Think you can’t work with brands as a nano influencer? Think again! Even with less than 2000 followers, today’s guest was able to start getting paid by brands, and I mean cash money – not just free products. Meet Kabrena Williams, lifestyle blogger and content creator, who is able to woo brands by proving her content is unique and her community is authentic. Kabrena is sharing all about landing her first paid partnership, how she writes her pitch emails, and how she’s making money on Pinterest. If you have less than 10k followers, this episode is a MUST LISTEN!
Special Guest:
Kabrena Williams, KB in Bloom
Key Topics:
- How Kabrena landed her first brand deal.
- Transitioning from product-only sponsorships to paid sponsorships.
- How Kabrena’s husband helped her get her first paid deal.
- Tips for pitching to brands.
- Using Pinterest to land brand deals.
Mentioned in this Episode:
(The following links may contain affiliate links and I may earn a commission if you make a purchase)
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Transcript
Mindy Marzec 0:01
Hello and welcome to episode 43 of the joy of content podcast. This is Mindy and I’m excited to bring you today’s episode all about working with brands as a small content creator. I’m sure that some of you are under the impression that you have to have 10,000 or more followers on Instagram, Tik Tok, whatever platform you are on in order to start working with brands and that is simply not true and today’s guest proves it. Her name is Kabrena Williams. Her brand is KB in bloom. You can find her on Instagram you can go to KB in bloom.com. She is a lifestyle creator who specializes I would say she specializes in self care primarily for black women. But I will say that I love the advice that she gives on her blog and on her Instagram and on her Tik Tok, which you can look all of them up at KB in bloom. But she’s here today to talk about how she got started. With working with brands as a small creator. And her story is very, very inspiring. We met in a Facebook group called boss fluence that is run by the incredible Mattie James she is also a lifestyle creator and she teaches influencer marketing and she’s fantastic and this community that she’s built on Facebook has been a really wonderful resource for me. And so I met Kabrena in there and I’m so glad that she agreed to come on the podcast because I really love her energy. I love what she has to say about content creation. She’s just down to earth. Just super relatable and I hope that you really enjoy this interview with Kabrena. So without further ado, I will turn it over to her. This is Kabrena from KB and bloom talking about working with brands as a small creator. Hey there Kabrena, welcome to the show.
Kabrena Williams 2:13
Hi, Mindy. How are you?
Mindy Marzec 2:15
I’m doing well today. How are you?
Kabrena Williams 2:18
Oh, it’s Monday. I’m doing pretty good. Lots to do, but I am taking it. Hour by hour, minute by minute.
Mindy Marzec 2:28
Exactly. Yeah, we’re recording this kinda like first thing on a Monday morning. But you know what, usually my Monday mornings are kind of slow. Like I ease into it. And I kind of like that I’m doing an interview and we’re getting kind of tight for for this topic right at the beginning of the week. So thank you for making time to come on the show.
Kabrena Williams 2:48
Oh my goodness. I am I’m so elated to be here. There’s this is the best way to start my week. So I’m just like excited to talk about it because it’s been in my mind and I’m just kind of writing is saying the words
Mindy Marzec 3:03
out there. Yes. All about helping each other. So before we get into the main topic of this episode, which is going to be how nano influencers can work with brands and just general advice for getting started as a nano influencer and we’ll talk about that term a little later. But before we get into all that, Kabrena, can you please introduce yourself tell us all about you about your business, how you got started, etc.
