How Founders Should Show Up on Social Media with Jera Bean

0:00Hey, welcome back to the Female Founder World Podcast Podcast. it's Jasmine. I am the host of the show and the creator of all things Female Founder World. Today, my guest, you know her as Jera Bean. That is her TikTok and Instagram handle. She has one and a half million followers on TikTok where she teaches people about how to show up on video. This is something that we talk about a lot in the Female Founder World group chat. It's something that I think a lot of founders that kind of have this tension around. It's like, there's this huge opportunity to show up as like the face and be really forward facing in your business, but it's also something that people aren't super comfortable about.

0:40So Jera really breaks it down to this conversation. What's working, what's not working, what's the difference between Reels and TikTok and how to think about these platforms a little bit differently. If you are enjoying this conversation, you have heard me say this a few times now, but at the end of the summer, we are running Launch Lab, which is a six-part workshop series. If you listen to this conversation and you just think Jera is full of great advice and you want to learn more and really get into the weeds and build a bit of an action plan for yourself to get started or to level up on your video strategy, we are hosting a workshop with Jera in August.

1:19And you have heard me talk about this workshop series a lot on the podcast. It is called Launch Lab. We've just been able to confirm that actually we can make this free to attend. So I've put a link in the show notes, make sure that you sign up to reserve your spot. We do have limited spaces. It's going to be taught live. We've got one session with Jera, which is going to be all about finding your voice on video and leveling up your video strategy as a forward facing founder in a business. But we also have a bunch of other sessions that are all around launch marketing and really just effective marketing strategies that are really pushing the needle forward in businesses right now.

1:58So the link is in the show notes to sign up for that series and you'll find all of the information. Okay, let's get into the show. You are now entering Female Founder World with your host, Jasmine Garnsworthy. Jara, welcome to Female Founder World. It is so good to have you on the show. Woo, thanks for having me. I'm stoked to be here. Oh my God, I'm loving the energy that you're bringing. Okay, for people who don't know you, what are you all about? What are you building? How do you introduce yourself to somebody new? So my name is Jara Fosterfell, but thanks to social media, I go by Jara Bean across all of my social media channels.

2:31And I'm a social media coach, educator, speaker, and content creator. And content creation is how I originally got my start. If we rewind back to early-ish 2015. So I started off as a fitness influencer, became a SoulCycle instructor, and then took all of that knowledge and experience and was able to pivot into the world of social media coaching and education. So if we fast forward to like eight plus years later in the current day, I have courses. I work one-on-one with clients. I work with big brands like Estee Lauder and Mac, Bobby Brown, Adobe to talk to their teams about short form video content, as well as their ambassadors as well.

3:14And so across all of those hats that I wear, if I was to succinctly kind of sum up my mission, I would say it's to transform the way that you show up on social media so that you can use it as this really powerful and positive tool to support both your personal brand, your goals, as well as your business overall. Okay. Very succinct. I love all of that. And for people who are kind of wondering, all right, like what, you know, normally we hear from consumer brand founders on this show. Like why are we, why are we hearing from somebody different? Jero, you are somebody who shows up on my feed all the time.

3:46You always have the best advice and takeaways and like really tactical tips for people who want to show up on video in a really authentic way and cut through. And I think in this era of founder led brands, where founders are showing up as the face of their brands, they're building their own profiles, particularly female founders, they're building their own profiles as they're building these kind of consumer businesses as well. Everything that you teach is super, super relevant to even people who are selling consumer products. And so that's why I really wanted to chat with you today. Heck yeah.

4:20I love that. The first word that comes to my mind is humanizing everything, whether we're humanizing the product, whether we are humanizing your business, whether you are the personal brand. And we just have to humanize you as the human, because I think in the current day and age of social media, people are really done with the highlight reel. They're done with the early days of Instagram, where it's overly curated, overly filtered everything's aesthetic and pretty and we want the raw the real the genuine the human and the relatable as well i think when we can see ourselves or see our feelings or experiences in someone else and know oh wow someone else is going through that someone else thinks that someone else is that way like who i feel better about myself that weight is lifted and that's a really powerful part of the humanization, I think, of social media.

