Month: December 2018

Posted on by — Leave a comment

FREE Instagram Training – Top 15 Tips: Part 3

Instagram is the premier platform for growing your tribe. Learn how to excel here!


Did you miss Part 1 or Part 2? Click the links to read the first eleven tips! 

This is the final post to wrap up these tips, so let’s get right into it.

12. Use a business account. 

Yes, I know. I didn’t want to switch from a personal to a business account, either. But the benefits to having a business account versus a personal are too valuable to ignore. If growth in your field is the goal, then utilizing a business account is going to be the most profitable. 

By using a business account, you can use the available tools built right into the platform to see what engages your audience the most. 


To do this, click the menu button at the top right of your profile page (the one that looks like three lines). Once you open the menu, you will have access to the “Insights” page. (Keep in mind, this is only available for business accounts.) 

This will show all of your posts from the year, sorted by those with the most engagement at the top. As you can see in my example, the posts with most interactions (a combination of likes and comments) were images involving beauty and makeup looks. That means that my tribe prefers these posts by preference. With that knowledge, I can now deliver more of what audience likes! 

By utilizing the free tools available to business accounts, you’ll be able to optimize your instagram to attract your tribe. 

13. Define your niche 

This one is the most difficult for me! I’m a jack-of-all-trades. There’s hardly a thing that I don’t enjoy pursuing and learning about! But if you are going to have a successful instagram, you are going to need to use some self-control and keep it on topic. (I’m preaching to myself the most!) It’s hard to narrow your topic down when you don’t know what you want. (More on that in the next point.) But once you know what you want to accomplish, you will know better what to share.

For example, if you want to build a tribe of people who love to sew, sharing images of your makeup looks won’t unite those people into a common purpose. If you have a lot of things to share that are in topics that aren’t laterally related, you can have more than one instagram! For example, I have a beauty and brand instagram, a personal instagram, a cosplay instagram, and an art instagram. While some of my followers might like all of those things, most people enjoy only one of those at a time. By dividing up my topic among those different accounts, I’ve helped tailor my content to my tribe’s need and interests. 

14. Define your purpose

This is probably the most important aspect of all this training because it will be the north star of everything else you do. If you don’t have your purpose clearly defined, it will show in your feed. 

Ask yourself,

a. What am I passionate about?
b. What do I want people to know?
c. How can I help in a way no else quite can?
d. What would my friends say is my soap box?
e. Who and what do I care most about?
f. What are my unique talents and interests? and How do they fit into my passions?
g. What do I want to do?

The last one is very important. You will never succeed at something you do not want to do. Your desire can be a guiding light to what you are meant to do. In Proverbs, we are told that our desires are placed their by our Creator. Wisdom is knowing the difference between innate desire and aimless lust. For example, you might desire a inspiring and creating healthy relationships. An aimless lust would be to make a lot of shallow friends, or to aim to have many people like you. It might seem like it temporarily fulfills your desire for deep and rich relationships, but in the end, it isn’t what you meant to have. Knowing your innermost desires intimately is the key to ignoring to wasteful wants. 


You will never succeed at something you do not want to do.

15. Pimp your profile

Now that you have the meat and potatoes of your purpose and niche, you can finally get your profile prim and polished. So what makes a great profile? 

Go to some of your favorite successful bloggers. While each has their own style, you will find some common building blocks that appear on each page. 

a. Heading and niche in title
b. Purpose statement
c. Expected content
d. Call to action

A. Heading and niche

Your account title will automatically default to the name you provided instagram at account set up, but you can change these easily in your profile settings. You can include your name if you wish, but definitely include content keywords. The name bar is searchable, so whenever someone is looking for makeup, my account will be somewhere on the list. It is also beneficial to help people associate your name with content. 

B. Purpose statement

My purpose is “supporting and educating fempreneurs.” I want to help women feel confident about themselves, whether that’s how to apply the perfect lipstick or learning how to pimp their instagram. Make a concise, one-line purpose to help guide your content and attract your audience. 

C. Expected content

What do you plan on posting to meet your purpose? What kind of posts can your followers expect? This is as beneficial to you as it is to your tribe. 