Kabrena Williams 3:32
My name is Kabrena. Kabrena Williams. Some people most people call me KB. It’s been my name since high school. I’m the founder of KB in bloom, a lifestyle blog founded on self care for black women. And I got started and this I would never say crazy. But I am a forever student and content creation blogging world and I got started about two years ago. At the peak of COVID. I was laid off from my job. I was Yeah, I was super upset and the way I was laid off but I’ve been kind of working on a business on the side. It wasn’t a KB in bloom. But I had this idea that eventually I am going to be working for myself. So when I got laid off it was perfect timing. Not in the way that I would want it to be but I in the eye of just knowing that this is this is a catalyst that I need to get full into, you know, entrepreneurship. I did not for one second think that it would be blogging. I really didn’t at that point understand it, but it was when I started looking at my sister’s account, actually she was blogging and I asked her kind of what was her purpose? And she told me, you know, she wants to monetize and I was like monetize. And she was like, You know what, since you’re asking me about this category, you would really be good at it like you take great pictures you would have you have so much to say people always coming to you for questions and and recommendations on what to wear or where to go or are things to do in the area. Outside of the area. You really good isn’t I was like, but she didn’t have a website, right? She had Instagram and so I thought blogging was on Instagram. And so I just really nailed niche down to Instagram. But I really didn’t understand that it’s it’s more than that. What were what I know. What I now know is that Instagram is really just like microblogging but having your website I didn’t understand that piece either. I thought it was just like a formality check, really. And then I said to myself, There’s something about having a website that’s more important. And I know that there’s a such thing as blogging or being a blogger, and I just started googling. I started Googling why is it important to have a blog? Do you know, the very beginner steps of some SEO I was really just wondering, what is it and all that came up was, you know, blog websites, bloggers, and so I said, you know, what can I do to really learn more about it? I got into a community on Facebook, long story short, and I heard the term I see Oh, and that sent me. This was nine months later after I really was just devoting to Instagram and much later I found out what a website having a website meant and how you can monetize it and I’ve never looked back since now today having my blog is my number one my content strategies like really pushing out content on my blog, KB alone. And then Instagram comes second and then Pinterest as my clothes I guess runner up. I hope that answered your question. I kind of went off there.
Mindy Marzec 6:57
No, no, I love it. I was like, I’m always fascinated by how people get started. Because I don’t think, you know, as little kids like no one grows up and they’re just like, I want to be a blogger when I grew up. Well, maybe they do now. But no one’s just like I want to start a website and make that my business. So it it has to start there have like you said there sort of has to be a catalyst for it. And we definitely have that in common where we were both laid off from our day jobs and mine was several years ago but being laid off during the pandemic I’m assuming was probably pretty scary. Yeah, yeah, it was.
Kabrena Williams 7:34
It was traumatizing. And I’m not gonna lie play with my mental a little bit, just the the manner in which I was laid off. It really poked at my just my character and I thought, you know, I’m never going to trust corporate again, I can’t work in this type of setting where all you’re viewed as is a number. So I just made it my business to really learn how to be like, not just a content creator but how to be good how to how to lead how to if I were to you know, really have my first employee with kB and how to really make them feel valued. And I felt that was something I’m I want to do eventually because I did not feel like that. When I was working in corporate America. So I think that it taught me gave me a lot of takeaways and lessons and definitely something that you know, for so many people, you know, it’s not easy to move on from something like that, but it definitely made me think about how can I pour into my my business so if I were ever have someone as an employee, how can I keep them? So that’s pretty it’s pretty important to me.
Mindy Marzec 8:49
And I so glad you brought that up because we’re definitely going on a tangent now, but we’ll circle back. Yes, but I just wanna I just want to say how important this is because and I really love hearing this from my fellow online entrepreneurs is that they think one of the reasons I wanted to start my online business was not only to work for myself and have that flexibility and that freedom and not be beholden to a corporation, but also so that I can be successful enough to do that for other people to bring on employees where I can, I can treat them right, right. That’s what it boils down to. So good, so good. I definitely hope to be that type of entrepreneur and boss some day but yeah, let’s get back to your well let’s start with Instagram. So when you got laid off, you said you were already kind of having a little bit of an exit plan. Did you already have your Instagram at that point?
Kabrena Williams 9:46
So when I got laid off, I had another business that I was doing on the side and that was actually one of the things that my job didn’t like was that they found that I had a business that no, it had nothing to do with what I was doing. So I don’t know why they were upset about it, but I have different business. Okay, so once I really switched gears and got into KB and bloom, I had to you know, fall to the appropriate necessary work file for an LLC get my domain all of that and it was towards the end of 2020 that I really had just made my page completely revamped and had people that were following me, let them know that this is what this is. About. This is not just me to post pictures anymore. I kept my personal and made into came in bloom and I just I switched gears. I completely turn things around and it made me I needed to have a space so that’s what I did on Instagram.