5:10Something that I feel people struggle with a lot when they're trying to figure out how to show up on, particularly in video, where it's just, there is no hiding on video. Like you have to, you have to have something to say and you have to be confident in the way that you say it. I feel like people really struggle to figure out what it is that they should be talking about and what kind of content they should be creating. What advice do you have for someone who's trying to figure out some content and polls and things to talk about, like actually what kind of content they should be creating? So I like to start with a fairly general direction of content pillars.

5:50And of course, this is going to be customized to each individual, each business, depending on what they need and what their goals are. But a great way to start off is sectioning off your brand into three distinct categories that get more granular from there. So to give you an overarching view of what those are, first I want to start off with your expertise pillars. So what can you share knowledge-wise? What information can you give? What is your ideal person or customer struggling with that you can help solve? Or what's a pleasure point that you can help them achieve through your content, anything that's going to benefit them in terms of knowledge, advice, and so on.

6:30So those are your expertise pillars. And then we move on to the business pillar because most of us have something to sell, whether it's services or products. And even if we're not directly selling something, we're probably still wanting to generate awareness for something. So if you are a founder and you have your own personal account, well, maybe you're not directly selling the products and services of your business through your account, you're doing that through the main business account, we still kind of want to give a lens into the business and into the professional side. So we have that business pillar and we can section that off into hard selling where we are directly selling something during the launch, or maybe we're not launching and we're just kind of selling a service or a product.

7:12And then we have my personal favorite, which is the soft selling. And that's where we can creatively feature what we do, what we sell or show the value of what it is we do or sell. So that's the business pillar. And then the last one is the secret sauce. And I could talk about this for hours. I'll try to keep it succinct because I know we don't have hours. So let me just quickly summarize this. The secret sauce is essentially going back to the first thing we were talking about is humanizing this, this social media experience. And so we want to authentically share about ourselves. Now that becomes really challenging because when you say show up authentically, it's a really nice sentiment, but how do we tangibly do that?

7:56That's where people get caught up. And so what I've done is come up with this framework to make showing up authentically a little bit more tangible, and we can put it into four categories. We have the foundational secret sauce, which focuses more on your past. What are the pivotal moments, challenges, achievements that have brought you to where you are today? Then we have the professional secret sauce. What sets you apart as a business, as an entrepreneur, as a founder? How do you see things? What are your values? Then we have the personal secret sauce, not related to business, and it's more focused on the present.

8:29Are you doing cold plunges? Do you like to bake? What about your dogs? Do you have a family? Are you traveling? Just things that make up your life outside of that professional. And then we have the lighthearted, which is just the silly, the one-off, the random, the mundane, the things we might throw in our Insta stories. And from these four, you can choose which you want to bring into your secret sauce pillar. You don't have to do all four. So if you're like, the lighthearted is not for me. Awesome. Let's focus on the professional and the foundational. So that's how I would start. What are your expertise pillars?

9:02How can we divvy up that business pillar into hard and soft selling. And then those four secret sauce buckets. Okay. I love how you've just basically summed up what I think people have literally tried to say in books, in like multi-hour long workshop series. I just feel like that is so clear and so easy to understand. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So something that people talk about is like, you should be niching down at particularly on platforms like TikTok, but the way that you've just spoken to me, it's kind of like you're bringing your whole self to these platforms. And this is something that I think I've really struggled with because I am someone who is trying to build a media business where I am not the content and trying to kind of like straddle that really fine line of bringing in interesting, fun, personal things, but also just being known for one thing so people can recognize your face in their feed.

9:58Like, how do you balance that? Do you think people need to be niching down or do they need to be bringing their wholesales? So here's how I think about niching. Because you're right. We hear this so much now. I'm scrolling on TikTok. It's like, you need a niche down. Don't niche down. And you're like, which one do I do? So what I like to do is kind of bulldoze down the definition that I think most of us have of a niche. And here's what I think. I think a niche is like creating a fence around a playground. And so this fence, it gives you some boundaries, it gives you some structure, but you get to play within the perimeter or area.

10:41I forget all those terms now. Whatever. You get to play within that playground that is surrounded by that fence. So I don't really see a niche as something that completely limits you. It just gives you a laneway to kind of go down. And if you then want to extend that fence, if you want to change the fence up, if you want to completely bulldoze it down and create a new fence, you have that option. So to me, it's not this limiting thing that I think has been so pushed upon us. Instead, it's just something that gives structure and boundaries. And so we all, for the most part, I say most of us can have this sort of guidance.

