Instagram Magic

You look hot. By the.

Best. Best way to start alive.

Thank you.

I actually, I. My hair, I tried something different and it was not looking good and then like, I shoved a crap ton of product in it. Now it's like, different, but I don't know, but thank you. Hi, everyone, welcome. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. I'm here today with Jess Bruno, who is bomb diggity. She is the queen of Instagram and we're talking about how to make some Instagram magic. Jess, thank you so much for joining me today.

Thanks for having me.

Oh, my gosh. So I'm always so curious to start. I always love starting with, like, how did you get into doing the work that you do on Instagram?

Yeah, for sure. So I've been working in social media marketing for about eight years and Instagram was always my favorite one because I found it had the most return on in the industries that I was in. So I was employed working for, like, the biggest events company in London and the biggest cinema chain in London. And I used Instagram and Facebook predominantly to help promote their businesses, which both went nationwide. And I learned a lot. I learned a lot when right before the pandemic happened, I decided that being employed wasn't really for me.

And I think a lot of people did.

But before it happened, I wanted to stop anyway because, like, my health was really weird and I wanted to move home. And so when pandemic happened, I moved in with my mom and I lived with her for about a year. And in the first month, all my friends started their own businesses. Like, I had a friend that's a singer and she did a post box brownie business. And I've got friends that were like, just wanting to blow up on TikTok and I was being inundated with messages saying, please can you help me with my Instagram, please? Is this picture okay? And so I'd be saying, yeah, yes, fine. And then I was like, fuck it, let me just start doing free tips on my Instagram because it's going to save me so much time.

Yeah.

And then my mum was like, you really should be charging people for this stuff you're doing. And I'm like, why? No one does that. And I looked and, oh, my God, millions of people do that. Millions of people that do it do the thing that I do. And I'm like, oh, my God, I can. I can make it a thing.

Yeah.

So two years later, it's a thing. It's a very nice thing.

It's so funny. I love business stories that start like that. It's like you're just kind of doing it anyway, and then people like, you should charge for it because that's kind of how my this side of my business where I help other people start businesses started. Because I was initially like a dating coach and then an executive leadership coach. And then a lot of my friends, like, started asking me, wait a minute, how did you start a business so fast? And I started just showing them. And I didn't realize that I'd kind of systematized my background in sales and marketing to be able to put together a business really quickly. So I love that that's your background. That's how you fell into this. We have Yvette Brown in the. In the comments. Hi, Yvette. Great to see you not attempted social media yet. So this inspires. My next question, Jess, is what is your advice to people who want to get started on social media but haven't dipped their toe in the water yet?

You just have to post it.

Yeah.

The best way to get started is to not overthink it and just post whatever. I promise you, you're on your own. You're just figuring it out. Your first 20 posts aren't going to be the be all and end all of your business. You just need to work out what you like doing on the platform and in fact, just get over that fear of posting. So the quickest and simplest answer to that is don't even think about attempting it. Just do it. Doesn't matter if it looks perfect or it looks good even. Just get it out there. What is it? Okay, so it can be a picture of you with a little bit of copy saying who you are or what your business is. It can be information about what you're selling. It can be what you're having for lunch on Tuesday afternoon. It can literally be anything that showcases who you are and why you're doing it. But I promise you, don't overthink it in the beginning. Because even if you went to someone like me, a social media strategist, and said, what is it? I would be like, I don't know, babe. I need you to work out a little bit for me first and then we can get started.

Yep. Yeah. I think. I think the. The biggest hurdle to getting started is the fear of doing it wrong. And the fear also of people seeing you do it wrong because you're doing it publicly on social media.

Yeah.

So my interest is getting these newfound business owners to get their papers notarized yeah. So, I mean, I mean, Yvette, I have, I have advice here, but I want, I want Jess to chime in how. What kinds of things would you do for her? She's a local business. To get noticed in her area.

First and foremost, start posting tips on how these business owners can get their papers notarized. So small tips that make sense really, specifically to your local area. So how to get notarized in local area. Top five journalists in local area give away their seemingly free content, which will basically just funnel people through.

And I'm realizing notarized might be an American term and not the British term. It's like getting your paper certified by a legal official.

God. Okay.