Mindy Marzec 10:45
Perfect and I I’m looking through your photos and your sisters right you take beautiful photos you were meant to be on Instagram and we’re big fans of self care over here. So I love it all. I love it also, let’s talk about that beginning because I think a lot of people you know they get started on Instagram they have a day get their first 1000 followers and then they’re just like, Okay, how how can I start making money? Like when does the money roll in? So can you talk about maybe your experience like when was for example, when was the first time you started working with a brand? Ooh,
Kabrena Williams 11:19
the first brand. I believe it was a small business owner and I didn’t know what I was talking about. I was just faking it. So I made it and I was approaching them like I you know I really had it in the bag and she was a jewelry you know she had earrings and she offered a pair of earrings for me to post and exchange for posts and I was happily I said yes, I read to my computer. I couldn’t say yes fast enough. And I posted that I was like why didn’t you pay for this but at least I’m establishing some type of authority that I work with brands and that if brand was viewing my page they would know that I have experienced so yeah, I did a couple I’d actually I’m not gonna say a couple I did probably maybe five more free things. And then I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. I got into like a Facebook group. Boss once and I said there are people posted about how to get paid things. And I have not even thought about that. I didn’t I didn’t know that that was something he could actually do at my stage in my business. And I realized that I have to switch things around. I have to approach it with intentionality and look at not just elevating the aesthetic of my Instagram feed but also just really being intentional with how I post things when I post them. And I started really investing in a photographer so I started taking pictures quarterly. I started being very intentional with how those pictures were posted and what I was taking on my photoshoots and when I had come some great feedback from my community. That’s my I was like okay, I have some, some really great photos. Now let me start pitching brands. And that’s when I was like, Well, I don’t know of a price. You know, you just don’t know what rate to say to begin that first time. You don’t know what to say. And so I just kind of, again, faked it. I said a rate and I got a lot of nose and I was like well you know this is it isn’t easy, and it’s kind of like it’s becoming a little redundant sending out some of the pitching, you know, emails and what got my first yes was August 2021. So it was like a full year. And hey, I saw this brain and it was like one of the first times that I was, you know, out and about, you know, still in the middle of the pandemic, but the second here, and so change and my husband spotted a brand who was I guess promoting a product and he was like you have to go right now. Stop what you’re doing in pitch them right now in person the time is now. Now is I really like it’s my newer vacation is how’s it is hot outside. I really was like, just I was I was making excuses. And he was like No, you’re ready now you’re good talker. They will they will know that you’re the perfect content creator and bloggers who work with let them know what you bring to the table. So I want to walk up to them and introduce myself, the guy who I was talking to had no idea what I was talking about. But he didn’t know enough when he heard influencer blogging site. We had someone that was supposed to come out and promote our product and she just dropped the ball. She never showed up. So I’m going to say this is a good sign. Here’s the card. I looked at it walked away there was no email on it. I don’t I don’t know how. So I had to reverse into Google engineer and found the content contacts and made that email and I guess they were very new and had a budget and I mean I said the right in close my eyes and close the computer and they agree and it’s been it’s given me the confidence to know that it doesn’t matter. You know, the number of followers, you know, brand is gonna want to work with you. They’re looking at your engagement. They’re looking at your consistency. They’re looking at your heartfelt captions that pull people in that’s what I think good authentic brands that really care about that, that that is what they care about. Obviously, some are pushing, you know, the number of cells and all that but for this particular brand, they were just really interested in knowing if I could educate effectively and get people to know about their product.
Mindy Marzec 15:53
Oh my gosh, okay. What a story. First of all, I have so many comments on that. But the first one I want to say is I love that he were You were like it was August 2021 Like it circled on your calendar. First brand deal.
Kabrena Williams 16:08
Yes, I do remember this.
Mindy Marzec 16:10
I love it. I love it. And I also want to point out that you your partner believed in you more than you believed in you, which I think is something that’s very relatable at least I relate to it.
