Girl Gang Craft Podcast Episode #91

Phoebe Sherman interview with Jacinta Devlin

INTRO
Phoebe Sherman

Welcome to the Girl Gang Craft Podcast where we dive in deep to all things business, wellness, creativity, and activism for artists and entrepreneurs. We talk with impactful female driven companies and founders for an inside look at the entrepreneurial experience where you'll come away with tangible steps to elevate your business. Are you ready? I'm your host, Phoebe Sherman, founder of Girl Gang Craft artist and designer, and marketing obsessed. We're here to learn together how to expand our revenue, implement new organizational techniques, and cultivate best business practices as we work towards creating a life doing what we love. Let's get started.

Phoebe
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the Girl Gang Craft Podcast. Somehow it is the middle of July. I have no idea. I'm just hot. I'm hot over here in Salem, Massachusetts, and it just feels like we're soaking up all the water, doing all the things. And also, I'm just feeling like a little slow. And maybe I'm still feeling I would like to be more mindful about my slowness, and I'm just not so mindful about my slowness. I'm really like beating myself up for not getting as much work done. That could be an episode. Let's talk about it. But that's not what this episode is about. But I am really trying to be kinder to myself because I want to enjoy summer, and it seems to be like we're taking there's four day weeks, three day weeks, like I am going places, but this episode's a good one. Jacinta Devlin, we're going to talk all about her. This episode is for you if you want to create better systems, if you want to look at your funnels, like how are you enticing your audience to sign up for our newsletter to get on to other places? That's your funnel talked about funnels a couple episodes back if you want to check that out. But before we hop into Jacinta some news, let's see. Gussy Salem is July 27th. It is a free event. It is a great time here in Salem. 11 to 5 free for all. So come hang out shop. We have like 7080 vendors inside and outside so it's a good time. Let's see at this time. Our next event after that will be our August 8th event at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. That is a ticketed event. You can get tickets for that event. This is a night time event. The vendors are outside. It is going to be a lovely evening with Carver Art Museum. If you type in pajamas, you're going to get a little discount on the website. So that will get you in to the event. And let's see. Yeah, it's a pajama party. It is a pajama party. So go ahead. I'm envisioning 90s Beau was like, wear your most fun pajamas. They'll probably be hot. So like, take that into consideration. That wraps up our summer event. And then of course, we are deep into our holiday applications. If you are interested in joining our holiday shows, Oakland and Salem are closed already for our holiday shows. Those are just a really popular events. Those are closed. You can join the waitlist, but we have Malden and SAC and Providence. Those applications are open and you go ahead and you can just apply go game craft.com/apply. Let us know if you have any questions. Call us up at our phone line. Leave a message for 139610855. The questions I'm interested in hearing about are event oriented questions. Maybe wedding staff. Go back and listen to our last episode about throwing weddings and craft fairs, but I'd like to dive a little bit more into some wedding stuff. So ask me your wedding questions and then, of course, feel free to ask me anything about email marketing or time management or brand partnerships. Those are things I love to talk about and have tons of information for. So if you have any questions about email marketing, brand partnerships, or time management, I'm your girl. Call us that. We'll use your question in the podcast. You can give your business a little shout out on our podcast. So call us up. And I think that is it. For now. Let's talk about Jacinta. Jacinta Devlin stands at the forefront of business coaching, where her strategic insights and personalized programs have empowered over 50,000 female entrepreneurs over the past 15 years. As a CEO, business coach and growth strategist, she has been the driving force behind the expansion of businesses ranging from startups to established brands. With revenues up to 25 million, Jacinta primary audience consists of female entrepreneurs at various stages of their business journey. She adeptly addresses their core challenges, offering a clear strategic pathway to increase profitability and business growth. The business Growth Program Jacinta Signature one on one program is the key to providing clarity, direction and actionable steps for entrepreneurs to not only start but scale their businesses effectively. Let's get into it. Hey creatives, welcome back to the Grog and Craft Podcast. Today we have Jacinta on the podcast.
Jacinta Hey, welcome. Hi, Phoebe, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be on with you and your listeners today.

Phoebe
We're so excited to have you. So Jacinta and I met at Quotable Live. It was a conference here in the Boston area, and she was an amazing speaker. And we talked a little bit, and I'm so excited to have her on the podcast.

Jacinta
Oh, thanks. You're so sweet. That was such a cool event, and I'm excited to be able to chat with your entire audience, not just women in the greater Boston area. And I know you've got all sorts of cool creatives that are part of your community, so this will be a fun chat. Thanks so much for inviting me.

Phoebe
Yeah. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what you do for work?

Jacinta
Sure, absolutely. So I think the easiest way. Right. We always want that little elevator pitch is I help female entrepreneurs and female owned businesses grow in scale using branding, marketing and selling techniques online. I work with pretty much all female founded businesses, and if you're looking to grow your business online everywhere from we help with social media strategy. We help our clients with their websites, with email newsletters, and really creating a whole funnel that helps people be successful online. So if you're somebody that is a creative on this call and you're looking to grow your online presence, a lot more people to know about your products and services and how to purchase them. That's exactly what we help our clients do.

