Speaker 1: Carala. She's a queen of talking. He was, She's only
Speaker 1: got the snoop on. No one can do with Caralam, Carola,
Speaker 1: No one can do with Carol Carola. You guys, we
Speaker 1: are getting towards the end of my Influencers series and
Speaker 1: I'm so pumped right now because I haven't called d
Speaker 1: Jacoby joining me. This woman does it all. She's a
Speaker 1: mom of two beautiful girls, she's a wife, and she
Speaker 1: is wanting to get digital with all of you people
Speaker 1: in cyber world. She's so incredible at using her iPhone
Speaker 1: to make beautiful pictures. You would think she had professional
Speaker 1: equip it, but she does everything with her iPhone and
Speaker 1: she is so informative about sharing her knowledge. I cannot
Speaker 1: forget to hear this interview. She's so so, so wise
Speaker 1: beyond her very young years. You'll get excited. Here's Nicole. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm here in the call D Jacoby. How that your name?
Speaker 1: I had a practice. It's a tongue poster, which I love.
Speaker 1: Is it is? We can thank my husband for that. Okay.
Speaker 1: He likes to keep it interesting. You need you know, yes,
Speaker 1: So this is actually you are going to be my
Speaker 1: second to last interview on my influencer series. I've had
Speaker 1: such a long influencer series because I've had the chance
Speaker 1: to meet all these incredible influencers, including yourself, and so
Speaker 1: I was like, I need to do a series and
Speaker 1: all these girls and just break it down how you
Speaker 1: become an influencer, What is an influencer? How do you
Speaker 1: make it a job? Like all these people are wanting
Speaker 1: to know how to do this, and some people have
Speaker 1: figured out how to dole it in, like you have
Speaker 1: figured out how making incredible business for yourself, um, your
Speaker 1: social media's and your platform. So just talk to me
Speaker 1: about where you're from, how you got interested in photography,
Speaker 1: and then how this world has emerged for you. Absolutely, Okay.
Speaker 1: So I'm from Delaware. It is a tax free state,
Speaker 1: so no tax free shopping. It's the second smallest state
Speaker 1: and it's just a tiny small town feel. Everybody knows
Speaker 1: everyone born and raised there. And I did live in
Speaker 1: Florida for I want to say a year, and I
Speaker 1: went to University of Tampa and had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: model while is there at the Home Shopping Network. So
Speaker 1: that was yeah, guess um see some old It was
Speaker 1: like all the headshot day the other day. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: it was Yeah. I did jewelry so I would stand
Speaker 1: there model, and then I did petitque fashion because I'm
Speaker 1: so short. Um so they had to put me into
Speaker 1: category right. Yeah, it was fun. Um So I lived
Speaker 1: in Florida for about a year during college, and then
Speaker 1: of course I went back to Delaware, finished and graduated
Speaker 1: from the University of Delaware and then took a small break. Um,
Speaker 1: I competed at miss us A representing Delaware. That was back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was back in two thousand seven, so you didn't
Speaker 1: miss u s A. How was that? It was amazing.
Speaker 1: It really didn't learn from that. So I went into
Speaker 1: that like I've always been a tomboy my whole life,
Speaker 1: Like I played field hockey. I played field hockey my
Speaker 1: freshman year in college. Um, I ran track hurdles like
Speaker 1: I've always just been a tomboy. Um. One of my
Speaker 1: girlfriends had tried out for the pageant and she was like,
Speaker 1: just give it a try. So I tried it, entered
Speaker 1: I think like a month before we could, like the
Speaker 1: deadline was and when I won, they were like, you're
Speaker 1: going to miss USA now, And I honestly had I
Speaker 1: had no idea like I didn't know that when you won,
Speaker 1: you went to miss us. It was it was so bizarre,
Speaker 1: it was surreal and it was it was an amazing experience. Um,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is interesting. What was he like? So when
Speaker 1: I competed. I don't know if the rules are still
Speaker 1: like this, but when I competed, he was allowed to
Speaker 1: pick I think seven of the top fifteen. I forget
Speaker 1: what the exact numbers are, but he was able to
Speaker 1: line everyone up and just kind of like look us
Speaker 1: up and down. I swear no, he could pick seven
Speaker 1: of the fifteen just by looking at y'all. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he half of the finalists got picked. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's still like that anymore, but
Speaker 1: I remember that rehearsal and he showed up and he
Speaker 1: had his little notepab with his assistant and he just
Speaker 1: kind of like went down the road shaking our hands,
Speaker 1: meeting everyone. I didn't get a chance to really he said.
Speaker 1: He did like a little hello, and that was it.
Speaker 1: I didn't have, you know, blonde hair, big boobs. I
Speaker 1: wasn't six ft all. We have a type here, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he has a team. We're probably all this type. He
Speaker 1: absolutely has a type Oh my god, what a crazy experience.