D. Call to action

What do you want people to do, and what can you offer them? Direct them to a link to fulfill this action. Since instagram only let’s you have one link, I highly recommend Link Tree. Link Tree basic is free, allows you to have unlimited links, and is easy to use. 

The same rules apply for links as the rest of your instagram. This is not place to link to my illustration portfolio. Everything here is related to my business. That might change in the future, but it is easy to edit and it updates immediately. Keep your links clutter free, on topic, and up to date. 

And that’s it! 

Way to go! If you follow these 15 tips, you’ll be well on your way to a better, more brilliant tribe of engaged followers on instagram. 

Have questions? Comment below. Want to join a tribe of supportive women? You’re welcome to join the club! 

Toodle pip!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

FREE Instagram Training – Top 15 Tips: Part 2

Did you miss Part 1? Click the link to read the first six tips! 


In the first post of this series, I discussed the first 6 of 15 tips to grow your instagram. Let’s jump right into the next five! 

7. Engage your niche

Get to know your audience and other content creators in your niche. You probably already know you should do that, but how, exactly? Start by going into the hashtags of your posts and find other creators. Comment! Ask questions! It is best to spend five minutes a day getting to know other people. Are you a makeup blogger who admires someone artwork? Send them a message and ask if you can do a makeup look inspired by their creation! It is always flattering to see your content inspire someone else to create something more (But remember, ALWAYS ask permission and ALWAYS credit appropriately). By getting to know your community in the daily interactions, you will naturally thrive and grow organically. 


ALWAYS ask permission and ALWAYS credit appropriately.

8. Interact with your audience

When you post, try asking your audience an open-ended question. (For a quick refresher, an open-ended question cannot be answer by “yes” or “no.”) Simple posts asking “Which is your fave? A or B?” or “Using one word, describe your day!” are effective because they require very little feedback from your followers. One word or simple answers are best for the casual follower. Be sure to reply and like every answer you receive on any of your posts. Your followers and their interaction are golden, so treat them like royalty! 

9. Utilize Videos

Using video on instagram is a great way to increase engagement. It also allows your viewers to see a different side to you. I can’t give you advice on what to post in your videos, but I can tell you how to spiffy it up! First of all, youtube is a great resource for learning how to edit. My current favorite video app is InShot. For a few dollars, you can purchase the pro version and access many more features and eliminate their watermark from any saved files. If you have any specific questions about videos, ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. 

10. Add to your Story

Since the change a few updates ago, Instagram has jumped into the story-like format, mimicking the very popular Snapchat. Since this addition, almost all of the accounts I follow utilize this feature. It’s a great way to let people into things like “behind the scenes,” “a day in the life of,” and offer teasers for upcoming content. You can make announcements for your blog, go live for a demo . . . the sky is the limit! This is a great place to let loose and have fun. Unless your instagram is only about being comical or sarcastic, be consistent to a theme and keep your feed in accordance with your theme. In your Story, however, you can be whatever you want! 

11. Use the available Tools

There are a lot of apps out there that are helpful to someone who really wants to take their instagram to the next level. In my upcoming Instagram Training, I’ll be taking you through a deep-dive of my favorites with live demos and more. But here, I want to focus on just a few. (Keep in mind that I have an Android phone, but most apps available for Android are also for iphone as well.) 

For quick reference for hashtags, try a hashtag app! Hashme, All-Hashtag, and Display Purposes are all great places to start. Sometimes, you will get suggestions that are completely useless. That’s the downfall to automatic algorithms. But what they lack in perfection, they make up in ease. Simply weed out the ones you won’t use, copy, and (here’s the magic) paste it into your notepad app. That way, you don’t have to keep waiting and weeding out results. You can just copy and paste at the end of your post! Be sure to check the relevancy of your hashtags at least once a month and update your notepad “cheat sheet.” 

That’s it for this post! Subscribe for part 3, the conclusion. If you want to dig deeper with direct mentorship, post prompts, photography tips, and more, then be sure to join my Facebook group to take advantage of my FREE training course!