11:17Like for me, it's social media and helping people with their personal brands and short form video content. everything kind of goes through that particular lens or is played within that fence. So yes, we want a little bit of direction, but we don't have to limit ourselves in the way that I think has been told and taught for so long. Okay. Interesting. That makes sense. So when you think about the way that you're showing up, I see a lot of, you know, you're giving very specific advice around social media and coaching I think that you do the soft selling thing personally like really really well I kind of knew that you had the courses and that you knew that you had products that people could buy but it's definitely not something that you're like mentioning in every piece of content but for folks who maybe like aren't super familiar with what this concept of a soft sell means like how are you how are you weaving that into what you're saying in like a more tangible and tactical way?

12:18Yes. Okay. So let's divvy this up. To me, a hard sell is anytime there's a really clear and direct CTA, whether that is here are my services and I have open spots, DM me to apply, or I'm selling this product, click the link in my bio, or here are my stories, click this to go to my Amazon store or whatever that CTA is for a product or service. And then of course, very specifically when you were in a launch as well, a launch is a total end to end hard sell. The soft selling is something that is more of, instead of saying like, Hey, I have this. It's more of like, Hey, like a gentle wave, just so you know, I do this or I have this.

13:00And so we can see it, um, come up in a variety of ways. And within the soft selling, there's definitely like a spectrum of super, super soft sell to maybe a little bit more of a medium ish sell, but let me give you some examples. If I was to share a testimonial or a review or a client journey or transformation, I'm not necessarily saying, Hey, here's this review. Now sign up here. I'm just going, Oh my God, I'm so proud of my client or my student for achieving this. I want to share this with you. That's a soft sell. If I am going to my stories and recording a time-lapse of me at my computer and sharing my schedule for the day, and I'm saying, all right, I'm walking my dogs, I'm making some tacos, I have a podcast, I have a client call, I'm meeting with Estee Lauder for a upcoming presentation and we're going to review the deck.

13:51That's saying to everyone, hey, this is what I do, just so you know, gentle wave. If I'm sharing behind the scenes of a speech that I'm doing, if I am setting up a camera while I'm editing a new course and sharing behind the scenes something is coming. If I share my values as a coach, here are the core pillars and philosophy around what I do. If I share five things that set me apart as an educator, as a coach. So it's really anything where you are sharing bits and pieces of your business, whether it's other people's words like a testimonial review, press feature, et cetera, or whether you are giving a glimpse through behind the scenes or straight up telling people about what makes you different, kind of tapping into that professional secret sauce.

14:41To me, those are all soft sells. And what I love about it, it's something that you can do every single day or almost every single day. And it's something that is so easy to incorporate into your stories. I would say pretty much every day and into your feed at least a couple times a week. So that's soft selling. So you've mentioned there a little bit around like posting cadence. Is there a hard and fast rule about how often you need to be posting on these platforms to be able to get results? It's always a tough question. So I think what we first need to start off with is this general sense of what mode are you in?

15:22Are we in like a growth mode as in I want to grow more followers. I want to increase my engagement. I'm preparing for a launch and wanting to get more people into my stratosphere in order to help that launch. To me, that's a growth mode versus, and it's totally okay to be in the ladder of, are we in a maintenance mode where, all right, maybe there's other things in my business that need much more time and energy. I'm working on a new course, or I'm about to launch XYZ, or maybe I have stuff going on in my personal life that need attention. And so to me, maintenance mode is totally valid. Like I feel like I've kind of been in a maintenance mode for a while, like growing hundreds of thousands more followers.

16:01Like, yeah, in an ideal world, would that be something? Okay. Yeah, sure. But I don't need that. I don't need that. I'm cool with where I'm at. So are you in a growth mode or are you in a maintenance mode? And then within both of those sort of, uh, uh, lenses, those perspectives of those two modes, setting a safe and a stretch goal. So instead of saying, I must post seven times a week, then not hitting that goal and then throwing the towel and just say, forget it. I can't do it. Can you say, all right, I'm in growth mode. So I'm going to post absolute max seven times a week. And then if it's an off week, my safe goal is more of a four.