But I, I just realized that, like, we're. We're in the US and you're in.

The uk you probably don't have no idea. But again, creating educational content for your niche to tell them how they can get closer to that from a. To be.

Yeah, Yeah. I also make up, Yvette, like, local businesses go to local businesses. Go to a local restaurant and say, this is where I am. I'm on my way to notarize a client in this town, you know, and.

Then once you're there and if they look for LinkedIn profile like, oh, yeah, she's legit. Do you need to have enough content on there to kind of say, yeah, I do do this. Look at my page.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I love. You know, there's the question of do I need a website that a lot of my clients have? And yes and no. I mean, websites generally are just a place for people to go to to verify that you are who you say you are on the interwebs. Social media more and more is becoming that filler for that.

Yeah. I didn't have a website for the first year in business and it didn't hinder me at all. I didn't feel any difference. I got one eventually because it gives you extra street cred and it does make you look more professional and legit. And it's just a better platform for you to house stuff and make use of SEO with blogs and have loads of reviews. Where, as on social media, it's a bit harder because you are using the platform's boundaries, but with a correct strategy and posting style, you can make sure that when someone comes to your page, they can be like, oh, yeah, she's a real human being who knows what she's talking about. Just a smart coffee and great place.

Yeah, yeah. I always joke that, like, I could put up a website that says, I'm a neurosurgeon. And some people will go to it and be like, cool, Katie's a neurosurgeon. Brain surgery. I'll go to her.

Yeah.

But it just creates another place out there in the world where people can discover you and verify who you are. Where do you get a lot of your inspiration from?

So it's a whole process to, number one, you can't burn yourself out with work.

Right.

If you are overworking and working really hard, even if you've got all your notes and everything for inspiration, you won't want to create any content because you're too tired and too busy and you need to be working on the business. How in the hell can you make this free stuff for your followers? You only got 20 followers. Like, what do they care? Like, if you're not feeling good, you cannot go and create this really inspiring content. So, number one, feel good. Number two, I'd say 20% of it is from social media itself. So by following people that are not necessarily doing exactly the same thing as me, but people in my. My target audience are following now, that's where the secret is. A lot of people look at. So for example, me, social media strategist, I'll go look at a really popular social media strategist and just copy what they're doing. Yeah, it doesn't work. It doesn't work because you're just saying the same thing they're saying in your tone of voice. Yeah, but it's already been said. And you could say it in a million different ways, probably better. But it's still them. Still them. But you need to think outside the box of inspiration and instead go, okay, where are my target audience hanging out? What kind of stuff and show and feel do they like? And how can I merge that with my expertise and knowledge? That's 20% of where I get it. Another 20% is still on the Internet and social media. But Facebook groups. Facebook groups, where your audience are hanging out, not particularly to ask questions about your industry, but what their pain points and topics are and what they're talking to each other about, that is quite current. So I'm in quite a lot of female founder groups because that's who my main target audience and I like to see what they're talking about. If there's a phase where everyone is feeling so burnt out on social media, I will do a copy and I'll do a piece of content that says how to avoid burnout on social media. And I'm not putting in that Facebook group saying, hi, this is me, this is how much I charge. I just gently weave it in to my, to my social media strategy. Reddit threads are really good because there are people on Reddit that are constantly asking questions, wanting to know about this and that and this and that. Reddit's a really good place. Answerthepublic.com is really good place for you to search for inspiration, but it's quite generic. But if you're really stuck, I'd go there. Those are my, those are my top places.

So. Well, what I'm hearing you say is you have to understand your ideal client really super fucking well.

Yeah.

Like you have to know not only what their general problems are, but like what's really relevant to them right now in this moment with all the circumstances.

Of the world weighing on them 100%. And it has to, there is, it's a healthy blend of evergreen content which doesn't have to necessarily be in the now and, but the posts that I find are doing well, I'd say in the last six months are hyper relevant to the time and place that your general target audience, their feelings are at the moment.

Right.

Right.

So. So I'm curious because I know a lot of people who run like service based businesses that like their business is not aesthetically available. Like it's not something you can snap a picture of their work and then presented on Instagram. What's kind of your strategy in coming, helping them come up with content.