Phoebe
Yeah, I love it. So we definitely have super aligned business and help similar people. So how did you get into this practice? What did you do before you started your own business?

Jacinta
Oh my goodness. So I've always probably like a lot of you, always been an entrepreneur or wanted to be an entrepreneur. 15 years ago I worked in the direct sales and network marketing space, and I grew up really big teams in a couple different companies. I was $1 million earner. I had people who are trips on my teams and all that good stuff. And then I had a company who invited me in to be their national director of sales and field training. I lived in California for a while and it did that, which was really cool. It was actually my sister who encouraged me to start my own business. So probably similar to a lot of you listening, there might have been someone that believed in you or encouraged you to kind of take that leap and step into your business. And so for me, that was my sister. I started Devlin Consulting and we decided really early on we knew that we wanted to work with female based businesses, but that's really what I had been doing all of my career. Now we're almost in our fifth year of business. We'll be celebrating our fifth year of business in November, which we're really, really proud of. And now we work with all sorts of women, like I said, helping them build out their strategies. So that way they could be successful online and make more money.

Phoebe
We love it. Love it so much. So okay, who would you say like your typical clientele is?

Jacinta
Yeah. So my typical clientele can be anywhere from female business owners. I've worked with boutique owners, jewelry shop owners. I've worked with HR professionals who are launching their own HR consulting business. I've worked with a lot of influencers, a lot of social sellers, direct sellers, network marketers. I've worked with a lot of photographers, a lot of realtors. Really any woman who has a product or service based business who's looking to grow that business online, that's where I work with.

Phoebe
How do you work at them? What are sort of the structures that you have in place to help folks?

Jacinta
Yeah, for sure. I have one big main program and there's different levels to it. Some of them we work in a workshop, but the majority of my clients I work with in a one on one program called the Business Growth Program, and it's really dependent on that client needs. So some people are coming to me and they have an idea for a business and they're like, listen, I have no idea where to get started. I don't know how to do a website. I don't know what to do with my social media. I have no idea how to start a newsletter. I don't know how to even get like the business side of it. Done. So some of my clients are coming to me. They want to be an entrepreneur. They have this really cool idea for a business or a product or service, and they're like, I just have no idea how to launch it. And instead of wasting time spinning their wheels for months or years trying to search all over YouTube and Google and figure everything out on their own, they're like, you know what? I want to work with someone like Jacinta, who has done this many, many, many times over and knows the steps to help me build it the right way the first time. So that's one of my clients. And then the second part of my clients are people who already have a business, so maybe they already have a business and they want to grow it. Maybe they've been selling for a few years and the sales are just not rolling in like they wanted to. Or maybe they're really struggling to find their footing on social media, or they're really struggling to get in front of new audiences or new clients. And so some of the clients that I work with already have a business, and it's really about how can we improve that business, how can we scale it? How can we grow it? At the end of the day, what are we all trying to do, make more money? So how can we help them make more money?

Phoebe
So those folks who have an established business, what are some of those holes that you see sort of across the board that you help people with?

Jacinta
For sure. I would say one of the biggest things that I see is a lack of any type of sales or automation funnels. For example, a lot of people might have a social media set up for their business, and maybe they've got their link in bio so people could go to their website, but there isn't anything connecting on. How do we get people's contact information and how do we nurture that someone can land on our website. If they don't purchase something that first time, then poof, they're off into the internet land and we might never, ever see them again. Most of my clients that I work with, the biggest goals that I see, is they don't have a really good funnel in place to capture people who maybe didn't shop the first time or didn't buy their services or products the first time. We help them put systems and funnels in place, so that way they can attract their customers and nurture those leads. Be showing up in front of them. We know that a customer normally needs to see something 3 to 10 times before they purchase it, and it can be even more for other industries. A lot of clients are like, okay, I have a social media setup and I have a website, but there's crickets and they're like, why are there crickets? And it's because one, we're usually not driving the right amount of traffic to our social media or to our website, and to maybe the traffic we are driving. We're losing because we don't have a really good system or funnel put in place to capture those leads and nurture them. That's probably one of the biggest gaps. And then I would say the second biggest gap that I see is people have a social media presence. They're not really using it to their advantage. Maybe they don't know how to create the right type of content, or they're just winging it every day, or they're not creating the type of content that's bringing in new followers or converting followers to actually being shoppers. And that's one of the biggest misconceptions that I see working with small businesses. A lot of people think that followers equal dollars, that if I have thousands and thousands of followers, that sales are just going to be rolling in every day. I've had clients that I've worked with that have 360,000 followers, and they're not making any money, and I have had 1300 followers and they're making almost $10,000 a month. I always tell people it's not about followers, equal dollars. It's really about having systems and automations and strategy in place that is specifically designed to convert people to become a customer, or to purchase your product or service.