16:39So that way you're like setting yourself up for success where you're feeling good with wherever you're, you're landing within that range. And then for maintenance mode? I mean, once again, is it a safe goal of two and a stretch goal of three? I would start with those general parameters and then apply it to each person in business from there. Okay. Love all of this super tangible advice, by the way. I feel like people try and skirt around these answers, but you've been really, really helpful. So thank you. Yeah. No, this is awesome. Okay. So I want to get into more of the practical stuff around video and different platforms and what's happening.

17:14But first of all, I feel like before we dive into video piece, one of the big things we need to talk about is the fear that people have about showing up on video, on social media with their faces, talking about their business, talking about what they're doing. You seem like you are totally confident and fearless when it comes to this. How did you get to this point? And what advice do you give to your clients who are just in the space where they're just like so hesitant and so nervous to post the thing that they created? A couple thoughts. So first, let me tackle how I've gotten to where I am. And as I mentioned earlier, it's been eight years of being very consistent on social media.

17:59And I look back at my journey and I think I've had the advantage of when I say growing up, I don't mean me growing up, like growing up with the social media growing up, like Instagram, when I first was on it, we didn't even have 15 second videos, but then the first time 15 second videos came on, it was like, whoa, we can hear people's voices. And then I'll never forget stories feeling so vulnerable, like all of a sudden here's my face. So I've had the opportunity to, to evolve as social media has evolved. And that's been incredibly helpful for me developing my confidence. That being said, yeah, I would say I have a good amount of confidence.

18:37Uh, my mindset's pretty solid, but I have thin skin. Like there's, I get mean comments a good amount of the time or things that really get under my skin. And even yesterday I got something and it kind of like ruined my day. So even though I have this confidence, that's not to say that things don't get to me or there are moments where sort of self doubt or frustration or where one comment can kind of take over my day. So I never want to appear like, Oh yeah, I have it all together. It still is tough for me sometimes. when things are received in a way or reacted to in a way that don't make me feel good.

19:15So that's the first thing that the, if I was working with a client, what I always like to offer up is this idea of stepping stones with your content. So going from zero to 100, especially with video content can be really challenging. So I think of 100 as I'm creating a talking to camera video where I, just as we are talking right now, like cameras up, I'm talking, sharing my thoughts, sharing tips that can be so vulnerable because a lot of us don't like the sounds of our voice. We don't like how we look. We feel like we're awkward and just think that being in front of the camera should be this inherent skill when it's not.

19:56It's so like the most unnatural thing ever and we have to develop it. So rather than going to this 100, what are these stepping stones? And so I'll give you an example of three different formats for people to play around with. And I do see these as three stepping stones to get more and more comfortable. The first format is our first stepping stone and it's text on screen. So when I say text on screen, we are using just a video. It could be a video of you walking down the street, walking with your dog, taking a sip of coffee. It could be you at your desk. It could be you packing an order, whatever it is.

20:29It might not even have you in it. Maybe the half step is then adding you if we're first just filming the trees or something like that. But it doesn't involve your voice and your super, super active participation. So through that, can you add text on screen, maybe a trending song, and you're sharing something from your expertise pillar? You're sharing a tip or a mindset advice or maybe even a mini story about yourself. So that's stepping stone number one. Stepping stone number two is using voiceover. so we have different clips maybe you're involved in it same kind of clips that i just listed off but we're adding in your voice however it's not your active voice where you need to talk to the camera so it's a little bit easier than jumping to that 100 the third would be then talking to camera as we've mentioned that active participation where it's definitely the most vulnerable but you can work your way there so as as i mentioned number one is text on screen no voice number two would be adding in voiceover and then three is where you're talking to camera and kind of work your way up to that if you even need to get to that I think for some businesses and companies talking to camera might not even be the right format for you and so maybe your maximum is voiceover okay I love that idea of just scaling up your threshold for or your tolerance for kind of this showing up and being vulnerable very cool I want to talk about the different platforms now So how are people, like what's working right now on TikTok versus Instagram Reels?