Kabrena Williams 16:24
Yeah, I didn’t think I was ready. I had been posting content and a lot of people thought I had already worked with brands like but I just I hadn’t worked with anything paid and I I just was like there’s no way that they’re gonna take a look at my page and, and and not want to work with me. But they did. They did
Mindy Marzec 16:46
it just shows were so hard on ourselves and other people definitely see us differently. And so I just want to point that out to everybody who’s listening, like hopefully, you know, maybe you have a partner or a best friend or someone you can lean on who can really push you to be like, Yes, take those risks. I love that for you. And can you do you remember approximately how many followers you had on Instagram when you approached that that first paid brand?
Kabrena Williams 17:15
Probably had 1500 followers and I worked hard for those followers.
Mindy Marzec 17:20
Oh yeah, for sure. And
Kabrena Williams 17:23
they they told me they they’re represented by an agency and the agency told me we don’t care about your followers, we see that your content is good. And we’re new ourselves in this influencer marketing space, but we do know that the quality speaks very loudly on your page. So we want to because of that, and they paid me my high almost four figure rate. And yeah, and every time that I’ve worked with them, I’ve increased my rate and they say yes, every time which makes me think they probably have a huge budget.
Mindy Marzec 18:01
At this point, you could be asking for more but but I think it’s good you build those relationships and you know, that brand gave you your first paid partnership and I think there’s something to be said about having that rapport for people who trusted you at the beginning. And yeah, you can slide them a little discount to help them out. Sure. Yeah. Okay. So have you I’m assuming you’ve worked with other brands said yes, yes. Yes. So how do you go about can we talk a little bit about how you go about pitching a brand and what you what your what you list as your value when you have a more of a smaller following. So let’s say you have those 1500 followers and you worked really hard for them and you’re you’ve spent over a year creating content, and now you’re ready to pitch your brand via email. I think a lot of people would be shy about that following and they would talk themselves out of it like oh, I only have 1500 Even though you’ve proven that brands will work with people with Nano influencers so can you maybe give some advice on how you pitch?
Kabrena Williams 19:14
Yeah, actually, a lot of what I do, I make sure that I research that brand that I’m about to pitch and then it has to be a brand that just really aligns with the mission and values of caveum balloon like I’m a business too. And I’m just approaching a business that’s, you know, bigger than mine, but I’m a business and so I’m approaching them like a businesswoman and I’m telling them the value of what working with me with brain it would bring them an audience that they probably have never thought about tapping into black woman and the value. Another point that I try to bring home in terms of value is my higher engagement. And then I point them to different ways to work with me so not just Instagram. I have a blog, you know, check out my blog, and I have that ready, so I don’t have to get ready. So I mean, what I mean by that is that my blog is I’ve worked really hard on making it look like a business so when you look on there, you know there’s things like press there’s things like ways to work with me. There’s pages like contact me there’s, there’s things that they can look at and be like, Oh, okay, I can’t I don’t think I could get by with offering her something for free. So I make sure that I give them all of that email I even mildly into. Here’s here’s just one idea I had with working. Here’s what I did that I have working with you. I would love to chat more and feel free. I mentioned this in my story. Here’s a snapshot of that engagement or like, I just give them different things to just be like okay, she’s really done her research like I would love to work with her. And then I just make sure if they’re, you know, they need examples. I can give a few examples because people want the answers delivered to them. They don’t want to have to go on a hunt like people are lazy so I can post you know, screenshots and things if that’s some some if that’s helpful for them if they’re like going back and forth. And then I’m ready at whatever point to give them my rate sheet and media kit once they ask never never at first. For sure. Sure.
Mindy Marzec 21:31
You touched on it a little bit but one of the best pieces of advice I heard at a conference in my very, very early days of blogging, regarding pitching to brands is make it easy for them. Give them all the information upfront that they might possibly need, including your ideas for the content and the value that you’re going to bring the brand. Just put it all in in that initial email. So all they have to do is reply. Yes.
Kabrena Williams 22:00
And they love to know that you you’ve used their product before like, I sent an email to invite a vitamin company and I was like I love the flavor. And since my purchase my husband makes make art make sure it’s helped me every morning how much he loves it. You don’t I mean, I just kind of go on and make it seem like it’s naturally embedded into my routine everyday like why wouldn’t you want to? Why would you want to work with me? So I just make sure it’s natural. It comes off really authentic and they can read it like I don’t take too much of their time. It’s like short paragraphs easy and straight to the point.