Phoebe
This is why I had you on basically and honestly love funnels here. And I also see that a lot, a lot of our community, a lot of the product based folks and service based folks are missing some of those strategic structures to hold on to people and then to convert them. Why don't we start with some basics. What is a funnel?

Jacinta
Right. So really simply a funnel is really just a series of steps that all kind of tie together in a big circle to get you to your end goal. For the majority of people listening right, your end goal is probably to get people to purchase your product or to get people to purchase your service. So really, simply a funnel is just steps. And it can be different for every business, but a certain amount of steps that we have that connect all those dots together. So I work with my clients in my Ultimate Business Growth program. So those are for clients who are just getting started. They need help launching their business. We're making sure that their social media has a way to connect to their email newsletter that's connecting to their website. Maybe it's a freebie or a quiz, but we're tying all of that together. So a lot of people have these things that they have for their business, a website or their social media, or maybe even they do have an email newsletter, but they're not working together in a congruent circle to continue to nurture their leads and drive people to actually purchase. So really, simply a sales funnel is a couple simple steps that all tie in to each other and form a circle or a funnel in order to bring all of the people that are interested in your product down to converting, to actually buying it.

Phoebe
Can you give us maybe an example of each of those steps for someone to find you on social media to hop on the newsletter, to be nurtured in a little email sequence, and then to buy something? Could you maybe.

Jacinta
Exactly. I mean, you just you pretty much just hit that button I had there. Right? So one of the things that I always talk about with my clients is, first and foremost, you need to get really, really clear on your goal. And again, for the majority of you listening, your goal is to get people to purchase your products or services. So a lot of times when people create content on social media, and especially with creatives, I've worked with a lot of creative because you guys are incredible. You're so creative, you have these amazing ideas, but then there's people like me that can help you, that are a little bit more tactical and on the business side of it and action oriented and know how to kind of put everything in place. Yeah, it can be something as simple as what is the goal that you're trying to achieve. And keeping that goal in mind as we post on social media, we should be driving people at least a couple times a week to sign up for our email newsletter, to sign up for freebie, to give them some type of peace of value that they can get from you. And even if you're a product, I know a lot of people might say, like, maybe I make earrings or I design jewelry or something along those lines. You're like, what's the value that I can provide there? Well, you could create a freebie on the five different face shapes. And what the best type of earring style is for your face sheet, for example. Right. Or if you are somebody who does, maybe, let's say photography, maybe you're going to put out a freebie and it's going to be like your top five tips on like how to take your best photos at home. What is something of value that you can provide to your followers, your community, your potential shoppers that's going to make them want to give you their contact information, right? And then from there, we establish an email newsletter series. There's a certain number of emails that we're going to send out, and maybe they get those emails about your earrings and those five different earrings that are best for face shape. And then maybe two days later, they get another email about a new collection that just dropped and then maybe two days later, they're getting an email that striving them directly to shop your website. And then that's tying in to your website. Do we have those same freebies on there? Do we have maybe discount coupons that are bringing people into our email newsletter, or do we have other ways that we're linking to continue that system? Make that post circle and bring clients in and nurture them? So those would be some examples that I think would probably work well for your listeners.

Phoebe
So we have the funnel and this is an automated series right?

Jacinta
Yeah. We love automation. But you don't need to be going, clicking and clicking. We want everything to be working automated for sure.

Phoebe
Yes. And I know you use flodesk also right.

Jacinta Love flowcharts. Yep.

Phoebe
We love flodesk. But along with automations you're probably maybe sending some emails weekly perhaps or twice a week or three times a week. What do some of those emails look like? That you can continue to sort of nurture your community in addition, or maybe after a welcome sequence or funnel?

Jacinta
Yeah, for sure. I think probably for everybody listening, really easy emails that you could put in place to your business. And if you're someone listening, you're like, okay, a weekly or twice a week or even a bi weekly email sounds like a little crazy for me. That can be a lot, and I understand that. So a lot of times if people are feeling overwhelmed or where I have them start, it's just start first with a seasonal. Could you do something quarterly in relation to your product or service? So what are the best things about your product or service or how to wear them, or use them or whatever it might be for January, February, March in like the winter months and then in the spring and then summer and then fall. So that's a really easy way to get started as well. And then of course, if you're doing any types of big events or sales or promotions or things like that, those are easy emails that you could send out. But I find that a lot of you guys will probably see this too. A lot of E-comm companies send out emails and they're just all about shopping. It's all shop chop shop sales, sell sales. We all get them our inboxes full of them. And the majority of us either don't open them or be. We open them, scan it, see if there's anything we like in the first 4 or 5 pictures, and then we throw it into our deleted box. One of the things that I always recommend and I work on with my clients, is having some type of value based information, and every single email that you send out, is there a tip? Again, let's say maybe you are a jewelry brand. Maybe in your emails you always have some type of tip about how to clean your jewelry or how to travel with your jewelry. Or if you're a service based business, you're a realtor, a photographer. Do you have some type of tip in there about the best things that you should do for your home in the summer, or for a great tripod or lighting set up or something along those line? Because what we find is people might open your first few great sales emails, but then they know what's coming. And if they're not looking to shop right then and there, that emails going into the trash. And then unfortunately the algorithm is saying this person doesn't want to see this. So then your emails start ending up in their spam or junk. So my biggest piece of advice with everyone, if you're going to be sending emails, is to make sure that every email has some type of tip or some type of learning or education or something that your audience can take away. Because even if it might not be the right time for them to shop, if they get used to you providing some type of value in your email, they're going to be more likely to open it. And again, maybe they're not going to shop right now, but they're going to scan it for that value piece, that tip that you've got in there. And then two, three, four weeks down the road, when you do send out that sales email, instead of that going into their junk box or them just being like, oh, like another sale, I'm not going to open it. They're going to be more encouraged to open it because they know that you've got some tip or something of value in there that's going to help them out.