22:01How should people be thinking about, I guess, optimizing content for each? Can you just post the same thing to each platform? Like what are you doing differently there at the moment? The way that I think of TikTok and Reels. So we have this big umbrella of short form video content and then Reels and TikTok lives under that. yes they're both short form video content but I think both platforms are wildly different and my metaphor that I always use for this is short form video content if it was an ocean reels would just kind of be glimmering and having some fun at the top and then TikTok is like the depths below with all these ecosystems and weird fish that glow in the dark if you go super all the way down and like things that you can't identify and then things like that are scary like sharks and fun like clownfish.

22:51I don't know, but there's a lot going on down there. And so what I mean by that is I look at reels and especially in current day, in the current social media landscape, it is a lot of like fun, trendy edits. It still feels very aesthetic. We have, that's my label for them, trendy edits. It's quick cuts and things moving in and out of the frame, outfits and locations and products. And I think that as someone who's been editing since I was like eight years old, because that's what my mom does. I like that. It's fun to me. It is aesthetic. So it's nothing against that. The other thing though, that I also see on reels is a very, very heavy reliance on sound.

23:34Now, TikTok does have a heavy reliance on sound as well, but reels uses sound in sort of the most basic trend sense. Like it's not sound in its most complex form like we see on TikTok. So what I mean by that is audios, like I was just scrolling this morning and it was like, oh, I just love being a woman or different lip dubs, like the office one, like, everybody stay calm. What's the procedure? Like that's an old one, but I do love that one. So it's these kind of very simple audios that we can then either lip dub to, or we can use a piece of B-roll like, oh, I love being a woman. And then it's this fun, kind of ethereal, glamorous, whatever moment.

24:12So that's how we look at reels versus TikTok. If we go to the depths below, it is trends, but trends have evolved to become not just the surface level, but it's a whole like culture and language. And then what I actually think is, is, um, maybe not the most interesting, but adds on this other layer is the original content. So we have trending content and we have original content and both are very important to short form video content culture. And, and I, I love both of them, but I think where TikTok shines is that original content where people are not relying on a trend that already exists on a theme that already, already exists.

24:53It's their own thing, whether they're talking to camera or showing us behind the scenes or giving us insight into something or creating comedic sketches and playing characters. The creativity there is just something that we don't see on reels. And to be honest, I don't think it's something that we'll ever see on Instagram. And so that's how I see the, the main difference. And so to answer your question of, can we repost the same content on each platform? Sure. I am all about working smarter and not harder. And so if you can take one piece of content and share it to reels and take talk, there's a chance that you have two completely different audiences and that's wonderful.

25:33So I have nothing against that. But my goal for each individual or brand is if you are doing that, I also want you to make it a task for yourself to understand, start to go, wait, wait, I have an idea for TikTok, but you know what? I don't actually think that would work very well on reels, or it doesn't make sense on reels and start to kind of have that differentiator cap on. And so even if you are reposting some of the same content, you get to a point where you go, okay, actually this only makes sense for TikTok and I understand why. So that's, that's the, the goal I'd want you to get to, even if you are reposting content.

26:11Okay. Amazing advice. And then the last thing I want to ask you is just for some recommendations for like tools or procedures or the ways to plan and optimize content. okay so tools if I think mostly about creating content I think a really big misconception is that you need all this equipment people go oh what tripod do you have what camera do you have what editing app and and sure I use some of that sometimes and I'll explain what I use but so much of the time I am too lazy to even get my tripod out or my ring light out and so I'll lean my phone against a plant or my glass or against my laptop screen.

26:54Like I'm just using whatever is around because we are in this age where things are more casual and things don't have to be perfect. And the more sort of in the moment it is for some types of content, the better. So yeah, you can get a little tripod. Um, but if you can just use natural light and use your phone and just wipe the camera lens so that, you know, the face grease isn't on there, you're golden. That's the setup that I use personally. And then when it comes to editing, yes, there are a ton of editing apps out there. I originally for years used Splice. Then I had a few little glitches on there that were annoying me.

27:30So I switched over to CapCut. Absolutely love CapCut, but we have InShot, we have Video Leap, but I would say CapCut is a really great one to dive into. In terms of planning and scheduling. I have, I feel like I have a little bit of a bone to pick because I think people tend to jump to thinking that they need some sort of an app to plan and schedule their content when they have not created a content creation process first. So it's almost like, oh, I want to ride a bike. I don't know how to ride a bike. Let me sit on this bike and just assume that I'll know how to be able to ride it. We need to learn how to ride the bike first.