From 0 to 10k in a Month on Instagram with Video! Student Success Story with Jan Ditchfield

Today, I’m so excited to welcome a graduate of This is Video School, Jan Ditchfield. Jan is a business educator/strategist who specializes in overhauling digital small businesses WHILE they turn a profit. With over 30 years experience in fundraising for nonprofits, she’s well versed in what it takes to sustain and transform a business while making sure you can afford to stay in business.

At least, she was well-versed in an in-person setting. Making the transition to a social media space that relied on various video types, was a challenge. But lucky for her (and me honestly) she heard about This is Video School, and we got to work together! 

In case this is your first time tuning in, let me introduce myself. Reporting from my laundry office in small-town Illinois, this is Virginia Kerr. And I’m here to help you stand out and make money by leveraging and up-leveling your social media videos. I’ve been in the TV and video industry for more than 20 years. Four TV newsrooms, hundreds of videos, blogs, and podcasts later, I’m here to share what I’ve learned with women ready to get the most out of their hard work. 

Does video intimidate you? Make you want to hide? I’m excited to help you push through your limiting beliefs and show you that you can shine on video! I’m closing the gap by teaching you easy systems and sharing templates that help your videos get in front of your ideal clients. 

Welcome to This is Virginia Kerr, The Podcast! Let’s get started!

Trends: the Greatest Mistake

Especially if you’re over a certain age, Instagram can feel like a members-only club of 20 somethings all running around with their giant smoothies and 47 snake plants. And the young people love their trends, and why wouldn’t they? A lot of their social media usage is purely for entertainment/garnering popularity among their viewers. Trends are great for that.

They’re not great if you’re trying to establish yourself or your brand on a foundation of content that works while trying to warm up your audience or convert them into customers. Remember, your purpose in the Instagram space isn’t to trend, it’s to advertise yourself in engaging ways (and yes sometimes those ways will be fun or trending, but sometimes they won’t).

Own the Experience- It Sets You Apart 

Leaning into your age and experience, and the LACK of a trend focus will actually help set you apart, and help people connect with the real you while learning what your business has to offer. That’s why Jan says she really only uses aspects of trends as accents in her library of content. 

Think of trends as glitter eyeshadow: less is more. 

Appealing to Your Audience is the Key: The Bottomline

Probably one of my favorite parts of my conversation with Jan was her belief that sales equates with service. You are helping people transform their lives, and that is valuable. This is why one of the best things you can do to promote your services is to utilize social proof. Nothing is quite as affirming as citing your own satisfied customers to recruit more. It adds priceless legitimacy to your offer. 

It’s also important to meet your audience where they’re at WITHIN the season of your business. This means not appealing to new clients when your sales cycle is in the middle of the ride. One huge mistake I see all the time is that people think they constantly have to be selling in every video. You’re going to burn out fast doing that, and turn people off, especially if they’re already warmed and interested in learning more.

Lastly, it’s really important that you have extensive knowledge of the problem you’re solving, and take the process of pitching your solution in person and translating that into social media content. It sounds intimidating, but it’s a craft that can be taught. And if you use videos to demonstrate what your offer can truly do for people, the sky’s the limit for your sales. Jan made $10k her first month after This is Video School.

Let’s get you there, too. 

If you liked what you learned here, head on over to Instagram and share it on your IG stories and tag me, @thisisvirginiakerr

For more information about the podcast, or to learn more about This is Video School, visit my website. I would love to connect with you more on social media! You can find me on Instagram or join my free Facebook community, This is Video and Content Strategy, to help you level up your branding, messaging and video so you can grow your audience and convert followers into customers.

I look forward to seeing you there!

And if you’re interested in Jan’s abilities to transform your small business, check her out here: 

Jan Ditchfield

Website: http://www.janditchfield.co

Instagram: https://instagram.com/janditchfield.co