BREAK

Phoebe
Using the link in bio as a call to action on Instagram is a thing of the past. Your customer has to go through many steps to go to the place you want them to. They have to click on your profile, click on bio and if they don't do it immediately, they will forget and they will not click that link.
Many Chat has changed the conversion game for us and tons of other users. Have you seen all these accounts lately using comment below blank and we'll send you whatever to your DMs? That’s Many Chat. We've been using many chat for the whole year, the past six months ish, and our conversion for class signups, rsvps, and our lead magnet have increased so much. Get started with many chat today for free at bit.ly/GGCmanychat That's bit.ly/GGCmanychat. Our current bill is about $25 a month and it is seriously the best tool we use today for our customer conversion aka sales. Seriously, try many chat today bit.ly/GGCmanychat.


If you're looking for a new email provider or if you haven't started sending out newsletters yet, may we suggest Flodesk. Women owned and originally created in San Francisco. We love Flodesk and been using it for, I don't know, like five years so far. We love it. It's affordable, easy to use and a beautiful to design. Gorgeous emails and really easy to do workflows as well. And they just announced that you can share templates. So this is really cool If you're a designer and you want to share templates with your customers, this could be even a new revenue stream. We're planning on sharing some of our best templates as well down the road. Check out Flodesk. You can get 20 or 50, you can get 50% off the first year. So that brings your monthly total down to $19 the first year to use Flodesk and it doesn't go up depending on like how many contacts you have like some other programs. So you can get 50% off the first year with the link bit.ly/GGCFlodesk GGC is all caps and so is the F in Flodesk or you can go to flodesk.com/C/ GGC2020 gets you 50% off your first year. Also if you need help with email we've got a class for that go to girlgangcraft.com/classes and as always, feel free to ask us any questions about the brands that we love or our classes and what they're doing to help you do.


I think that's great. And then to make sure that you include about what the tip is somewhere in that subject line also to some people are opening in the email to get that information.

Jacinta
Exactly. Subject lines are super important. There's actually a website I love. It's called subject line.com. So if you're somebody hopping on here and you're like, okay, that sounds great, but I don't have any idea about email marketing or where to do any of this. And I know you and I just that flow desk, we both use it. One of our favorite email platforms. Your subject lines are really important. And because when people are going to open your emails or through your email open rate, we want the majority of people as many as possible to open the email because it's definitely a numbers game. The more people that open it, the more likelihood you have people that will click on some of your links and shopping and services in there. I love subjectline.com, so you could also use of course ChatGPT, but subject line.com is a really cool website where you can type in whatever you're thinking of using for a subject line, and it will actually tell you, okay, this is 70%, this is 90%. It will give you a grade, and it will give you suggestions on things that you should fix or take away.So get your open rate for your subject line even higher. So I highly recommend subject line.com.

Phoebe
Never heard of it. That's great.

Jacinta For you. Yeah.

Phoebe
I've only use ChatGPT before and sometimes like I just sort of like rely on intuition. I find that actionable items do really well. Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't be gimmicky, I don't know, I feel like, that feels like used car salesman. Many, but sometimes, like a gimmick is great secrets inside or. I don't know, it's probably pretty stupid, actually, but some sort of, like, teaser like gimmick thing I think can actually really work to like a hook that you would use for social media.