Mindy Marzec 22:38
Perfect and you said the magic word which is authentic. Like when you’re working with a brand. You don’t necessarily want to pitch a brand that you haven’t used or you wouldn’t you know, tell a friend that you recommend them you want to make sure that it is and it it comes from a place of authenticity that look I actually do use and love your product or I like your hotel chain or I whatever the issue is like yes, I use it and I can authentically tell my community about how much I love this product.
Kabrena Williams 23:12
Absolutely. It really makes the world of difference.
Mindy Marzec 23:15
So you mentioned earlier so you have your blog, you have your Instagram, and you also mentioned Pinterest. Yeah, can you talk about how you use Pinterest a little bit because I’m going to be honest, I’m I’m mad at Pinterest, Pinterest and I are in a fight right now. So please inspire me please this by me. Okay, so you know, I’ve been a blogger for a long time over 10 years and Pinterest was amazing at driving traffic to my blog. And then they brought in IDEA pins and all of my traffic disappeared. So Sabrina please tell me how you’re using Pinterest. Maybe I can. I can maybe our love affair can start back up again. But yeah, how do you use Pinterest for your brand?
Kabrena Williams 23:56
I use it as part of my content. strategy. So one of the things that I do is and I recruit some help, I’m not gonna lie because Pinterest is so frustrating for me.
Mindy Marzec 24:08
Okay, and so it’s not just me I’m not alone. Oh, yeah, like
Kabrena Williams 24:11
I couldn’t understand it like my, my saves and outlet out you know the clicks out to my blog, which is which is one don’t like over a span of like couple of days but what I’m doing now with some experts call them is just like every blog post that I do create. I might create an ID idea pin but I also create a lot of you know, those static pins and that paired with
Kabrena Williams 24:41
SEO attached to it. So using those words that are the main keywords and having a good good variety of boards that has SEO as far as what are some things that people are searching for on Pinterest it just says since it is a visual search engine, like I just look up things that I know I can put to my board that makes sense that I know people are searching for on Pinterest. So I for every blog post at least two to three pins. And what I’ve done because I had something that went semi viral is it was around January and the blog post was kind of like a Valentine’s Day like night in here are some romantic date ideas and I created that pin in January and it just took off by the time Valentine’s came around. It just went crazy. So I got a lot of clicks out to my blog, but I just think of like planning content, month to two months before you know a seasonal holiday or theme. And then making sure my board descriptions have that you know those words that really are searchable that people already are searching on Pinterest and then just obviously you want to make it nice and pretty with the fonts and you know the main keywords that you’re using on your on your own pin, and that’s what helped me but I haven’t I would say I’ve just been doing this for I’m not gonna lie for a couple months and my impressions and saves have gone like through the roof like where I was before I started doing this and where I am now like night and day and I like Pinterest Pinterest is definitely shifting kind of what I what I plan to do with it with my blog like I want to continue to to work with it because it seems to like me.
Mindy Marzec 26:37
Good Hey, you know if it’s working for you, the more power to you but I I’m just curious you said you you make a couple pins for every blog post Do you do you make an idea pen for your posts or how do you use IDEA pens if you don’t mind me asking.
Kabrena Williams 26:52
I use them for like I have on my blog like affirmations or like a round up of like a sort of review. So I’ll use my did his for things like that. For quotes for affirmations for self love self care nodes, and recipes I use my Pinterest for recipes for the lifestyle content and like I said self help books. I plan on doing it for that so anything I have a list of those are really good because okay, I don’t put everything out but it gets people wanting to go and look at my blog and I’ve gotten a lot of subscribers and I think it has to do with Pinterest. I have some look at my analytics Bo
Mindy Marzec 27:37
know No, no, but I mean view I think you you the light bulb went on over my head where you said you know lists work really well and you give them a couple of the list ideas and then you say Visit KB and bloom for the rest of list. Yep,
Kabrena Williams 27:53
yes. Yes, I do. And it just it helps. It helps me with just being consistent in the way that I do it. And like I said, I know it’s frustrating because you can’t actually it was idea pins you can actually click to them. That’s the frustrating part. So I make sure that I create equally aesthetically pleasing like pins and that helps me get there because like I don’t put everything into the idea pins because I can’t get those clicks but I do put a lot you know a lot more effort into the third just regular pins because like I said when a pin went semi viral I was like you couldn’t tell me what to think [laughs]
Mindy Marzec
It’s funny I will say so I did say I don’t like Pinterest. But the time we’re recording this it’s almost St. Patrick’s Day. And I wrote a an article about a couple St. Patrick’s Day cocktails that you can make at home. And I don’t do anything to that article. But every year around this time, I start getting hundreds of clicks from Pinterest from a pin that I made like seven years ago. So
Kabrena Williams
yeah, and what I’ve been told with Pinterest, and I don’t know if a lot of bloggers just don’t know this, but like it takes seven weeks for your pants to get indexed on Pinterest. So really, yeah, I’ve been told this and I, I started like, ooh, summer spring, back content is going out now. So if you see on my blog on KVM below all of that you see starting to see spring stuff. You’re starting to see summer stuff and I’m not like I’m pushing it out now. Because I want my pins. I want people to see this though. Like we put a lot of work.