Ciao! 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Best Gifts for D&D Lovers

So – you have someone in your life who just looooooves the world’s greatest roleplaying game. Maybe that makes sense to you. Maybe it doesn’t. Either way, I’ve curated some pretty cool stuff for the roleplaying gamer in your life, perfect for Christmas, birthdays, or anytime you want brownie points. (Kiss up to the DM, maybe?)

This post may contain affiliate links. (Spoiler alert: it does.) For the legal jargon (and my personal stance on recommendations) click here. 

1. Party Mug

Trust me, any D&D player will definitely appreciate the humor in this amazing mug.  Label it as a “measuring mug for healing potions” for critical effect!

2. Player’s Travel Bag 

Any prepared player has several things they take with them: a handbook, characters sheets, dice, spell sheets, a notebook, dice, writing utensils, mini figures, and have I mentioned dice? (More on dice later!) This bag looks small, but it really does fit two standard books inside, three if you squeeze. It really let’s you keep all the necessities in one, easily portable bag for going to your friend’s place to play.

3. Awesome Dice Bag 

Since playing DnD, I caught something, a bug, a virus. It worms its way down into the very fiber of your soul. Like tapeworms, I guess. But instead of craving food, you must. Have. DICE. ALL THE DICE. And every DnD player I have met has a respectable fear of this disease or infestation. It can become a real problem. Oh, and in case I’m not clear, I don’t mean hoarding all of the dice is a problem; I meant storing and transporting them can be a real pain.  This dice bag not only holds up to 300 dice, it has POCKETS to SORT your various and sundry dice, and it comes in eight different colors. Go take a gander yerself here. 

4. 100-side Die

You don’t get to roll a 100-sided die (called a D100) very often, but trust me: it is way more satisfying to be able to whip out one of these polyhedral giants and let ‘er rip versus pressing a button on your app.  Imagine it: pressing a button and instantly having some randomizer algorithm provide with any number between 1 and 100, or watching the fate of your character, your entire party, and ultimately the entire game universe literally roll across the table in front you! Get the die.

5. A Fuzzy Blanket

I was recently gifted this exact blanket, and let me tell you, it is FUZZY.  In fact, I have had it with me for four constant days. I rue the day I will have to wash it, but at this rate, I fear it is coming soon.  I know it isn’t available online, but I can’t help but sing it’s praises. Everyone needs an awesome blanket like this. It is the perfect accompaniment to playing and pretending it’s the skin of a soft, fuzzy beast. Since it isn’t going to be available everywhere, here are some pretty great options, too! 

6. More Dice

Duh! You should have expected this to be on the list. I mean, I sort of listed a single die above, but that doesn’t count. My favorite dice are from Kraken, which you can find at www.krakendice.com. If you can’t find the perfect fit there, Chessex makes my second favorite dice! Of course, this little things only matter to dice connoisseurs. For someone who doesn’t have a robust collection, these are actually really great!  They are even good for the seasoned player who likes to have extras on hand for newcomers (because who wants to let someone else use up all the luck in your dice?) or DMs.

7. Character Notebook

This has got to be the coolest and most fun way to keep track of character inventory. Any RPGer would be happy to have this in their arsenal. And you are supporting an individual artist who can keep making more awesome things like this! Snag this here!

8. Dice Earrings

Yes, all of your geeky jewelry dreams have come true. Who DOESN’T want a dodecahedron hanging from their earlobes?! And yes, I promise that’s a real word. Enter jewelry Valhalla here.

9. Erasable Gel Pens 

Roleplayers do a lot of writing, which comes with its fair share of erasing. Pencils are great, and easy to come by. But an erasable gel pen? This stuff is gold, and it blows peoples minds whenever I bring it to a session and they see it do its magic for the first time. It just brings something to the table when you can write with the finality of pen, the smoothness of gel, and any color you want – but still have the confidence to know you can erase it, just in case.

BONUS ITEM!

10. This Awesome Shirt

This shirt is super comfy, unisex, and available in ten colors and in sizes XS – 4X so that anyone can flaunt their love of the dice. (It is also designed by yours truly!)

So there you have it! Ten awesome things I think any RPGer would love to have gifted to them, no matter the occasion. My favorite holiday is DM Appreciation Day, colloquially known as “thanks for not killing my character” day. Word of advice: celebrate often.

Cheers!