Jacinta
Also 100%, and some really easy ones to using the word here rate in the beginning of your subject line. So here's my top five tips for this. Or here's my secret for this. Using the word here is actually a really great one to use in subject line. Another good one is using Open Me. So Open me for the biggest sale of the year. Open me for my top five tip. Open this email if you want the best photos you've ever had using some keywords like here, open me are really good ones that you can put into the subject line too. And that idea of like, I don't want to feel gimmicky. I think a lot of time, especially for women, I think for creatives too, we have a real fear of selling. We don't want to sell to people. We don't want to come off as pushy and salesy and gimmicky. That used car salesman, right? And I'll be really honest with you, when I tell all of my clients is, you got to get over it, because at the end of the day, every single business, including profit, run on sales, there is not a single business that survive without running, some type of sales. And you're not annoying. You're not being pushy, you're not going to turn people off. The people who are signed up for your email newsletter list are the people who are exactly interested in your product or service. They're the people who are dying to hear what you have to say. So the more that you position your product or yourself as the go to or the expert in that space, the more that you have fun things to offer and the more that you do sell the people, the more money you're going to make, the more sales that are going to come in. So if you're someone listening saying, I don't want to be salesy or gimmicky, I'm going to tell you, girl, you just got to get over it, because that is the key. You want to make more money, we've got to sell stuff.

Phoebe
Yeah, 100%. Absolutely. And I think that's a great point to like keeping in mind that the people who have signed up for your newsletter are people who have literally raised their hand to know more information, those people who maybe are going to think that's too many emails, like they're going to unsubscribe and that's fine. They're not your target audience.And maybe their level of integration with you is staying on social media, but not being on the newsletter. Right. It's like everyone has a place and understanding that and trying your best not to feel overwhelmed or like you're an annoying people. I also super believe in segmenting. For instance, for our community we have small business lovers and then small business owners. Those people who we're going to talk to you about the craft fairs from a vendor perspective, that's going to go to a different segment than people that we asked to attend our event. And also further for us to an example, we try and also differentiate between West Coast and East Coast. That's complicated and that's not for everyone. But maybe you have segments that are like has bought something, has not bought something at. That's a simple segment.

Jacinta
100% segmentation is so important. And yeah, you're talking now we're getting even more high level digging into the nitty gritty of email marketing. But segmentation 100% talking to the audience in the correct language for that audience. So for sure, having a segment of people that have never purchased, having a segment of people that maybe have purchased before, then you might even have a segment of people like who are your top customers or your top shoppers. You might have a segment of people who've spent 500 or more with you, those people who have spent 500 or more. Maybe you're going to send them out a special exclusive discount or sale or something because they're loyal and you know that they're going to shop. Maybe those first time shoppers, you're going to send them out something smaller. Maybe that's going to be like free shipping or 10% off, and maybe, you know, you're going to if you're a service based business, those people have never worked with you before. Those are going to be maybe more educational type of emails, or you're really going to tell them about your service and what you offer and how it works, whereas people who have already worked with you before, you're going to have that language in that email telling them why they should work with you again. So segmentation is super important, and talking to your audience and where they are in your business journey can make a huge difference. And I'm sure so many of us have had that, you know, you get an email that's like, hey Julie, never shop with us before. And you're like, yes, I have. Or you get that, here's your first hammer coupon. And you're like, I've been shopping with that for three years, but okay, I'll use this first timer coupon. We really want to make an effort to use segmentation for sure, and to talk to our audience in the right language. That's a great point. And that seems overwhelming for you. Also, it's okay. You don't need that up to that immediately. Let's start with seasonal. You'll work your way up. I mean, we're still figuring out our segmentation after seven years in business. Like it is a journey. And be patient with yourself. You don't need to have your system perfect right now because it won't be and it will still continue to not be perfect, probably the rest of your business life. It's always evolving, for sure. It's always evolving. As your business continues to grow, you'll have more and more segments. You'll have different things. One of the things that I love to do, and for a lot of you guys that are attending events, is I like to set up a segment for every event that I do. So you have a segment for maybe you had this for an end, Encino, or maybe you had a craft fair in Syria or wherever it might be. And I love to set up segments based upon that specific event. So all of the shoppers or all of the emails that I connected from that event will go into a specific segment. So I can actually send an email to them saying, hey, it was so great to meet you at the end. This, you know, beer or whatever it might be. So segments are something that you will always continue, I think, to develop and use in your business, because there's always different customers and cohorts that you're going to have the opportunity to talk to.

Phoebe
Absolutely. Pivoting a little bit to social media, we talked about a lot of your community not having all like the pieces of content that could help them with the funnel. So maybe what are some pieces that you find are missing often with your clients that you work with for sure.