Speaker 1: How yeah. But other than that, it was amazing. It
Speaker 1: was really good for growth. Um, we did a lot
Speaker 1: of public appearances and a lot of charity work and
Speaker 1: probably oh yeah, it was. It was so good for
Speaker 1: me as a person just to to be put in
Speaker 1: those situations where you're forced to have to speak in
Speaker 1: front of people and just interact with just everybody. So
Speaker 1: it was, it was great. I loved it. What does
Speaker 1: that teach you about fear? Because I feel like that's
Speaker 1: such a like a lot of people, including yourself, might
Speaker 1: have have so much fear, but you didn't have a
Speaker 1: chance to be afraid. You had to just dive into it.
Speaker 1: So what about just walking through fear? Because I feel
Speaker 1: like so many people get to those moments where it's
Speaker 1: scary and they're like I can't do this. But I
Speaker 1: feel like that is something I've come across all the time,
Speaker 1: especially being in business and growing a business. There's always
Speaker 1: that little bit of fear and that doubt and that fervousness,
Speaker 1: and I always now take that as a good thing.
Speaker 1: You feel like so many people hit that moment where
Speaker 1: they have fear, Like you said, especially in business and
Speaker 1: they just throw their hands up because trying. But what
Speaker 1: did you realize about fear in that moment that it's
Speaker 1: not it's not as scary or it's not what you
Speaker 1: make it out to be. It's not it's it's really not.
Speaker 1: I just think it needs to be that extra push
Speaker 1: and it's just it's almost like an extra challenge, Like
Speaker 1: you just have to look at it like a mini
Speaker 1: challenge that comes in the way to make sure that
Speaker 1: you continue on your path. I don't know, I don't
Speaker 1: know the best way. You just have this like moment
Speaker 1: of growth Like that's I always find that that's what
Speaker 1: comes after those moments where you push yourself. You you
Speaker 1: do a public speaking event or you go on stage
Speaker 1: and have to compete in a swimsuit and heals and
Speaker 1: millions of people, and then when it's all over with,
Speaker 1: it's like I did it. I can do anything. Like
Speaker 1: you just have a moment of like empowerment it where
Speaker 1: you realize that, like you really can't do anything. Anybody
Speaker 1: can do anything that they put their heart in mind
Speaker 1: into and you work hard, you can anybody can achieve anything.
Speaker 1: So it was only a great rocket push for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was it. Definitely. It gave me a lot of
Speaker 1: confidence to UM just to be around other women that have,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of big goals that they want
Speaker 1: to achieve, and it makes you want to be by it.
Speaker 1: You know, it makes you want to be a better
Speaker 1: person too, and and you know it makes your goals attainable.
Speaker 1: And you see everybody else doing these things and you're like, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, some people I feel like, they're like,
Speaker 1: well I can't do that, but you have to change
Speaker 1: your mindset and think I can do that too. And
Speaker 1: it's just that once you realize that then that I
Speaker 1: feel like that changes the game. I totally agree. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so how did you decide to get into it? And
Speaker 1: like all of that apt though, I've always had a
Speaker 1: passion for photography, like even are in college, I would
Speaker 1: take headshots for my roommates or UM just anyone, and
Speaker 1: I just loved photography. And during college I took UM
Speaker 1: photography classes as electives. I processed film and dark the
Speaker 1: dark room, and I did digital photography, just a lot
Speaker 1: of creative classes. I've always been very creative UM, but
Speaker 1: I never pursued that. I ended up graduating college and
Speaker 1: I went to law school, which is a totally different Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I went to Redgers in New Jersey, UM for
Speaker 1: law school, and it was just like a totally different path.
Speaker 1: But while I was in law school, I still did
Speaker 1: photography and I did it for pageant girls, So I
Speaker 1: shot a lot of combined all your world. It was like,
Speaker 1: it was kind of it's weird how all of the
Speaker 1: different paths have just kind of come together. Um, And
Speaker 1: it's like my passions have always been there, They've always
Speaker 1: been the same, and now what I'm doing finally, at
Speaker 1: this point in my life, at thirty one, I am
Speaker 1: Now they've all just kind of come together, like writing. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: so so okay, So the way that happened. So I
Speaker 1: was in law school, um, doing a lot of writing, reading,
Speaker 1: which I love. I hate math. I'm terrible math. I
Speaker 1: still count on my fingers. Um me too, so bad. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, in law school, I did a lot of
Speaker 1: photography for pageant girls. Um. Graduated. I worked at JP
Speaker 1: Morgan for a year doing antimony laundering. UM, just reviewing
Speaker 1: Anna Lawyer. Basically you're totally Elwood's you are right. So
Speaker 1: weird to think of that, Oh my gosh, yes, so weird.
Speaker 1: To think of. Um, yeah, so did photography. Always have
Speaker 1: jumped seography and then uh, photography is hard trying to
Speaker 1: learn like shutterfly and also like the shutter speed and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. I know. Yeah, so difficult to do photography. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is is challenging. I did a couple of workshops
Speaker 1: with our wedding photographers and they they taught me a lot.
Speaker 1: So I just got a camera, started learning how to
Speaker 1: shoot on manual, did the photogra graphy stuff for Pagan
Speaker 1: Girls in law school, and then worked at JP Morgan
Speaker 1: for a year, and then got pregnant with Olivia, our
Speaker 1: oldest daughter. Okay, so we're all trying to get pregnant.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so yeah we were. We got married during
Speaker 1: law school and then I had seen a doctor who
Speaker 1: had told me that I did like a blood test
Speaker 1: that determines your account and he said that I had
Speaker 1: like an account of a forty year old and was like,
Speaker 1: you need to start trying yesterday. So we started trying
Speaker 1: to get that yes and when poor women like right
Speaker 1: when you're hitting your stride for a career, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: now you need to have a baby. Not that having
Speaker 1: a baby the best thing, but it all happened, but
Speaker 1: that wasn't right. We I had a I literally had
Speaker 1: a timeline. I was like, Okay, I'm gonna graduate, worked
Speaker 1: for five years, save money, like totally out the window.
Speaker 1: So he's out the window. Yeah, and that was fine
Speaker 1: because having a family to us was really important. So
Speaker 1: we started trying while it was in law school. I
Speaker 1: think I walk across the stage and I was twelve
Speaker 1: weeks pregnant, So I was I didn't I don't even know,
Speaker 1: did I know? Yeah, I had just found out I
Speaker 1: was pregnant. Graduated, so we always make a joke that
Speaker 1: Olivia has a law degree because we are so smart.
Speaker 1: She's such a sweetheart. Um. So yeah. So then I
Speaker 1: worked during my pregnancy at JPMorgan quit that and I
Speaker 1: actually I knew I wanted to stay home with her.
Speaker 1: Um But as far as sharing her on social media,
Speaker 1: I was one of those pregnant women that said I
Speaker 1: will never share my kids photos online and did a
Speaker 1: company tell me three sixty okay, and I'll talk to
Speaker 1: me about that. Because I have I totally can understand
Speaker 1: that debate. Like if I was a mom, I would
Speaker 1: wonder the same way, like do I want because it's
Speaker 1: not of the people aren't gonna be weirdest, but there's
Speaker 1: that percentage that are weirdest. It's like, I want to
Speaker 1: subject my kids this. How do you navigate that? So
Speaker 1: I feel like with there the way that So I
Speaker 1: started sharing a few photos and because family and friends
Speaker 1: were kind of like, this is weird, like why are
Speaker 1: you sharing photos? So it's like, okay, final share a
Speaker 1: couple And then I realized that, like her generation, social
Speaker 1: media is going to be the way of life, and
Speaker 1: I don't want to shelter her from it because I
Speaker 1: want her to feel comfortable using it and and do
Speaker 1: it in a safe way and a controlled way. Um
Speaker 1: and she our daughters are such a big part of
Speaker 1: our lives, so it's weird for me to have to
Speaker 1: almost hide them if I weren't to share them with
Speaker 1: social media, because it's I mean, it's that's our life.
Speaker 1: Like my kids are my everything. I spend my whole
Speaker 1: day at home with them, So for me not to
Speaker 1: share that part of my life, it would not be
Speaker 1: what am I sharing? You know what I mean? How
Speaker 1: did you get comfortable with it? Like how did you
Speaker 1: finally let yourself be comfortable with it? And like, how
Speaker 1: did you justify? Like, Okay, I'm not gonna worry about
Speaker 1: the weirdos, because you are right, this is are your
Speaker 1: children's generation areations growing up with social media. There's no
Speaker 1: way around them. Exactly. Um I found a unity on
Speaker 1: Instagram with other moms that were staying home, and um,
Speaker 1: I just feel like they were positive influence. We would
Speaker 1: all just share stories of our photos of our kids,
Speaker 1: and along with that would come stories or if their
Speaker 1: babies were teething or you know, we just looked to
Speaker 1: each other for advice and that support system to me,
Speaker 1: was just so helpful and it really is what started
Speaker 1: my whole journey as an influencer. Okay, so no tell
Speaker 1: me about that. How did you become an influence? Okay?
Speaker 1: So how did you get into this world? So I
Speaker 1: came across a few profiles on Instagram of other moms
Speaker 1: that I just mentioned, just very um just like more
Speaker 1: of like, uh, just the community where they were sharing
Speaker 1: pictures of their kids and captions that um I could
Speaker 1: relate to. And so I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I love photography and I love taking pictures of Olivia,
Speaker 1: so why not just start sharing too? So I just
Speaker 1: started sharing photos of her. Um. This was in two
Speaker 1: thousand and fourteen, so this is when Instagram wasn't oversaturated
Speaker 1: like it is now. So I think timing has a
Speaker 1: lot to do with it too. It's a lot harder
Speaker 1: now to grow U versus back then when algorithm and
Speaker 1: things were in against everyone, so um so getting in
Speaker 1: at the right time. Olivia was six months old two
Speaker 1: thousand fourteen, started sharing pictures of her. Brands would reach
Speaker 1: out a little. At the time, it was small shops
Speaker 1: because there wasn't a big I don't even think influencer
Speaker 1: marketing was a term yet, and you were probably one
Speaker 1: of the only people doing like professional picture type things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not many of them were professional photographers, so it's probably
Speaker 1: leaps and bounds. Yeah, I was only shooting with my
Speaker 1: DSLR back then and now I only shoot with my
Speaker 1: iPhone for the most part, so it's yeah, it's funny
Speaker 1: to see the switch. But um, I started sharing more
Speaker 1: photos of her. I would work with small brands for
Speaker 1: product exchange, and then there came a point where I
Speaker 1: had an agent reach out to me and she said,
Speaker 1: I have a brand that wants to work with you.
Speaker 1: What is your rate? And I was like like, wait,
Speaker 1: people pay for this to get pay Yeah. So I
Speaker 1: wrote her back and I was like, you know, let's
Speaker 1: let's talk more about this. And so I had a
Speaker 1: couple paying jobs from her um and then realized, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm just gonna start asking for payment every
Speaker 1: time someone reaches out because what happened was I was
Speaker 1: getting overwhelmed with free products and I felt like, you
Speaker 1: know this, it just wasn't worth my time to continue
Speaker 1: to shoot for free. And that's how it starts. People
Speaker 1: will send you free stuff in exchange for a post. Right. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll send you my product if you take a picture, right,
Speaker 1: And that's how it was. It's I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know how it is now. I think I think it's
Speaker 1: there's a big shift that's happening where a lot of people,
Speaker 1: especially mom influencers, are realizing that time away. Basically, when
Speaker 1: you take on free products, your taking time away from
Speaker 1: your family. So you're having to make a post war
Speaker 1: which takes to yeah and edit, and there's just a
Speaker 1: lot that goes into it and setting up the shot
Speaker 1: and making sure your kids are happy that day, and
Speaker 1: if they're not, you have to wait the next day.
Speaker 1: And so there's just a lot that goes into it,
Speaker 1: and you have to What I've really started to do
Speaker 1: now is I'm only taking on paid partnerships and jobs
Speaker 1: that are really worth it to me because anything that
Speaker 1: I take on, I know how much time that's gonna
Speaker 1: be away from my family and any time that Yeah,
Speaker 1: so any time that I'm spending away from my family,
Speaker 1: the job that I'm doing just has to be worth
Speaker 1: it to me. And that also keeps your brand strong
Speaker 1: because you're basically saying, I am not spending any part
Speaker 1: of my life on it. I don't believe in I
Speaker 1: I think I turned down nine percent of that. I know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like this month especially, I think I'm doing four partnerships.
Speaker 1: But there are partnerships that I'm so excited about. Like
Speaker 1: one is a Fathersday campaign for Chaps Ralph Lauren um
Speaker 1: Us Bank, which is a really cool um campaign called
Speaker 1: Power of Possible, just talking about how anything is possible.
Speaker 1: So I'm very selective now, which is really nice to
Speaker 1: be in a place to be able to do that.
Speaker 1: That is amazing. Okay, so tell me when that which happens.
Speaker 1: When do you go from you're a little influencer where
Speaker 1: people are giving free stuff to where you felt comfortable
Speaker 1: to ask for money, Like what was that? I think
Speaker 1: I was around ten k when that agent had reached
Speaker 1: out to me and said, you know, UM, would you
Speaker 1: be willing to post I think it was for like
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty dollars and that was great at
Speaker 1: the time, that was amazing. UM. So I was at
Speaker 1: ten K when I started getting paid. It really picked
Speaker 1: up around twenty five thousand followers UM and then now
Speaker 1: it's that's I meant pretty much, only do paid partnerships
Speaker 1: unless it's in exchange for like a big product like
Speaker 1: love Sack. I'm working with them for one of their
Speaker 1: UM sectional couches. Was more than happy to do that,
Speaker 1: you know product totally yeah, UM, what has worth the
Speaker 1: trade or a great absolutely? Yeah. But I think you
Speaker 1: have to you have to build that experience like so,
Speaker 1: I would never trade doing free products for anything like that.
Speaker 1: Working with shops for free products is how I learned,
Speaker 1: and I think it's learned just how to interact, how
Speaker 1: to you know, not get taken advantage of a lot
Speaker 1: of times there's a disconnect between a shop that works
Speaker 1: really hard to hand make a product and and so
Speaker 1: they you know want you to do like three posts
Speaker 1: because they don't understand what goes into creating three posts. UM,
Speaker 1: so you have to just kind of like openly communicate
Speaker 1: to them and say, you know, in order for me
Speaker 1: to do that, it's going to take this, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'd be willing to do one post and maybe an
Speaker 1: Instagram story And so that really helps just communicating and
Speaker 1: establishing a really good relationship with brands I've worked with. UM,
Speaker 1: my favorite thing is when I work with a brand
Speaker 1: multiple times, and I think that's yeah, and I think
Speaker 1: that's really good for any brand to do, to show
Speaker 1: that they have loyal um followers and people that believe
Speaker 1: in their products. And when you're consistently like when I
Speaker 1: there's one brand I worked for all the time, Raw
Speaker 1: Sugar Living, and like, I will never work for another
Speaker 1: body wash company now because I'm so loyal to them
Speaker 1: and I love them and they're so kind to their influencers.
Speaker 1: So I mean it's just stuff like that, like just
Speaker 1: little stuff that you learned communicating relationship, building contracts, how
Speaker 1: to read them well. And also I was talking I
Speaker 1: think it was the Ashley's and I did their interview.
Speaker 1: Basically it makes so much more sense for a brand
Speaker 1: to reach out to an influencer because instead of paying
Speaker 1: I don't know, tin grant to hire a photographer, higher locations, model, higher,
Speaker 1: get it edited, you know, do all the the steps
Speaker 1: that go involved to doing an advertisement on a regular TV,
Speaker 1: your magazine or radio. You're you create the whole thing.
Speaker 1: You're the photographer, you're everything, you're the whole production, you're
Speaker 1: the you're the model, You're the whole production, like your director.
Speaker 1: So it's so much it feels like a lot of
Speaker 1: money infantry received because I'm kind of like, well, why
Speaker 1: would I have I'm speaking to people who might be
Speaker 1: scared as for money because this is how I was.
Speaker 1: I was like, you just gotta get past that totally.
Speaker 1: Why would I ask for me? It's like, okay, well
Speaker 1: this is why, because you have an audience that's gonna
Speaker 1: hit this and these people, so it's worth that exactly.
Speaker 1: And sometimes you have to explain that to a brand
Speaker 1: because their PR person may not be up to date
Speaker 1: with everything, and they might they might not know the
Speaker 1: benefits of influencer marketing yet. It's I think it's our
Speaker 1: responsibility as an influencer to sometimes educate brands and let
Speaker 1: them know yes, So, how do you edit on an iPhone?
Speaker 1: Like quickly, I know that's your thing? Like that do
Speaker 1: you do that? Is this? How can people figure out
Speaker 1: how to do this? And how did you figure it out?
Speaker 1: Is it all right? So I started, well, light Room
Speaker 1: has a mobile app, which is really helpful because I
Speaker 1: edited in light Room on my desktop. So I started
Speaker 1: editing in light Room on my mobile and then on
Speaker 1: my phone and then UM, there's a couple of other
Speaker 1: apps like snap Seed, Visco and face Tune two that
Speaker 1: are really helpful UM and those are like my go
Speaker 1: to apps. UM A color Story is nice because you
Speaker 1: can add in sunflair and they have really nice filters
Speaker 1: to UM, but those are my go to apps. And
Speaker 1: so I started sharing tutorials on my Instagram to help
Speaker 1: people learn how to edit on their phone. And I
Speaker 1: was just getting overwhelmed and bombarded with like, um direct
Speaker 1: messages and I would answer them. I sometimes a photo
Speaker 1: for somebody and then show them how I did it.
Speaker 1: And I loved it so much. But my husband was like, Hunt,
Speaker 1: You're spending like two to three hours a night talking
Speaker 1: to people, He's like, and you're neglecting, like your per
Speaker 1: small content and so yeah, and it just was just
Speaker 1: so easy to do because that's my favorite part of
Speaker 1: being on Instagram is interacting with my followers and helping
Speaker 1: them learn how to edit, because I think anybody can
Speaker 1: learn how to create a beautiful photo UM and not
Speaker 1: be a professional photographer. So it got to a these
Speaker 1: days and all totally totally, So I got to a
Speaker 1: point where I had to figure something out. So I
Speaker 1: ended up creating a membership site for photography UM. And
Speaker 1: it's like seventeen dollars a month. I made it affordable
Speaker 1: and YouTube it's no, it's it's like an actual site.
Speaker 1: It's called the DG girls dot com. Yeah yeah, girls
Speaker 1: dot com. Okay, so seventeen dollars a month and what
Speaker 1: happens on your site? So I do one training tutorial
Speaker 1: month and then we have an interactive Facebook group where
Speaker 1: everybody posts before and afters. They asked questions. UM. I
Speaker 1: also talk about Instagram and you know what hashtags to
Speaker 1: use because that's constantly changing and recently this is really important.
Speaker 1: I'll watch Gary's Gary V's um daily v content and
Speaker 1: he'll like slide in these small things here and there.
Speaker 1: So the other day he said to only use zero
Speaker 1: to five hashtags within your caption, and that's it, because
Speaker 1: like in your caption, not like separate, not as a
Speaker 1: separate comment. You know, sometimes you can do like it
Speaker 1: within the phrase the Senate or whatever. Yeah, like right
Speaker 1: at the end of your caption. Yeah, right at the
Speaker 1: end of your caption. Just put like zero to five
Speaker 1: captions a hashtags. And I guess it's because Instagram's really
Speaker 1: coming down on accounts and if you use bulk hashtags,
Speaker 1: they're flagging at a spam a lot of times, not always,
Speaker 1: but it's a quick way to get shadow band. So, um,
Speaker 1: just a little shadow band means your posts aren't seen
Speaker 1: by anybody except your followers. So like if you were
Speaker 1: to use if you were a fitness influencer and you
Speaker 1: used the hashtag fitness mom, you wouldn't be seen to
Speaker 1: anybody else that wasn't following you already. And sometimes they'll
Speaker 1: take it even further and your hashtags won't even work
Speaker 1: at all. I had a couple of friends, Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: had a couple of friends that were shadow band for
Speaker 1: two weeks. My one friend, um, she just got the
Speaker 1: band lifted because she posted a photo of her kids
Speaker 1: in the bathtub and somebody reported it. You couldn't see anything,
Speaker 1: but somebody reported it and so Instagram flagged her. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the same thing can happen using hashtags repectively, and
Speaker 1: you're never supposed to use the same ones. You're always
Speaker 1: supposed to change it up. Really yeah, because they they'll
Speaker 1: think it's a bot or um like an automated system
Speaker 1: doing it for you, and then your your account will
Speaker 1: be flag. So like we just talked about stuff like
Speaker 1: that in the group, Um my idea and what if
Speaker 1: is you're offering because everyone has an iPhone and everyone
Speaker 1: can learn how to do this on their iPhone. But
Speaker 1: they definitely yeah, and it was it was It was
Speaker 1: just a way for me to help a larger scale
Speaker 1: of people versus sitting there every night going through individual
Speaker 1: d m s because even when you respond to somebody
Speaker 1: and give them an answer, the conversation still keeps going
Speaker 1: so and then I would start to feel bad. And
Speaker 1: so it's definitely it's helped because now I can direct
Speaker 1: them somewhere or I'll answer one question and say if
Speaker 1: you if you're looking for more help with this. We
Speaker 1: have a really great community and support group over my
Speaker 1: membership site. Yeah, so how long have you had the
Speaker 1: membership site? Only a couple only two months, so this
Speaker 1: is fresh and I yeah, and I didn't even do
Speaker 1: like a big advertisement or anything. I did a couple
Speaker 1: of stories, um, and then I did one post on
Speaker 1: my feed and that was it because I wanted to
Speaker 1: do like a soft launch so I could get time
Speaker 1: to really figure things out and tweak things. Um. So
Speaker 1: I was supposed to open it back up to the
Speaker 1: public last week, but then I just I and so
Speaker 1: busy with contractors and the kids, and sometimes I just
Speaker 1: get in like this funk where I'm like overwhelmed, so
Speaker 1: then I just disappear. You know what. That's freaking awesome.
Speaker 1: And how how what a win win because it makes
Speaker 1: it worth your time. Yeah, you know, like I'm all
Speaker 1: Gary Visa about that too, win wins. Just like how
Speaker 1: is everybody benefiting from this? Absolutely? Yeah, totally. It's been
Speaker 1: great and I'm I find a lot of my members
Speaker 1: are really interested in its Instagram parts, so I offer
Speaker 1: like Instagram assessments where I can look at their feed,
Speaker 1: analyze it, and then give them a plan for the future,
Speaker 1: like I think you should do this or maybe focused
Speaker 1: down on you know this, I see your followers really
Speaker 1: love your fitness post or your healthy eating posts and
Speaker 1: just kind of give them some sort of guidance to
Speaker 1: really help them and have a plan for two eighteen,
Speaker 1: like kind of analyze what posts are doing the best.
Speaker 1: And that's another thing sometimes do you think the way
Speaker 1: a picture is shot can determine if it does well?
Speaker 1: Like it could be the same content, but depending on
Speaker 1: how you shoot it. Definitely absolutely. Actually my first post
Speaker 1: for my membership site with all about perspective and how
Speaker 1: I took a photo of Olivia Um. She was sitting
Speaker 1: on our front steps playing with rocks, and I took
Speaker 1: a photo of her just straight on from far away,
Speaker 1: and then I got down and I took a shot
Speaker 1: of her up where you could really see her face
Speaker 1: and the emotions. And the whole post was about how
Speaker 1: perspective and just changing your angles and getting lower when
Speaker 1: you take a photo can just make all the difference.
Speaker 1: So how do you develop that? I just over time,
Speaker 1: you just have to keep doing it. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of times it's practice. And then I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people just have it, like, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a gift. Yeah, I think some people are very creative.
Speaker 1: And and then some people you know, want to be
Speaker 1: and try to be and they can practice and do
Speaker 1: their best. You're such a great mom. I don't even
Speaker 1: realize that. Oh my god, you are the best. That's
Speaker 1: so funny. Like it might not be photography. You can
Speaker 1: practice and really it is hard, but really you might
Speaker 1: just need to like something else. Just know, I love that.