So I say when they pay you money, what do they get? And usually it's you. So you need to be very present because their money's going to you. You need to show up and show them what they're paying for. So breaking that fear of showing up on camera and talking to them, like talking to camera, like it's an actual client, that stuff really helps. Yeah, that stuff really, really helps. Talk to camera is a big one when it comes to my service based clients. Also, it's educational content assets and then relatable content. So funny. Memes, memes. People don't understand the power of memes, but it's strong. And then sharing personal stuff that you are happy to share. So I've got a client from saying what I had for lunch on Tuesday. I've had a client from sharing about my Crohn's disease. I've had loads of clients come through from letters from ways when I've been open on my stories because they relate to me.

Yeah, yeah. Evad a notary is a unique position that we can't give legal advice, but we're required to be present when legal documents are signed. I mean, that just brings to mind for me that, like, start connecting with other lawyers in your area on Instagram, you know, and like, I don't know, I mean, what would Jess, what would your idea be there for her?

People don't buy you because you're a notary. They buy you because you're Yvette Brown. So I would be talking about your not personal life, but your passions and your hobbies rather than the notary. Business is a huge part. It's still going to be the main tagline, it's still going to be your main bio, but I would say the bulk of your content needs to be, hi, I'm Yvette Brown. This is what I care about. And if you want to get my notary services, this is where they are. One of my clients was a lawyer. We work, she worked as legal aid. And it was really tricky talking about these, these sticky situations because we came across a lot of. There was a lot of, oh, no, I can't talk about that. No, I can't talk about that. So like, okay, let's talk about you. And as soon as we did that, things started changing. We even got a collaboration with the bank NatWest from DMing them. He had under a thousand followers.

That's amazing.

We JM NetWest and got a collaboration. Yeah, yeah.

And I know Yvette. She has a sparkling personality. She's so interesting. She, she lived a life. So much content that she could pull from just so people would opt into her as a human being and then if they ever do need notary services, you know, to be able to hire her for that. Yvette, thank you for popping in on the comments here. It's so nice to be able to take this and like apply it to something in real life. Yeah. What are you really excited about these days, Jess?

What am I excited about? Yeah. Okay, well, April is a month of self care for me. I'm excited about that. I'm going to be limiting my hours, so I'm going to be working from 9am till 2pm I love that. And I'm going to see how productive I can be now. I'm not going to be too annoying, like stickler with myself if I go till 3 o'. Clock. Okay, it's okay. But I'm really trying to focus on powering my body back so I can come back stronger. So I'm ready for May, because May is the start of my content. Club.

And tell us about the content club.

The content club is a hub for small business owners, especially solopreneurs who do not have time to think about the social media marketing. It's a Done4U membership for £27amonth where you get a full content schedule for the month, plus blog posts and email marketing templates and a whole network of other small business owners to work with and me to hold you accountable for it.

Mm, amazing. And like, so someone joins, like what kind of businesses do they have? What kinds of things are they doing in the club?

So when someone joins, they're usually a stressed out, socially overwhelmed small business owner who just doesn't know what to post on social media and is feeling really overwhelmed by it. When you sign up at the first Monday of the month, you get a content drop where you get the entire month for you with content prompts for every single day. Now you do not have to post every single day. In fact, I really don't think you should do that. But you will have prompts for every single day. Plus, if there's any special social media days, you can jump on that as well. Every single week you will get a trend report because we all know how video content is just taking over. Yeah, especially for short form video content, even here on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on Instagram and on TikTok especially. And to try and jump on the hype train, you need to have a sound that makes sense and is popular and that changes every week. So you get a trend report from me every single week. In the middle of the month you get two blog post templates and two email marketing templates because I want to help you guys focus on navigating your audience off of social media as soon as you can so you can cultivate a community off social so you own them. And that happens in your email list and on your website. These blogs are going to be optimized for SEO as well. So then you can start getting Google involved. And again, I'm doing all the research for you, so all you have to do is fill in the blank. The other part of this is you're.

Basically like just a social media marketing team for this club.

I'm your, I'm your social media marketing team. It's a done for you marketing membership.

Right?

£27Amonth.

So you do all the thinking. All they have to do is, okay, cool, I need this kind of picture and I need to write this kind of thing and then boom, that's what I'm posting.