Jacinta
So I think first off, a lot of people tend to if they're new in social media and newer their business, they tend to focus sometimes on too many graphics and not enough actually showing the personality behind the brand or the product. And it's one of those things where, I mean, quality does matter. Having really great quality photos, having really great quality videos. I mean, that's going to be the first staple because at the end of the day, these are static platforms. We want our products or services to be very visually appealing. And I think for any of us, if we land on a page or a website that the content is kind of dark or murky or doesn't have, like a really specific goal, we're not going to shop with that brand because we don't trust that brand. So your social media is so much more than just creating like a pretty esthetic for your brand. It's really about establishing trust for your brand. It's about positioning your product or your service as one of the top, as one of the authorities in that category. I think some really easy content pieces that a lot of people miss out on are talking about why you started your business, what's the vision for your business? What's your mission statement for your business? Who is your product or service for? Those are some really easy content ideas on. And so many times people don't know what to do and they're like, let me just throw something out and see what sticks to the wall, right? I actually have a list for what I send out to my email subscribers. Of the 30 content ideas that I have used over and over again in my business for the last five years that have helped my clients and I generate millions of dollars. And that's definitely something we can connect on, and I can make sure we have access to give to your community as well. But some of those are really easy hooks. Like we mentioned before, top five ways to do X, y, z with your product or the secrets behind x, y, z with your product or service, or how your product helped somebody do x, y, z. There are really I would say, about 30 main content ideas that I reuse over and over and over again in my business, because my goal is to get people in my business, my goal to get people to hop on a phone call with me to see if working together might be a good fit for you guys. If your goal is to get people to purchase your product, then some of these cool like creative ways to talk about your product. Here's five ways you could do this with my product. Or here's a secret or something that you didn't know about my product are really key ways to kind of take your social media and make sure that it's working for you, and it's helping you reach your goals instead of just being like, I woke up today and I got to post something and I'm not sure what it is, then I'm gonna throw something up there and see how it works.

Phoebe
I think that, hey, do you have a phone call? It is really interesting and I know not everyone listening can relate to this, but I think the phone call I would love to talk a little bit about maybe some of those points that you focus on during a phone call, because that can be applicable for I know graphic designers, right. You're going to hop on a call with people, website designers, photographers, probably brand partnerships, even you're pitching brands and then you have a meeting with them. I mean, I have calls all the time, maybe not one on one clients, but partnerships in some capacity or venues or whatever. Yeah. What are some of those points that you or like, how do you sort of structure those calls with folks to get them to work with you?

Jacinta
Yeah, absolutely. Anybody who's listening that has a service based business, right. Photographers, realtors or 100%, yes. I mean, I work with lots of brands and partnerships and collabs like helped. My clients were influencers and social sellers, land deals and things like that too. For sure. If you're working in a service based business where you have a service that you're offering, a phone call is a 100% the way that you should be driving people. And I see a lot of time, even in service based businesses, on people's website, it'll be like sign up for my package here. But if you have a higher ticket package price or 500, a thousand, a $2,000 photography fee. Very few people are actually going to convert from your website or your social media and go ahead and just book a 500,000 $2,000 package without getting to talk to you first, or getting to know a little bit about you and your business. So I do a 15 minute console and I really pretty run them all the same. And the first one is I want to know about you. I want to know about if you are a service based business writer, photographer or a realtor, obviously you want to know about what are their needs, what are they looking for? What's their time frame? Why? Now? Those are some important information. If you're someone who's working with partnerships or collaboration, I want to find out about that company and I want to find out what are their goals, what is their objective, what are they looking to do with their business? What are the type of customers that they're looking to connect with? So first I really just want to know about them and their business. And then once I kind of have asked enough questions and get that information, that's when then I'm like, okay, here's where I think I could help you. Here's based on what you told me that I think could help make the best impact for your business or for your service. And I think a lot of times people get that wrong and they do a call with somebody and they start out being like, this is my business, and here's what I have to offer and okay, do you want to work with me? And the first step should really be find out about that potential client and about their business and their objectives and their goals. So that way you can then on the second half of it tie in. Why you are able to help them meet their business objectives or meet those business goals.

