— so Fireflies also, if you have— do you use Google Meet ever?

I use Zoom more often.

Yeah, I might be able to do Zoom, but for like Google Meet meetings, yeah, like a call with somebody, it joins the meeting and it does notes on that too.

That's so cool.

It's insane. Anyways, yeah, I hope you guys—

I have so many things. Yeah. Thank you.

Found some valuable content here. Thanks for listening along. Jasa, good luck with your YouTube channel.

Thank you so much.

And we'll see you guys on the next episode. Oh, wait, wait, wait. No, not yet. Where can they follow you?

Oh, yeah. So on Instagram, it's Jasa, J-A-S-A. There's not a lot of us. @jacerousseau_interiors or jacerousseauinteriors.com.

Perfect. And we'll link those in the description if you need any interior design work right here from anywhere, from anywhere. Okay, now we'll see you guys in the next episode.