- In this video, I interview Jenna Kutcher,
one of the top lady podcasters on iTunes,
about her tips for growing your influence with
Instagram, and why every single one of us
in the influencer community needs to be
growing an email list.
Coming up.
(upbeat electronic music)
This video is brought to you by LearnVideo.live,
a free one hour online training on how to grow a
highly influential and profitable YouTube Channel this year.
To get free access, just go to LearnVideo.live.
Hey what's up guys, Sean here with Video Influencers.
Help you build your influence, income and impact
with online video.
And I'm here with Jenna Kutcher, how's it going?
- Good, thank you for having me.
- Super pumped to be here at social media marketing world
here in San Diego and Jenna is the creator of the
Gold Digger Podcast, which is one of the top podcasts
for female entrepreneurs.
Over 3.5 million downloads, she also shares
massive tips on Instagram and is crushing it
online in general.
So I'm excited to be hanging out today.
- That's really sweet I really don't have it
all together so... Hahaha!
- That's true, but what you're doing is super inspiring.
- Thank you.
- And actually we're gonna kick it off today,
we're gonna talk about podcasting a little bit,
talk about Instagram because even video influencers
really should be using Instagram right now.
It's such a hot platform.
- Yep.
- But one of the things that really isn't as sexy
is email lists.
- Tell me about it.
- Yeah, we talk all the time with our community
that you need to be building your email list.
So Jenna, what is the importance of an email list
and what advice do you give to entrepreneurs
and creatives when it comes to that?
- You know, it was funny, a few years ago somebody,
a business coach of mine, he goes, "How big is your list?"
And I'm like "What list?"
Like my to-do list is really long thank you.
But he really drove it home for me where you have
to have a plan for your followers.
We don't own the platforms that we're on,
we don't own our Instagram followers, our YouTube
followers, and so you have to a place where you're
in control of that environment and that's when I
became super passionate about email lists.
And like you said, it's not very sexy,
but that's where we drive our profits.
And so, you can have call to actions on
anything that you're creating, but that action should be
to take people to a place where you can control
that experience for them, and really be in charge of
how they're getting your content,
how they're consuming it, and then what the
next step is for them.
- That's really good, and video influencers,
they've seen that we give away a free guide with
19 tips for growing your YouTube channel.
You created how many freebies last year?
- I created 52 freebies last year, one every single week,
which I maybe wouldn't recommend, now we're being
a little more strategic with what we're putting out.
But I love giving out content, I love impacting
people regardless of if they buy anything,
and I love dropping into their inbox.
- That's awesome. So one of the things that we actually
do on video influencers is we give a free guide away
for people that wanna grow their youtube channel
and you do that same kind of a thing,
but people might be wondering, "How do I start this?"
like, "What should I do first?"
like, "How do I get someone to sign up for an email
list, is there software that can do that?"
What are your tips?
- So I think the first thing is, is to ask yourself
what do people ask you all the time?
What is your scope of genius?
And if we're being honest, we all don't
feel like experts, I think we all feel like imposters
and so it's really easy to not be able to recognize
the gifts that you have or the things that come easy to you
that you could bless others with.
And so it's all about serving your audience.
How can you serve them in a way that answers the
question, solves the problem, or makes their life easier.
And so what I love to think about is you can literally
whip up a PDF in Microsoft Word, it doesn't have to be
fancy or beautiful or designed, and then a lot
of providers for email lists are free, for the first
100 or thousand subscribers, so jump on
to a MailChimp or ConvertKit or anything like that,
and just get started.
And it's really easy to set up, it really doesn't
take much time, and that way you're pouring into
your audience more, I think a lot of times we create
dead ends on our social media, so we don't
give that final invitation, and our users
and the people that are enjoying our content
want to go another step with us, and so it's just
like that invitation to do that.
- That's awesome, and it's also great to be
building your email list because here on YouTube
there's a bunch of drama with demonetization
algorithms change on Instagram, things happen,
now you're growing your audience off where you
have more control.
- Yeah. You own it!
- And you can keep communicating with your community.
That's powerful.
Now one of the things that you share the most about
is Instagram, and you've grown your Instagram
in a lot of ways, you share a lot of tips,
and I'm curious, in 2018, what should influencers
watch and be thinking that wanna grow their
Instagram channels, and what are some of your best tips
and focuses right now?
- You know, I think that the problem right now
with social media is that we're so into consumption,
we're consuming so much content, which is awesome,
but I think it can also hinder our ability to see what
sets us apart, and I think that some people feel so
basic or so boring, or they have nothing to offer,
and it's time for us to own our awesome,
and really be the person you're meant to be.
And so I think what's coming next is really learning
how to stand out, we're all using the same gear, the
same presets, the same apps, and so things
start to look the same, and the one true way
to make your mark is to be yourself,
and you are the unique selling proposition.