All they do is fill in the blanks.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

That's so cool.

Is that you get two 90 minute co working sessions. They're not mandatory, but it means I'm holding you accountable to filling in the blanks because I know how easy it can be for me to send you something and you not do it. Yeah. The reason why there's two is because I want you to. We've got a left brain and a right brain. The left brain is our creative side. Right, right. That's right. I think it's.

No, no, it's other way. Right. Right brain is the creative side. Left brain is the analytical side.

Okay. So the right brain is where we start and it's all the analyticals. I want you to be doing your research, everything like that. And the second 90 minute one is the creative. You're filming, you're having fun with it and you're scheduling it and I'm there to answer any questions you have.

That's amazing. So people get to sign up for this starting in May.

You can sign up today and it starts in May.

Okay, cool. Well, anyone who wants to sign up with you, they can just ping you through here or on Instagram at. Well, I mean, your name is also your, your handle.

Yeah.

That's amazing. Okay, great. Yeah. That's so exciting, Jess.

It's really exciting.

I wanna, I wanna like the first thing you mentioned because I love your approach to social media because it really is an act of self care. You know, one of the biggest fears that people have when they think about going on social media for their business is, oh my God, it's just going to take over my life because they've had like an unhealthy boundary thing with social media in the past or they've seen people who just like live on their phones.

Yeah, my thing is sustainability.

Yeah, yeah, it's. And I just love how you're approaching the business because you're, you're really giving full permission to all your clients to also have healthy boundaries around social media.

It's the whole point. In fact, I'm going to have a little burnout button section. So if you're feeling burnt out, there's a button on each email where you get a direct meeting with me for 15 minutes and we can talk through it and make a plan to get you out of it.

Right.

But my whole thing is sustainable strategies. If it's not working, you need to fix it straight away. If you, if you say I need to post five times a week, you need to be realistic with yourself. Well then how much time can I. How much time do I have to do that? But then if you, if you haven't recorded a video yet and you haven't posted it yet and you don't know how long the caption is going to be, how do you know how long it's going to take you?

Yeah, yeah.

It's practice and I'm going to be honest, it can take six months for you to find your flow. Right. And you can get six months in and then want to change everything. It's constantly changing. But if you can stay consistent with it and lower your expectations and have a nice consistency. I hate that word. It's such a buzzword over here.

But I like consistency. Yeah, I'm with you. But like build momentum around it.

Yeah, you need to build a momentum around it because it can, it can, it can really help you. It can really start creating this huge transformation in your business. It has done for me, Katie. It has done for you. It has done for all of my one to one clients. And I really wanted to create something where I could be extremely accessible. I'm trying to get about 100 people involved.

Yeah.

Because the ticket is so low.

Yeah.

27 quid a month. It's not a lot to ask for, but I know that I can look after and really help a lot of small businesses grow. People that I haven't been able to connect with before. Right.

And you know me, I'm going to try to get you to raise that rate. So people should probably sign up soon.

Before, Right before this call, honestly, we were on, went on our call before, I was like, I should just do it for 27 quid for three months. That's the introduction rate. Yeah. And then I think it's like a 97 pounds a month thing.

Like people who sign up in three months, they got to get that rate and then they go, it goes up. Because for what you're offering and the amount of work you're probably putting into putting it together. Oh my God. Like the, the amount of like thinking and figuring out that you're mitigating for people is incredible.

Yeah.

And hi, Bulent, welcome and thanks, Yvette, for welcoming people in our crowd. Oh, man, that's. Oh my gosh. Well, besides. So besides self care and besides this new program, like what's going on in your world right now, what. What are you looking forward to?

There's so much happening. There's so much happening. I've also just finished a workbook, so I've created a social media Start pack workbook. It's 50 pages long. I did it. I had some downtime, so I did it. And I'm figuring out whether to put it to print or whether to do it as an ebook.

You had some downtime? We put together a 50 page workbook. Yeah, great.

Yeah.

Just making the rest of us just feel the shame.

Yeah, no, no, don't feel the shame. Don't feel the same. I'm also watching a lot of true crime. I'm really into that at the moment. Really into that. Yeah.

Like what?

A bad vegan on Netflix is so good.

I thought it was just a vegan show. Like a vegan.

