Danielle’s guest this week is husband Garrett J White. They have a conversation about their backstory which segues into the topic of the saturation taking place inside of social media, as well as the importance of becoming an expert in your field while zeroing in on your niche. For Big Money Stylist, we go over the following formula each month: Week #1: Power Week #2: Production Week #3: Profit Week #4: Protection In This Week’s Episode…..PROFIT Point #1: Business vs Platform Instagram is not a business, it’s a platform for distributing a message. That’s it. What is marketing? It is the distribution of a message.  Long before Instagram, the marketing and distributing of a message began…and it goes all the way back to Jesus Christ. He had a platform, he taught in parables, and he had thousands of followers who cared about and listened to him.  QUESTION How do you use Instagram to market your message?   Point #2: Tribe vs Followers As a marketer, just as Jesus, Buddha, and Gandhi were marketers, what are you chasing down? If you have 2.3 million followers but you can’t sell 36 fucking t-shirts, that’s a problem. You gotta wonder, who exactly is following you? This is the distinction between having a tribe of people who believe in you and your product and services vs having a band of followers. It’s also a distinction between getting paid or being popular. QUESTION Do you have a tribe or a following?   Point #3: Significance vs Results Danielle: More followers give one a feeling of significance. I think we hide behind feeling significant instead of getting results. If I wasn’t seeing results in my business, I wouldn’t continue doing what I’m doing. When I started seeing results, I started caring less about the social media following. You need a foundation AND you need systems and structures so that as you slowly build up your following, you look like a professional. You don’t need a couple hundred thousand followers, but you have to realistically look at your work and services and ask yourself if this is the best you can offer. QUESTION Are you driven more by the accolades of significance and popularity or are you driven by profitability?   Point #4: Threefold Game There’s a threefold game that has to be uncovered: celebrity, expertise, and authority. Expertise sits at the core, authority sits above expertise, and then you have celebrity. Across the game right now, many have skipped the baseline and the core of the game. They’re not actually experts and they’re not that fucking good. The internet has given you and I the ability to create a “celebrity” brand. But, even the bubble inside of the celebrity is starting to pop & fizzle.   QUESTION How strong is your core? Have you skipped that baseline and gone straight to the celebrity phase instead?     Point #5: Expertise & Niche   As the marketplace becomes saturated, what is your actual stand? How do you create a distinction in the marketplace and clarity for a client to be able to find their pathway directly to you? At the core, you must narrow down your expertise. Stop being a stylist and artist that delivers fucking everything to everybody. How in the world on God’s green earth could you be an actual expert at everything? QUESTION What is your niche? Where have you taken a stand? Quote of the Week: “Slow down, stop worrying about the social media numbers, and start focusing on how you can improve in some old school business tactics to retain clients.” — Danielle K White “You can build all the social credibility in the world that you want, but if you suck ass behind the chair and you can’t get it done, you must make a decision: am I committed to being profitable, or am I committed to being popular?” —Garrett J White