Mindy Marzec
Yeah, you have to kind of plan two months in advance. And can I even say, like the like you could have an article let’s say you have some or activity article that you wrote last year. In February, you can make a new pin image and put it on Pinterest and link it to that article you wrote last year and it will that will still gain traction to
Kabrena Williams
exactly yeah, you really got to think smart about like how to not out you don’t have to scrap what you already have like repurpose it.
Mindy Marzec
I love repurposing. Oh yeah, perfect, perfect. Okay, so Instagram and Pinterest and working with brands. Oh, I have one. One final question about Pinterest. Do you ever pitch that to a brand like a sponsored pen?
Kabrena Williams
I do. And I’ve gotten paid for that too. I’ve worked with two brands so far that are like, oh, you know, one of the things I think brands like I won’t say every brand, but the smart ones that understand evergreen content. They know that they’re going to be reaping the benefits years later. So they want they want those pins or later on that blog post because I’ve had brands ask me to write a blog post. And that has helped me leverage myself when I’m pitching like this is what I offer. Other like I’m not like other bloggers like I have this too. So like it helps so much. It makes you feel a lot more confident.
Mindy Marzec
I just love that you’re saying this because I definitely encourage people to think outside of Instagram, and how else you can offer content and partnerships to brands because yeah, Instagram disappears. It has like a shelf life of like, what 48 hours maybe on a regular post they’ll maybe a couple months for real but your blog and Pinterest those live on in search results for ever. Basically,
Kabrena Williams
I love Google and I love Pinterest. And if I do anything right it’s going to be knowing how to do those two like that. That is my my best my bread and butter is understanding that like so important.
Mindy Marzec
Yeah, this the search engine capabilities of both Google and Pinterest because Pinterest is a search engine and it’s not a social media platform no matter how hard they try.
Kabrena Williams
They really want to be one they really do.
Mindy Marzec
They’re really really trying hard, but it’s I don’t think it’s gonna happen Pinterest, but anyway, so we talked about working with brands, but I also want to, I always encourage people to have their own products and their own services. And you have that as well. Can you tell us a little bit about the products and services that you created and how did you first develop them like Did you see a need in your community? Or how did you get started with those?