Phoebe
Love that. Okay, changing gears a little bit, I would love to hear a little bit about your journey. What is like a big roadblock that you've had to overcome in your business? Maybe, I don't know, the past few years or something, and getting to the other side of it and succeeding at something, maybe.
Jacinta
No for sure. I think a lot of you who are listening can probably relate to this. I touched on a little bit in the beginning. I would say that biggest roadblock, especially for women and for myself, is thinking that you can do it, that you're able to. And I know the event that we talked about, I said this, and I'm going to share it here. Women are so much more humble. And women, you could have been working in your industry for five, six, seven years. You could know all of the things that there are to know and the inside and out. And women tend to come to me and say, I don't know if I'm ready. I'm not sure if I can start this. I'm not sure. And it's that lack of confidence that we have in business sometimes, and being able to go out and do things on our own, where I joke around and I say, a man could watch a ten minute YouTube video on something, and then he thinks he's an expert and he'll come and be like, I could write a whole masterclass on this after watching like a ten minute YouTube video. So I think for myself, the biggest roadblock at first was believing that I was able to do this and get started. Like I said, my sister actually had been telling me for a whole year I should start my own business before I actually took her advice and did it. And I think with women, we want to stay in what's comfortable and what's predictable. A lot of your listeners, probably their business, might be their side hobby or their side hustle. Right? And they've still got this full time job. And we think that we couldn't leave that stability, we couldn't leave the benefits. We couldn't leave the health programs or whatever it might be, or I need that insurance. And it's this idea of when you step out of your comfort zone and you believe in yourself and you say, like, okay, other people have done this, why not me? Success isn't just for Phoebe. Addison's success is for Julie and Ashley and Marriott. Why can't it be for you too? Why can't it be for me? I think that biggest roadblock for women is believing in yourself. That is the biggest first step in saying I can do this. And then I think the second step is eliminating words from your vocabulary that allow you to fail. For example, we're not going to try. I don't hope my business is going to be successful. I'm not going to give this a try and see what happens. I'm going to do this and I'm going to make it successful no matter what. I have set goals for myself, and maybe you don't hit that goal the first time, or the second time, or even the third time. But it's like I've set that goal for myself, and I'm going to make sure that I do not stop until I achieve that goal. So I think step one is believing in yourself and having the guts to actually jump and go and take your business to the next level, or start it, or grow it to the level where it could be your full time, if that's what you want to do. And then I think the second part of that is you cannot give yourself the easy out to fail. You cannot say, I hope this happens, or if this works, or we'll see what happens, because what you're doing is you're allowing yourself to fail. So if you don't hit that goal or don't achieve what you wanted to do, you kind of don't feel so bad about it. I'm a big believer in manifestation and the law of attraction. What you think about is what you bring about. It's very powerful. I think that second step is there is no other option. You are laser focused on success, you are laser focused, and this is going to happen for me. I'm going to hit my goals and I'm going to achieve everything that I want to achieve in business. And I think for women in general, those are probably the two biggest roadblocks that we all deal with all the time. And it's one of those things that you have to always work on. You have to remind yourself when that little thought creeps in, that's like, oh, I'm not sure if this is going to work. And then it's like, okay, I had that thought, but now I'm going to change that. And I say it out loud like, this is going to work. This is going to be a big moneymaker. This is going to be successful in my business. So I think overcoming those roadblocks in our own minds is probably the biggest thing that I had to work on. And probably one of the biggest things on kind of the mental side of it that I work on with my clients, I'm very action based and very transactional, like we're going to set up all these systems and processes for your business to help you be successful. But if you don't believe they're going to work, if you don't have faith, if you don't have that laser focused vision that it's success or nothing else, it's sink or swim, it might not work for you. So that mindset, part of it, overcoming those roadblocks is so, so important to you.
Phoebe
Have any manifestation practices that you do?

Jacinta
Yeah, for sure. I practice positive affirmations every single morning on my client calls in my workshops with my clients. We start all of our workshops like that, and I'll share some of them with you guys now, some of my favorite ones. But every morning I wake up and I lay in bed for five minutes and the first things and I say this out loud, the first things that come out of my mouth when I open my eyes is I say, I am a money maker. Money comes to me easily, freely and frequently. I say my life is filled with success. I say other women who touch my business are filled with success. The universe delivered everything that I need and more, and I need. I use from the Law of Attraction that I am so happy and grateful now centered. So if there's something that I want to have happen in my business, a lot of times when manifesting and using affirmations, people get this a little bit wrong. They say, I hope the universe does this or that. Instead we say, I am so happy and grateful. Now my business is making $100,000 a month. I am so happy and grateful now that I am debt free. I am so happy and grateful now that my business has a thousand customers. Whatever it is that you want to have happen, we speak it into existence as though it has already happened, and I think that has been a huge game changer for me. I would say about ten years ago is when I really started to delve into the law of attraction and manifestation and positive affirmation and I have manifested things for my life and my business that 15 year old me would have never thought was achievable. But it is this unwavering belief that you have to have. And I think if you're somebody on this call or you're listening in and you consider yourself a realist, as sometimes I get from people and you say, oh, those things are great, but let's be realistic. Absolutely not. What do you mean? Like that is realistic? There are people who make millions of dollars selling their product. There are people who make hundreds of millions of dollars selling their services. That is reality. That is somebodies reality. And so if you want it to be yours, why can't it be? But you have got to really believe it. And when you first start doing affirmations and you start working on manifestation, I think that's one of the things that can be a big roadblock for people is they might say the words, but do they really believe it? And one of the big things that you have to work on, an internal work process is, I believe, the things that I'm saying out of my mouth, like I wholeheartedly and I wish you guys could see us all the time right now, too, because it's like your face lights up your expressions change when you really feel like you believe in something for yourself and that you're going to be successful doing it and that you are achieving these things already. That's when the true power of manifestation and positive affirmations come to be. But every single day, without fail, I wake up every morning and those are the first words that come out of my mouth and something that I've imparted upon my family, my niece and nephew. I teach them this. Sometimes I'll help out and like drive them to school in the morning, in the car, like we're saying, our positive and affirmations were manifesting the incredible day that they're going to have and like the extra recess time that they're going to get or whatever it is that they want for that day. So I think it's something that translates so much deeper and further than just business, but also translate into your personal life and your relationships and your children and people who you love and care about as well.

Phoebe
How do you take care of yourself outside and inside work?

