1815 – The Influencer Misconceptions with Jacinta Devlin

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Josh (00:01:32) - They discuss the latest trends, offer practical advice, and reveal the secrets behind exceptional customer experiences and business growth. Are you a business owner who values customer experience above all? Then this podcast is your go to resource. Better yet, if you've got unique insights and strategies that have helped you stand out in your industry, we'd love to have you as a guest on the show. Share your story with a community that's as passionate about customer experience excellence as you are. Tune in to the experienced, Focused Leaders podcast for your weekly dose of inspiration and practical tips. Let's push the boundaries of customer experience together. With us right now. Just sent to Devlin. Jacinta, you are found on the web at Jacinta Devlin. And you are the CEO and founder at Devlin Consulting. This is going to be a fun conversation. Jacinta, thank you so much for joining us.

Jacinta (00:02:31) - Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be on with everybody.

Josh (00:02:35) - Just down the road in Florida here in West Palm, and I'm in Orlando.

Josh (00:02:39) - So just to give us an overview of the work, like who you work with, who you serve as part of Devlin Consulting.

Jacinta (00:02:45) - Absolutely. So I work primarily with female entrepreneurs who are looking to either grow or start their current business. So I've worked with everyone from influencers, direct sellers, network marketers to photographers, realtors, personal coaches. Really any female entrepreneur who's looking to build their brands and their bottom line on social using online, that's who I help.

Josh (00:03:10) - Yeah, well, what a great area to be in. Um, so tell me more about the types of people that usually follow you or engage with you. And they're wanting to learn from you. What are they doing right now maybe prior to their engagement with you?

Jacinta (00:03:27) - Yeah, sure. So I would say for myself, I have a long history in the industry of network marketing and direct sales. So a lot of my potential clients, former clients, current clients are in that space because we've connected there. And then a lot of times I'm working with clients who are brand new that want to start a business.

Jacinta (00:03:47) - They're not sure how to start it, how to create a strategy or a roadmap, or kind of put all of the pieces in place that they need for their online presence. So I would say a lot of times people are coming to me and they're like, listen, I've seen you online. I want to do something, but I have no idea where to get started or how do you even, you know, get my product out in front of people. Can you help me with that? And I say, yes, I can. And then I have people who come to me, and maybe they're already currently selling a product or selling affiliate style, and they're like, hey, I've seen, you know, your growth. I want to bump it up. How can I grow more? How can I, you know, bust out of the one channel that I'm in and how can I start to reach potential clients or customers in other channels? So I help people at all different stages of their businesses, which is really fun for me because we're always doing something different.

Josh (00:04:35) - Um, so if someone were to ask Jacinta if they were to just say so, Jacinta, can you make me an influencer? What would you say to that?

Jacinta (00:04:43) - I would say yes and no to that. Maybe. Do I help people get started and do I help them to grow their influence and their brand 1,000%? Would I ever say to somebody, I'm going to make you an influencer if that was their goal? And that's the ultimate thing that they're looking to do based on what does that look like for them? Right. Success looks different for everybody else. So you're an influencer who just wants to make a couple hundred a month, or do you want to be an influencer who makes a couple hundred thousand a year? I've worked with people in both. So can I help people do that? Yes. Do I tell anybody I'm going to turn you into something? No. Because really, what I do in my strategy and my program is we take a look at your business, what your goals are, and we really build a plan to help you be successful, uh, based on what it is that you're looking to achieve.

Jacinta (00:05:30) - So if you're looking to become an influencer, can I help you do that? Absolutely. Is that what I do for everybody? No. Not necessarily.

Josh (00:05:38) - So can you share with us maybe a little bit about the what is it like for someone who has built up a decent following on social? What does the business look like behind the scenes? Like what kind of work are they doing? Um, I'm sure you have some really, really great insights that might be either surprising or really interesting to someone who doesn't really live in that world. They certainly, you know, see the work. You know, they certainly have the folks that they follow. But I can tell you this, you know, as somewhat of a kind of a niche, nerdy macro influencer to very particular a couple of topics, you know, uh, there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff that goes on that's a part of the, you know, kind of the business development. You share more about that.

Jacinta (00:06:22) - For sure. I would say one of the most common misconceptions and the things that would probably surprise people is followers does not equal dollars.

Jacinta (00:06:32) - And a lot of times when I'm working with clients, they think that they have to have hundreds of thousands of followers to start making money, and they feel like that's so unattainable. And really, that's not the case at all. I've worked with different female entrepreneurs, um, in Facebook groups where they only had a couple hundred people in their Facebook group, but they're churning thousands of dollars out in sales for their business. Right. I've also worked with people who have come to me, who've had 360,000 followers and weren't making a single dollar and didn't know how to monetize their following. So I think one of the biggest misconceptions in selling your product online, whether you are an influencer or a business owner, I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that you have to have a lot of followers. To generate a lot of income, and that's just not the case. There's a lot of strategies and plans to put in place, and a lot of ways that you can make money online without feeling like you need to, you know, grow to hundreds of thousands.

Jacinta (00:07:30) - So I think that's probably the biggest misconception that people are always kind of relieved to hear is you don't have to stress out about that follower number. That's not the number we're tracking so much as we want to know about the conversion. How many of those people are actually buying from us? How many of those people are actually becoming customers? That's what we're really most interested in. So I think that's probably what surprises most people is the majority of your followers does not equal dollars. No.

Josh (00:07:55) - Um, so let's say you were talking with someone. They said, you know, I actually have a pretty good follower account, but my engagement is just not great. Help doesn't help me.

Jacinta (00:08:06) - So a first few things we're going to take a look at. Right is what's the quality of your content currently. Because the reality is is in 2024, if you're trying to sell a product or service online, you have to have quality content. Not only do I mean aesthetically where your content has to look good, right? There's got to be good lighting.

Jacinta (00:08:24) - We need to be able to see, you know, the product or whatever it might be. But more so importantly is, is your content doing something to serve your potential customer? Client? Does it educate? So does it tell about your product or things that we can do with your product? Um, does it entertain them? Does it show them fun ways or interesting ways that they could use your product? And does it provide value? Do you share the value of how this product or service is going to help that customer's life? And I think that's probably one of the other biggest misconceptions is when we're looking at, you know, I've got followers, but maybe I'm low on engagement. It's really taking a look at what's your content, is your content, just throwing up some photos of your products and being like, hey, by this, or does your content actually educate, entertain and provide value? So that way the people that are on the other end are attracted, right, using attraction marketing, that they're actually attracted to your product or service and want to purchase it now.

Josh (00:09:22) - And let's say, uh, just into that, someone has a pretty great following, they've got decent engagement and they haven't done any work or collaborations with brands that are out there. Now, what I can tell you is that there are a lot of brands that want to be in front of people, but they're just maybe some missing kind of connect the dots. So how does someone go from not working with any brand? You know, maybe they've trolled or kind of browsed through some of those affiliate platforms and like, yeah, it doesn't sound very exciting. Like, what is that world like?

Jacinta (00:09:57) - Absolutely. So I think when it comes to actually, you know, making collaborations, brand partnership, if you're not doing this, you're leaving tons of money on the table. There is a huge opportunity, uh, to build partnerships, like you said, with brands. We're really looking to get in front of people. When you take a look at, you know, marketing as a whole, let's say ten, 15 years ago, companies had budgets allocated for magazine for, you know, different online platforms.

Jacinta (00:10:26) - Now we see companies coming. That magazine budget is dwindled to nothing. Right. And that same money that was once there for that ad budget, they're moving that over to influencer and affiliate marketing budget. So what we're seeing is really it's still all marketing and there's still a lot of the same budget, but they're just moving the budget over from one place to the other. So they're really recognizing the power behind affiliate and influencer marketing. So one of the biggest things that people think, too is I don't have enough followers. Or how do I start connecting with brands? You don't have to have tons of followers. A lot of brands are looking for those micro influencers who have really good, connected audiences that can bring their message to people in a really genuine and authentic way. So if you've got a current platform and you're not working with brand, the really easy first simple step would be to start pitching brands. It's as simple as finding that brand or company that you want to do business with. Going on to their Instagram, taking a look at their account and their profile.

Jacinta (00:11:27) - What things are they're doing right now? Um, do they have a new campaign that launched, or are they behind a social cause that you care about and reaching out to them with an idea already? A lot of times when people are pitching for a brand collaboration, it's just very vague like, oh, hey, I'd love to work with you, or do you have anything going on? A brand is much more likely to say yes and kind of peak up their ears and their interests. If you come to them and you're like, you know, I've been a follower of yours for XYZ amount of time, I bought XYZ amount of products, and this is what I would love to do to showcase your product. How can I help you continue to grow your brand? So I think when you're looking to make those brand collaborations and partnerships, it's far less about you and you have to position it more so on. How can you help that brand or that company reach their goals together as a team?

Josh (00:12:19) - Now.

Josh (00:12:19) - Um. All right, so how do you do this? How are you working with your clients? What does that look like?

Jacinta (00:12:25) - Absolutely. So right now, I currently work in a program called the Business Growth Program. So it's a six week coaching call program. So it's not a course that somebody buys and you do DIY. It's one on one intensive program with me. And depending on where my clients are at, if somebody's already currently in business, then we are going to take a look at what is their current strategy to sell online. What platforms are they using? Are they using email? Is it website? Is it social? Is it a combination? And what do we need to do to make those more effective and drive more conversions? Or they might be somebody who's, you know, just getting started and they need to, you know, lay all the groundwork. So for some of those clients, if they're just launching a brand, we're going to kind of back the process up a little bit and really focus first on their branding, who their brand is, who their target audiences take you to look at, building a strategic marketing plan for them that uses attraction marketing, and then how to actually implement that to sell their product.

Jacinta (00:13:24) - So I work with customers on different ends of their business, but really it's all based around the core of my business growth program, which is that six week program where I really take my four pillars of branding, you know, social media, attraction, marketing and selling and apply it to their business model.

Josh (00:13:43) - Wow. Uh, okay. So your website, Jacinta devlin.com. Jacinta, when somebody goes there, I know you have a lot of really good resources too. Um, what would you recommend someone who's been listening to our conversation? They're like, okay, I'm really excited about this topic. I want to learn more. Um, where should they deep dive?

Jacinta (00:14:00) - Absolutely. So on my website, Jacinta Deadline.com, like you said, there's a lot of information on there. Um, because one of the things that I think makes me unique is not only am I a coach, but I do work as an influencer and I also help brokerage deals. So there's a lot of great things that I have going on there.

Jacinta (00:14:16) - But I would say for anyone who's looking specifically to work with me, um, the Business Growth Program comm will take you right to all the information that you need for my actual six week coaching call program. So there's actually a free webinar that you can check out right when you go to the Business Growth Program comm. And then there's also a 15 minute free growth strategy call. So if you're listening you're like, okay, I'd love to pick her brain or hear a little bit more or see how this might be able to apply to me or my business. The easiest way would just be to go to the Business Growth Program comm, and that will have all the links to sign up for a call, and to hop onto my free webinar and learn a little bit more there too.

Josh (00:14:57) - Now, Jacinta, thank you so much. It's been a great conversation again. Jacinta devlin.com. The spelling for that to our friend that's listening to us. Just click around in your podcast app. You're going to find it.

Josh (00:15:08) - We have a direct link there just into a really interesting conversation. And again, um, you know, just to anyone that has any kind of following and you're wondering if there are brands that want to work with you, the answer is yes. You just need to kind of start showing up in their world. Sometimes you're a little hard to find, you know, when these brands are. Because I having done work with the brands on the brand side, I mean, that's they're struggling with they're trying to find the right influencers to partner with, you know, the right content creators to partner with. So Jacinta Devlin, again, thank you so much for your conversation. I really appreciate it.

Jacinta (00:15:43) - Thanks so much, Josh.

Josh (00:15:50) - Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit up my influence common Guest. If you're a listener, I'd love to shout out your business to our whole audience for free. You can do that by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or join our Listener Facebook group.

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