Bad vegan on Netflix is about. It's about this woman who totally. She got swept up with the wrong kind of guy and stole millions from her business and people that worked for her. And she was on. She was in such a good place and she nearly got away with it too. It's a whirlwind. You gotta watch it.

I honestly thought it was a cooking show.

No.

Okay, so bad vegan is on your watch list. Have you. Have you seen the latest series of or season of Bridgerton? Are you a Bridgerton fan?

No, Only because I. I know I would be and I just haven't started watching it.

Well, in your self care month. Which is today. Starting today.

Yeah.

I kid you not. It dropped last Friday. I started watching it 7pm on Friday. I stayed up until 2 o' clock in the morning and then I woke up early next morning because I wasn't able to finish all eight episodes and I watched the rest and then I re. Watched it on Sunday. It was so good.

Nice.

Yeah.

I'm also planning in April to do another knitting project.

Oh, what kind of knitting project?

I just did a hood. I made like this. A hood with like a ribbed neck. And you can. It's got drawstrings, so. Making some matching mittens.

Oh, right before summer.

That's been snowing. It's been snowing all day.

You're kidding me.

No. There's something wrong.

The world is broken. It snowed here. Snowed here over the weekend. Last weekend also. Yeah.

Hi, David.

I guess I have an invite to go to Istanbul. Yeah, I would love to.

Thank you.

I. Yeah. David. Hi. Welcome. We're talking TV shows that we're addicted to and knitting.

Oh, I just got a tattoo. Wait, this arm.

Oh my God, that's beautiful.

Thanks. I've got a hand tattoo now. I feel like a bad man.

Yeah, you're a badass. Oh my gosh is that. What's the significance for it?

So these are fuchsia flowers. My mum passed on 22 February, and she called these flowers little ballerinas when we used to walk past them every day. Oh, yeah, my sister got the same one.

Oh, it's beautiful.

Yeah, yeah. It's her passing that's really made me want to do this whole self care thing. I just gotta slow down, Katie.

Yeah.

So I'm creating these new offers that will give me more time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's so easy when you start a business to just kind of throw yourself full into it because everyone says, you know, it's the 247 grind and then you get sucked into it and you're like, oh, Jesus Christ. Is this really it?

Yeah.

And it's. I. You know, it's devastating that it took that to make you slow down, but, you know, we all have that thing that makes us slow down, realize like life is short. You know, we have to take care of our bodies. We have to actually enjoy life. We're not just here to work. Yeah. Yeah. Well, anything else? Any, any tips you want our audience to walk away with?

Don't over exert yourself when it comes to social media, it's much better in the beginning to focus on one platform and give it your everything. And until you're comfy there, move on and start on another one. Yes.

Yep.

Everyone thinks they got stuff everywhere. You don't?

Oh, no, no, no. This is, this is like the number one rule I start with my clients is like, you get to pick one for the first year and not until a year has passed and you have it completely dialed in, are you allowed to move on to another one because otherwise it just doesn't work.

Nope.

Nope.

Cool.

And if people want to find out about the club, the content club that is going to have a limited run at this rate before you raise it, how do they get in touch with you?

If you click on my Instagram, which is at. Jessica Sophia Bruno, the link in my bio is the first one, the content club, and it's the landing page there where you can join it. If you want to ask me any questions, just hit me up there. Okay.

Beautiful. Jess, thank you so much for joining today. This is so much fun, so great to be live with you and I'm so excited. Content Club, oh my God. Just mag. It's just a magical gift that you're, that you're giving so many people who wouldn't know how to do the thing otherwise and probably don't know, like, who to follow and who to who, who, what advice to take.

Otherwise, there's a lot of out there. So this is cutting through the noise. Just telling. Giving you a nice blueprint of everything you need for the whole month.

Yeah. Yep. Beautiful. Well, Jess, thank you again for being with me and everyone. Thank you. David Blent and Yvette. Yvette, you have to get on social media. It's so necessary. And you have such, such a vivacious personality. We need you out there anyway. And for those of you who didn't show up in our comments, thank you for joining. I hope this was useful. And get in touch with Jess on Instagram. All right, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. This is Jess Bruno, Instagram queen extraordinaire. Thank you for watching and have a great weekend.

Bye.