Kabrena Williams
It’s It’s so interesting, because I I don’t know I just kind of was like you know, when you have those months where you don’t have income from brands, and you just start thinking what else is there? And then it’s like, for some for whatever reason, there’s just a lot of people that think that they can’t sell anything on their site until they reach a certain you know, milestone, whether that is number of sessions on their page or number of followers on Instagram, and I just was like I’m not like that, like I’m about to sell now. And I just wanted to approach it differently with the products that I chose to go on my site I didn’t want to participate kind of in that comment entrepreneurial item with shirts I wanted it to be to feel very authentic and very true to me. And so first that was like my my number one thing I wanted to make sure is that whatever I sell I just don’t want to be like, This is what everybody else is doing to like I had, it was very intentional. And I thought about the brands that I work with free and once they paid me and I was just like self care is super important to me and I just thought of things products, unconventional products that people would appreciate. And so from there I had my first physical product that I sold on so funny because you mentioned how I remember dates. I thought this is the one is another one I sold my first physical products on June t 2021. I almost sold out and I was like This is crazy. I work with the local soap artisan and we collaborated on it. And she’s my friend too. So the scent that she created for me was something she wasn’t going to replicate but when I swipe put it out, I was just like, you know who’s working out and I just kept hearing like ding ding ding on my phone. Oh my god. It was people buying a product like I didn’t even have 2000 followers yet and I was people people understood what I was doing and just it just resonated but that and so I just focus on just one product. And once I saw that, that one Well, I started thinking about other things. Like what can I sell like in the digital space? Because I tried that with my other business. It just didn’t go well but I was like, I’m gonna attack this. And I’m going to attack it with intention, but also like, what is it from what I offer on the blog for free people would like to buy and so I came up with a book and that was one of my favorite things that I do on the blog is write affirmations and that just took off to like I got so many sales and so bad is forever like I don’t have to keep recreating that. And so a couple of other digital items I put out with it and I just I just like that that was something as hard as it was to create it sit down and do it. Do illegal steps to protect my you know my name and my words. I just made sure that you know, this is something that I love to do. And if I’m going to put out something it’s going to be something that people already resonate with, which is something elevated. So that seemed to be really well. As far as services in the future. I don’t have any now on the blog, but I will say once I’m able, I’m at the stage of my business where I can scale it and how like maybe one full time employee or something I would love to to have like what do you call like create some type of course on self care? I don’t know exactly. But I just I just know I like to talk and I like to teach people things and I have a lot to say and I and I just I think people really like that. So that’s something that I think that I would do as a service. I could never be like one on one, like teaching and live consents a lot of work. You know I do that now as a behavior analyst like I am in the field where I’m working one on one with clients and and I don’t know if I can do that have that level of of like supporting someone else right now at this stage. Or even with like help. I just feel like I like the idea of creating some type of course in the future but we’ll see we’ll see.
Mindy Marzec
So good. Like she’s got it all planned out. She knows what she wants. No, I like we love passive income. So when you were talking about how you were working out and making sales, it’s just like yes, that is the goal. That is the goal. And you know you can tell just, you know, talking to you that you have a real passion for this and I’m sure your community that you’ve built and you know we say 2000 Like it’s such a small number but it’s not a picture 2000 people in a room staring at you. That’s a lot of people. So you know, Bill and it was hard work to build up that community and they obviously love you and I bet you know what I bet happened is you said I’m developing this soap with this with a friend of mine and it’s going to be an exclusive sets and I’m so excited about it. I bet a lot of your community members were just like, You know what, I’ve been friends online with Kabrena for a while and I just want to support her in some way. I don’t care what she’s selling. I just want to support her. You know,
Kabrena Williams
you’re really good because I did something similar to that. I was very open and disclosed. The process I kind of lead up to a reveal and gather them and I reeled them in and I just I the day that I launched it and posted about it. I did a little commercial you know I just filmed a video you know, just learning like if I were L’Oreal like we would have promo so I had no promo video and then I think everyone that helps from making the soap labels to the self artists and to everybody and people are like oh my gosh, like, like they were they it was as if I had one like some big prize like they were just oh my gosh, this is so amazing. I love this idea. And the smell and he has it. That’s all it took was just being very personable.
Mindy Marzec
Yeah, personable authentic, organic marketing, like all of that. Sounds great. Okay, well, we’ve definitely gone over time and I want to I want to thank you for for being so willing to talk. This was wonderful. But before we wrap up Kabrena, do you have any final thoughts for that nano influencer out there? Oh, we never even really talked about that what that is what what is the definition of a nano influencer,
Kabrena Williams
a nano influencer from my understanding and I hate that there’s like these brackets of how people describe each each level of lighting but I take it as someone that has under 10,000 followers, and yeah, that’s kind of how I how I always kind of assumed
Mindy Marzec
that’s what I’ve heard too. But so let’s say someone let’s say someone’s in a position like you are. They’ve been working for a couple years. They have a couple 1000 followers, they worked really hard to get them and they’re just feeling they’re feeling like they’re struggling. And you’ve been so inspiring with this conversation. But do you have just like one piece of advice to someone who might be out there and feeling like they’re struggling with growing their brand and growing their business? What would you say to them?