So, I think that it's incredible, my brand is
based on being real and talking about some of the
crappy things in life and sharing all the
good things in life and I want my feed to be
a legacy and not just a highlight reel,
but to be the real life of me.
- Yeah, that's awesome, so we've heard this quote,
we talk about all the crap from Sally Hogshead is
"Different is better than better."
I think in 2018, how can you make your Instagram better,
things like that, now let's get a little bit tactical.
What's some of the tactics that are
maybe have changed in 2018, with say, hashtags, or
just best practices that you recommend?
- Well, Instagram just enrolled the featured stories
which will be really exciting for you guys that love
video because it gives a chance to give your followers
kind of a behind the scenes look.
And I think that you can use those really strategically,
I don't think people think of it that way,
but you can make different categories of your life,
you can invite people into different
facets of what you're doing.
I love the featured stories just because
I'm really goofy in real life, but I'm a professional
photographer, so my photographs are gonna look
really good, but in real life, I'm just a
goofball, and so using featured stories to kind of
show your personality in a new way is a
really awesome way to extend your brand and really take
what you guys do with video and bring it onto Instagram.
- That is awesome, well Jenna are you ready for
the lightning round?
- I'm ready.
BANG! Although it doesn't...
Lightning doesn't make a noise.
- Ooh!
- Boom!
- Things that make you go "Hmm?"
(beep)
- Coffee or tea?
- Coffee.
- NYC or LA?
- NYC.
- Cat or dog.
- Dog.
- Last song you had on repeat on whatever device?
- Ed Sheeran, probably.
♪ Darlin' you look perfect tonight ♪
- One book that you would recommend every
influencer watch and read?
- Purple Cow.
- One Netflix show or documentary that you love?
- Making a Murderer, cause it happened
in Wisconsin, by where we live.
But don't judge Wisconsinites, hahaha!
- Ah, I love that.
Do you have a favorite failure or past mistake
that you made, that you learned from,
and that has lead to your current success.
- Yeah I mean I burnt myself out.
I think a lot of us are workaholics,
we're hustlers, and my new motto is busy is not a
badge of honor, I think we glorify busy,
we think it means more success but I wanna work
smarter and not harder, so as a wedding photographer
I was booking, booking, booking, I looked very
successful but behind the scenes I was a nervous
wreck, I was exhausted, and so now we really
block out time for rest and time for creativity
and just margin in our lives and I think we could
all use a little more margin.
- Do you have favorite quote or saying that you
like to think about often?
- Oh golly, so many!
Busy is not a badge of honor, that's the one,
I gotta just cling to that.
- That's good, super, super strong.
What is a purchase of $100 and less
that really changed your life.
Like it was one of the best purchases you ever made
for $100 or less.
- A good pair of yoga pants.
- There you go.
If you were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse,
but you could only bring one thing with you,
or grab thing, or have one item, what would it be?
- It would be my camera so that I could take
baller photos of the zombies.
- That's right, yeah.
Should everyone survive, you would then have all the
rights and all the great photos.
- That's right.
- That's amazing, I love that.
That's a good answer.
Lightning round, lightning round, choo choo,
choo choo, choo choo!
(beep)
Let's talk about what you're doing,
some of the projects you have coming up,
and of course we'll link everything that
Jenna's doing in the description below.
But where are you at and what's happening?
- Awesome, so everything we've called the mothership
is at JennaKucther.com, I do the podcasts,
I teach courses, I love growing my email list,
and I love just serving people.
So that's kinda what we're working on.
This year is all about working really smart
and showing up for my audience and the Gold Digger podcast
is where a lot of people can get inspired.
- That's awesome. So check that out below.
Final thing: as an entrepreneur yourself, you have
gotten through the ups and the downs right?
We all go through, especially when we're first starting
it's a grind, and sometimes you're working harder,
way harder, than you're seeing results.
Can you just speak a few words of encouragement
to those in our community who are trying to
build their influence, build their income, and keep going?
- Yeah, I mean I think at the end of the day,
it all comes back to impact, how do you wanna
impact the world?
What is the mark that you wanna leave?
And if your heart is really in it I truly
believe that you will be a success.
But remember it's not about the numbers.
Whether you have one follower or 100,000,
you have influence.
And you can pour into people's lives,
and so just show up for the people that are showing up
for you, serve them well, love them well,
and I promise that they'll bring friends back to you.
- I love that thank you so much for being on the show.
- Yeah! Thank you.
- And influencers, definitely subscribe if you're
not subscribed, if you wanna see another video
in our social media series.
Just click or tap the screen over there.
For another video from Video Influencers,
click the other button over there.
Until next time, Video Influencers hope you
build your influence, income, and impact with
online video.
Keep crushing it!
And we will talk soon.
(beep)