Speaker 1: What would you tell a young influence er trying to
Speaker 1: get into this game? Like, what would you tell yourself
Speaker 1: if you we're standing there looking at your thirty one
Speaker 1: year old self right now, all you have learned, observed,
Speaker 1: everything that you have gathered over these years, what would
Speaker 1: you tell yourself as far as where you'd be right now?
Speaker 1: Like what would you not worry about? And what would
Speaker 1: you tell yourself? Okay, I would get to this faster
Speaker 1: because I waited too long to do this, or like,
Speaker 1: what would you tell yourself You just cannot worry about
Speaker 1: what other people think. That is And I know it
Speaker 1: sounds so cliche, but it really is the truth. And
Speaker 1: you just have to post what feels good to you
Speaker 1: and what you're passionate about the things that you want
Speaker 1: to talk about because people can tell them people are
Speaker 1: faking it. You don't. You do not want to fake it,
Speaker 1: um and try and do somebody that you're not. I
Speaker 1: think being you and sharing that with everyone people respect
Speaker 1: that and people can see see that and relate to
Speaker 1: you on a better level. Like being real, being open
Speaker 1: and real and honest. It's it's just the best way
Speaker 1: to be. So how would you describe your brand? Like,
Speaker 1: if someone's gonna look at your feed, your Instagram feed,
Speaker 1: what would you hope they would walk away? What would
Speaker 1: you hope your brand would be sent sitting up hopefully?
Speaker 1: Like for me, I love positive energy, So I hope
Speaker 1: when people come to my page they get a sense
Speaker 1: of happiness and they see our family and how much
Speaker 1: I love my girls, and um, healthy living, which I
Speaker 1: actually have been slacking on healthy living posts. My husband
Speaker 1: and I we we really love you know, food, and
Speaker 1: we're raising our daughters vegan so um yeah, so people
Speaker 1: are really interested in that. And I've done refrigerator food
Speaker 1: halls before and people loved it and they wanted to
Speaker 1: see more of it when I did a poll. But
Speaker 1: it's so hard coming up with cont tent for so
Speaker 1: many different things. And I need to get I need
Speaker 1: to get more organized, Like even though I've been doing
Speaker 1: this for three and a half years, it's there's still
Speaker 1: always more that you could be doing. More you could
Speaker 1: be putting out and there's in Because it's the wild
Speaker 1: West of the Internet and digital anything is possible. Like literally,
Speaker 1: it's wide open. I know, I know, it's so and
Speaker 1: it's hard. Like I have a million ideas going all
Speaker 1: the time, and I'm like, oh, if only I had
Speaker 1: more time in the day, I could be doing this,
Speaker 1: you know, But so, yeah, exactly, that's to me. I
Speaker 1: can I interview all these influencers and I watched you
Speaker 1: guys stories and fold and I watch your Instagrams and
Speaker 1: all that. How did they figure this out? Like I
Speaker 1: feel so I'm still late to the party. I just
Speaker 1: realized you can make money on Instagram, like this year.
Speaker 1: That's the best though, That's like because now it gives you,
Speaker 1: like when you realize that when you're on Instagram and
Speaker 1: it's not for the money, which I feel like, if
Speaker 1: you want to be an influencer, it can't be for
Speaker 1: the money, like you did want to do it because
Speaker 1: you are creative and passionate and you love talking interacting
Speaker 1: people and you can tell that about you, like you
Speaker 1: love just people and who Yeah, I want to know
Speaker 1: how people are doing their lives because I find it
Speaker 1: so interesting. Yeah, definitely, And I feel like that's such
Speaker 1: a good place to be. You don't want to focus
Speaker 1: on the money, Um, but the money part is a
Speaker 1: very big motivating factor like that, it's like take it.
Speaker 1: Who doesn't want to get paid to do something that
Speaker 1: they're passionate about? Like when that aligns, that's everything, you know.
Speaker 1: So what would you tell a young influencer who's wanting
Speaker 1: to get into this, Like, how would you suggest growing
Speaker 1: your brand, building your brand, having an identity with your brand?
Speaker 1: Like what would be your advice to someone trying to
Speaker 1: get into this That it takes a lot of time
Speaker 1: and you have to be willing to sacrifice, you know,
Speaker 1: binge watching shows or going out partying every weekend because
Speaker 1: you every hour you spend working on your brand and
Speaker 1: your social media that will help you get ahead. Um.
Speaker 1: So I just think a lot of hard work goes
Speaker 1: into it. Remaining true to yourself. Um. I feel like
Speaker 1: everything I'm saying is so cliche, but it's so true.
Speaker 1: It is, And yeah, it doesn't happen overnight like some
Speaker 1: you might see some people where you feel like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're having overnight success, like, gosh, I wish that would
Speaker 1: happen to me, Like what am I gonna get my
Speaker 1: big break? But that is such a small percentage of people,
Speaker 1: and you can't compare yourself, like, never compare yourself to
Speaker 1: anybody else. You have to just keep your head down
Speaker 1: and focus on your path and why you're doing it
Speaker 1: and your purpose and that that will bring you success.