Kabrena Williams
I am going to say and it might be more than one thing, but I’m going to say something that my husband said to me and he said you only need one yes and for me, that’s that was a lightbulb moment for a couple of reasons. One of them is because I felt I had to please all these brands like I had to, to create content that you know, spoke to this brand as opposed to that brand. And I was forgetting about KB bloom. Like why I started this. It was at first a little journal, what happened to me and how I went to the route of self care and how it’s important, but I started to think that this is about women that look like me, that probably hasn’t had someone to talk to them. Like their friend. And so you need to do better. You need to take care of you. And that made pitching brands easier because I realized they need my audience more than I need theirs.
Mindy Marzec
Oh Say that again. Say that again.
Kabrena Williams
They need my audience more than I need theirs and that was so powerful to me because I think that brands like to feel nice and hearty and powerful but like at the end of the day people are organically fallen follow me you probably that looked like me. So you need you need my audience and I’m going to let you know that and attacker manner but I’m gonna help me, you know, restore confidence in myself and I was like, I do need just one. Yes. We’re going to get it and when I do I’m going to knock their socks off. I was not just about posting things that I saw another content creator do. I’m very creative with my campaigns and I’d like to just get the broom shaken up a little bit like I am not gonna just post a product with me. I’m going to really make them feel like wow, she really blew it out of the park. So I have that you know, like really like letting them know that you picked the right girl the right blog for the mission and getting that one yes. Was was all I need to hear. creating that content. And that one yes and your business whatever level you are in your business, that’s all you need. And then like be authentic to yourself in the end, why you started your blog and how that is a huge deal to know what your what your what your purpose is. On this platform or on your blog. Like Like don’t try to be like the next person like be who you are. And brands are going to want that.
Mindy Marzec
Perfect. Perfect messaging. I love it. You just need that one. Yes. You know what, no matter what stage you’re at, you could be someone with 100,000 followers and feeling down because you got a bunch of noes lately. You just have to keep working towards that one. Yes, right. For sure.
Kabrena Williams
For sure. This applies to anyone but my nano influencers it’s so hard because you just feel like all you’re given is free, free free affiliate affiliate which you can make a lot of money with affiliate, but I just think that there are some nano influencers killing it. And I’m going to be the one to ensure that we get paid things so that they see that representation.
Mindy Marzec
Yeah, but you’re definitely crushing it and I can’t thank you enough for coming. On the show and sharing this wonderful advice where let everyone know where they can find you online.
Kabrena Williams
Oh, you can find me on Instagram at KB in bloom you can follow me on Pinterest. You can just search KB in bloom and then of course my blog thing that own kbinbloom.com. And you can subscribe to the blogging community. I send self care know once a week and promote blog posts. Some of the things that I do are first announced through my email list so definitely get on that and we’re growing thanks to the hard work that I’m putting with SEO like we’re growing. So get on kbinbloom.com and follow me on Pinterest and Facebook and, I mean Instagram.
Mindy Marzec
She’s everywhere folks. Okay. Perfect. Thank you again. This was really wonderful. Thank you for taking the time to come and chat with me and my listeners.
Kabrena Williams
Absolutely. I’ve enjoyed our conversation.
Mindy Marzec
Once again, thank you to Kabrena Williams for coming on the joy of content podcast. This was a really fantastic discussion. about pitching about just how to look at your blog and Instagram in general. And I’m just so glad that Kabrena made time in her schedule to come and chat with us. And I hope that you enjoyed it. So for all of you nano influencers out there who have 1000 or 2000 followers or less. I hope that this inspired you to just keep going keep creating, get yourself out of your comfort zone, lean on your partner or a friend if you have to to give you a little push like Kabrena’s husband did for her. I love that story. And I just hope that you realize that your community is valuable. And what you have to offer to brands is valuable, no matter what level you are at. So keep creating. I’m very proud of you. I hope that you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to follow Kabrena at KB and bloom and check out her website KB in bloom.com. And also follow us join him content on Instagram and Tik Tok at joy of content and you can find show notes at joy of content.com. So for now, thank you so much for being here. Remember to always use your influence for good and I will see you on the next episode. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai