I get a lot of people following/unfollowing me daily on my crystal shop’s Instagram page. The number of followers hasn’t really grown that much. But that’s alright because I still get sales.
At first, I did get hung up about it. Like why do people play the stupid ‘follow to unfollow’ game? It really annoyed the fuck outta me.
Anyways, I realized after a year that it didn’t actually matter…I still made sales.
Moral of the story? Just because you have more Instagram followers doesn’t necessarily mean you get more sales.
I’m writing this because maybe some of you are feeling discouraged or feel like you’re not gaining any traction on selling or putting yourself or your brand out there. It’s crowded, everyone’s doing the same damn thing, people steal content, I have to show my face when I don’t really want to, blah blah blah…
It’s definitely going to feel that way sometimes, especially when you’re just starting out.
But with consistency, patience and most importantly – using your own unique voice & perspective – you WILL sell and you WILL attract the right people. And all your hangups about other people doing the same thing will melt away.
Not as easy as it sounds, but if you intend for things to be a certain way – trust that it can happen.
And as cliché as it already sounds – you really HAVE to believe in yourself. You have to be your own fucking number 1 fan. Your negative self-talk will only hold you back.
You also have to stop looking at what other people are doing. I swear, as soon as I stopped doing this – my creativity came back; my writing and my art sounded like me again.
I’m a life coach now by the way. Kidding!?
I’m writing this to encourage you and myself. I have more confidence now that I’ve had the business up and running for a little over a year. So while I have some nuggets of wisdom to share, I’m also aware that I still have a long way to go.
Either way, I’m not worried about it. I intend to have fun and go at my pace.
I see a lot of people start their shop pages on Instagram but don’t really last longer than a month. Why? Because I think they run out of steam. They tend to post a lot hoping people will notice them and start buying right away, but then they burn out just as quickly as they started.
Consistency and repetition is key. But also, pace yourself so you don’t crash and burn. Self-care is just as important.
One of my mentors was telling me you should post 3 times a day on Instagram. I followed that at first, but got tired. So now I only post once or twice a day, depending on how I feel.
What most people don’t think about is that while even starting a small business can be a lot of fun, it’s also A LOT of work. You are the owner, marketer, manager, accountant and more…all rolled into one. You can easily go through a roller coaster of emotions too – from being happy and excited because you made some sales, to being scared and anxious because you spent a lot of money to make those sales, then happy and excited all over again because you paid down some of your debt. Yay!
That is the reality of a lot of small businesses & entrepreneurs – spending money to make money.
Would I do it all over again? Probably.
The secret is to only sell what you love, what you yourself would buy. I guess in some ways this is difficult because you’ll be tempted to keep a lot of the stuff you’re supposed to sell!
The other secret is to branch out and learn other skills so you can stand out from everybody else who sells the same thing as you.
Here’s a personal example: I don’t consider myself to be a seller or come anything close to being a salesperson; I am so anti-hustle. Not into it at all. But on the contrary, I AM selling, consistently.
How am I doing it? I honestly couldn’t tell you.
Either people really love the crystals that they see on my Instagram, or they like me as a person. They could be basing it off the reviews I have on Etsy.
It could be all of the above or none of the above.
Behind this human avatar, I could really be a fucking magical being – creating whatever I want to happen next. That sounds feasible to me.
Whatever it is, the effort is paying off – that doesn’t mean I’m done. I have to continue, because I love that I created this; and I love that people love it too.
And I also know that you can do this for yourself too.?
p.s. hope you enjoy the photo I posted with this post! My mom’s church friends already think I worship the devil anyway.???♀️?