Speaker 1: And another thing I always like to talk about is
Speaker 1: do you believe that everyone has a calling and a purpose?
Speaker 1: I do. I feel like that that purpose always aligns
Speaker 1: with your passion. So people may not know their passions
Speaker 1: right away. Um, Like I always say to myself, gosh,
Speaker 1: I wish I had taken Like why didn't I major
Speaker 1: in photography instead of going to law school? Like that
Speaker 1: would have made a lot more sense. But I didn't
Speaker 1: recognize my passions back then. Um. But now I feel
Speaker 1: like everything has come together, and I feel like for
Speaker 1: most people that will happen at some point. How would
Speaker 1: you suggest that coming together? Though? What do you suggest
Speaker 1: people to do to find their purpose? You have to
Speaker 1: really know yourself and stay stay on your your path. Um, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. It's such a hard question.
Speaker 1: What would you say. I think you have to stay curious,
Speaker 1: and I think that you have to follow your curiosity.
Speaker 1: It goes back to fear, like it goes back to
Speaker 1: not being fearful and having that confidence with yourself and
Speaker 1: knowing yourself. So like, if you are you know, if
Speaker 1: you have an idea and you're you're blocked by fear,
Speaker 1: you have to be willing to overcome that and and
Speaker 1: step over that. I love that. Okay, so let's wrap
Speaker 1: up with leave your life. So just leave the inspiration.
Speaker 1: This whole thing is inspirational. But I always like to
Speaker 1: just leave people, like leave people with your message, Like
Speaker 1: we kind of kind of reaske you, like what you
Speaker 1: just want to put out to the world, what you
Speaker 1: want to tell people, what you've learned through it all,
Speaker 1: Like how just how what you've taken from your experience
Speaker 1: and you would, you know, just want to share with
Speaker 1: someone who's looking up to you. I just think that, um,
Speaker 1: you have to stay you have to focus on your again,
Speaker 1: It's like what we were talking about. I think you
Speaker 1: have to focus on your passions and follow your past.
Speaker 1: Don't compare yourself to other people. UM, just stay positive.
Speaker 1: Your mindset is everything, so that it really is like,
Speaker 1: if you tell yourself you can't do it, then you're
Speaker 1: not going to be able to do it. And if
Speaker 1: you tell yourself you can, then you can. But it's
Speaker 1: not going to happen through luck. You have to be
Speaker 1: willing to work hard at it. So putting in those
Speaker 1: extra hours and that that hard work for a certain
Speaker 1: amount of time, whether it's you know, a few years,
Speaker 1: will benefit you in the long run. You have to
Speaker 1: see the end vision and not be so anxious to
Speaker 1: have everything now because that's not gonna work and you'll
Speaker 1: only be setting yourself up for disappointment if you do
Speaker 1: it that way. Patience, Yes, patience, patients, patients and hard work. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: you're amazing. Okay, So the d G girls dot com
Speaker 1: is where people can go, Yeah, all of your tutorials. Yes,
Speaker 1: I have a free editing e guy. So it gives
Speaker 1: you all of the apps that, um you want to
Speaker 1: use for your iPhone for editing, and it will tell
Speaker 1: you which app is useful. So, like there's an app
Speaker 1: called Juxtaposer that's really great if you have kids and
Speaker 1: or anything. Really but if you have kids and one
Speaker 1: kids smiling in one photo and your other kids smiling
Speaker 1: in the other photo, you can merge the two so
Speaker 1: that you have a photo everyone's smiling. No way, so
Speaker 1: you can ficks, you know, yeah yeah, And so this
Speaker 1: app will tell you which apps to use for stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Um yeah, so that's it. Free you guy.
Speaker 1: You're amazing. Thank you. Hi to d Jacobe. Jacoby, it's
Speaker 1: a thankless name too. You sound like a famous photographer,
Speaker 1: I mean, like Nicole d Jacobe. I mean, that's so funny.
Speaker 1: You'll thank you so much for joining. Thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you for sharing your wisdom, and thank you for letting
Speaker 1: my house be an animal house. Everyone. Oh I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it. I have my dog laying right next
Speaker 1: to me. So you're awesome. You're amazing. How amazing and
Speaker 1: informative is Nicole. I want to sign up for her
Speaker 1: online class because I've got to get better at doing
Speaker 1: my pictures and photography. And how awesome to be able
Speaker 1: to do everything on your iPhone. She's amazing, you guys.
Speaker 1: Next week is my very very very last Influencer episode,
Speaker 1: and I have Julie Solomon joining me. She's an expert
Speaker 1: on growing your brand, being true to yourself. Y'all will
Speaker 1: not want to miss it, and it's my final one,
Speaker 1: so we'll see you next week.