Jacinta
Well, listen, I am all about work hard, play hard. I live in Florida. We live in the Sunshine State. It's Paradise here. There's always something fun to do. I totally am a big believer in work hard. Play hard. But it's also work smarter, not necessarily harder. I think it's super important when you are an entrepreneur, especially to make sure that you've given yourself some type of balance in your life. For example, when I started my business, I knew that I wanted to take Fridays off. I didn't want to work on Fridays. I love having a long weekend. I don't like to subscribe to this culture of people having to work five, six, seven days a week. I definitely subscribe more to the European culture where we have like siestas and work a shorter workweek, because that's what makes me happy. And I think for a lot of you listening, I see you nodding your head. That's what we all truly want. Nobody wants to be working 24 over seven, and there's like a running joke that you hear people say like, oh, I became an entrepreneur to work 80 hours a week so I don't have to work 40 for somebody out. I am not so tied into that hustle culture. I'm not a morning person and you don't have to be, you know, you'll read books and all of these things about, like, you know, to be successful, to become a millionaire, you need to wake up at 5 a.m. and go to the gym first and do all these things like, I'm successful, I've made millions of dollars. I don't do work calls before 11 a.m., and I don't work on Fridays. And I take off lunch and I'll go have prosecco and sit by the water and have some oysters or whatever it might be. So I think that's really important as an entrepreneur and as a business owner, to set yourself work life boundaries. This idea that you have to be available 24 over seven, this idea that you never get a break when you're an entrepreneur, it's what causes a lot of burnout. We know that 50% of small businesses fail within their first three years. 80% of small businesses don't make it to your five. And a huge part of that is not just sales and income, but it's burnout. I know business owners who have made hundreds of thousands of dollars, made millions of dollars, and they wanted to quit or sell or give up their business because the amount of time it was consuming in their life. So I think it's really, really important to give yourself a strategy and set yourself a schedule and make sure that you have a balance of work and personal life, because you're going to get really sick of your business. You're going to resent your business. You're not going to have that same love and passion for your business that you used to have. If you feel like you're tied to your business like it's a 9 to 5 job, and you resent and regret signing yourself up for this because you never get any free time. So I think it's really important to set yourself Work-Life boundaries and to stick to those. So that way you can be happy and not burnt out, and be your best self. When you do come in to touch your business and work at it.
Phoebe
Hell yeah, I love that you don't work for it is this. I would love to work towards that. I sort of keep my Fridays and Mondays lighter and I do like Mondays or a little bit more for setting me up. And Fridays are finances. Or sometimes I just go to the beach early so they're looser. But I would love to work towards that. And I'm also not a morning person.
Jacinta
Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that. And I think especially as creatives, so many people on it, we don't maybe run in that same type of like get up at 5 a.m. Alpha, do this, this, this type A personality. Right. There's I think there's false information out there that you have to be one specific type of person to be successful. And I think that's where in my programs and when I work with my clients, where we put systems in place and we have automation and we have funnels in place that someone might land on your website, or they might land on your social media at 3 a.m. and you're really confident that you have a program or system in place, that nurturing that lead, or.

Phoebe
Allows them to shop.

Jacinta
And you don't have to be constantly tied into your business like that. I think it's so powerful.

Phoebe
Are you as astrology girly?

Jacinta
I'm not. You would think I would be. Maybe more so. I'm a Libra, I know that, but there are some people that are so into it, and the moods and the signs and all that good stuff, but I know who I am as a Libra, and I think a lot of that rings really true. But no, astrology is something I still have. Probably lots and lots to learn about.

Phoebe
Okay, just checking. Okay, cool. I mean, this has been a really great conversation. Where can people find you if they want to work with you?

Jacinta
Absolutely. So my website is Jacintadevlin.com. So it's jacintadevlin.com. So you can go right to Jacintadevlin.com. You can find out all about my program. You can read testimony from all of my clients. You can book a call with me if you're interested in how I might be able to help you and your business grow. And then the same thing on social media and on Instagram as Jacinta Devlin. So you can find me there as well. And I have all sorts of automations and processes set up to help you connect with me and help you grow your business. We also have a free Facebook group for female entrepreneurs, and that's linked on my Instagram and on my website as well. So that's a completely free resource where I go in and do free trainings. We have tons of things about how to create content for your business, that list of 30 content ideas. But I use over and over again. We include in our free Facebook group. We have ideas about engagement, ideas about how to break through in the algorithm. Definitely jacintadevlin.com or finding me on social @jacintadevlin is the easiest first step. And then there's so many different free resources and information that we offer for everybody from there to amazing.

Phoebe
And we'll drop some of those links below as well, and I'll have to check out the Facebook group too.
Jacinta
Yeah, we would love to have you part of it. We would love to have any of the Girl Gang craft members part of it. It's a place where women come to connect, network, grow and build their business. And so it's a place for each and every one of you that are listening. I'm here today.
Phoebe
Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Jacinta.

OUTRO

Phoebe
Thank you so much for listening to the Girl Gang Craft Podcast. Head to Girlgangcraft.com/podcast for shownotes and more. See you next time.