How this all got started…

I am a homeschooling mom of three kids and my only job, as of a month ago, was to teach them, keep my home, and do some light graphic design work for my church.

Two years ago I was a wedding videographer with a successful business in a beautiful vineyard filled area of the country, and I was growing fast. Then everything changed when I was diagnosed with heart failure and POTS. I was not able to do much of anything for a long time.

As I recovered, I felt the longing to do SOMETHING for my family’s finances. But it’s also extremely important for me to do work that matters. Work that will help people. I love to share what I learn and coach and teach people. I love to encourage. I wanted to work, but I wasn’t physically able to go to a job, and I didn’t want to. Homeschooling is very important to us, and my kid are thriving in it.

Then all of a sudden, a flip switched in me.

There I was, only one month ago, sitting in the orthodontist’s office with my three kids. They were telling me how much work each of them needed, including the 6 year old (here I was thinking they didn’t need them until they were teens like when I was a kid…) and my jaw was going lower, lower, lower, until it was basically hanging down on the floor with my feet. How were we going to fit this into the budget?

Then that evening, I spent a long time on the phone with my sister. I was teaching her the secret formula to better credit (yes there is a formula - search reddit and you’ll find it). She was yearning for a home, but she’s pregnant, she has two other kids, and even though they both work full time, there was no room in their budget to save enough for a down payment. It all felt so out of reach for her, and I could feel her heart breaking.

My heart was breaking.

that day was my breaking point.

I had been inundated like many others, I’m sure, with promises of easy money working from home on instagram and I finally decided to dig a little deeper. I realized who was spinning lies to grow a following, and what avenues were legitimate.

Then I was faced with a choice.

Do I risk $500 on a course to give me direction and a solid foundation? I knew I could probably figure it out as I went, but that felt extremely overwhelming, and I was an experienced small business owner.

After talking with my husband, we decided that while $500 was a lot for our family, it was also worth the risk. The potential upside was HUGE. And so I did it! I jumped in with everything I had.

While I’ve had some crazy growth on Instagram in the two weeks I’ve been on there, I really have to give a lot of the credit to The Roadmap course. Why? Because I spent the first two weeks of my journey diligently going through the modules and doing all the work I needed to do to build a solid foundation for the next step. It gave me the understanding I needed to move forward, and without it I would still be feeling around in the dark.

Before you dive into social media, it’s vitally important to have the basics of your business down. I didn’t want to take that much time on the course, I was excited and wanted to dive right in. But I knew patience would pay off in the end. My mantra throughout this process has been…

Little drops of water can fill a bucket to overflowing.

I am going for consistency, authenticity, and intentionality.

By the time I started my Instagram account, I had a really good idea of who my target audience was, what my niche was, and I had spent many, many hours learning and studying business and marketing concepts.

During week three, I was only focused on figuring out how to use Instagram. I have been on there before but hadn’t posted anything to my personal page in years. I knew the basics, but I didn’t know how to use it for a business. As I watched and learned the tendencies my target audience had on there, I began to see some patterns and was able to adjust my content strategy as I went. Within a week, I had a reel with thousands of views, and I felt like I had a handle on what worked well for me.

I can’t state how important taking the Roadmap course was to how quickly I had success on Instagram.

Because I have seen so much rapid growth, I created a free guide called The Viral Growth Blueprint. In it I share some concepts and strategies that I created as I began to see my account skyrocket from 0 followers to over 1000 in just two weeks.

I am also working on some content that I think will really help people bridge the gap between beginning and getting that first sale.

I’m documenting my journey on Instagram because I would have loved to see that when I was searching and wondering if this path was right for me and my family. I hope you’ll follow along and share your journey as well!