Posted by “Entrepreneurship isn’t necessarily about being entrepreneurial. Some of us simply aren’t made to work for other people,” Amanda Frances began.
I’m excited about this conversation already, as I challenged myself to interview Instagram’s “Money Queen” without discussing money. Frances has been creating free content for almost a decade, and I assumed most of the things her fans were dying to know had been covered on her popular Instagram, Facebook or YouTube channels or through one of her dozens of online courses.
So, as a surprise to her and a unique angle to me, we decided to talk about the business side of what most people assume is easy: Maintaining a large online presence and being a digital course creator.
“If I can figure out how to use my gifts in a unique and profitable way, without any formal business training, I know other people can too,” Frances continued, “ There’s probably more people out there in the world who should be doing things their way.”
Let’s learn how to create the Frances way, shall we?
1. Her Instagram is ruled by the queen herself, but that’s it
“It takes a few hours to create each of my posts, from the capturing of the photo, to writing a meaningful caption, to sharing it across my stories — it’s all me,” she shares. However, once she’s crafted and shared her message, her team takes the content from Instagram and repurposes it on her Facebook and Twitter channels, and others as applicable.
She also takes her safety seriously and always posts her stories at least 24 hours after she films them. Not only does this help her be more present in the moment, it takes the pressure off creating something poetic while she’s actually enjoying each moment.
Related: 10 Instagram Accounts Every Entrepreneur Should Follow
2. She sticks to her art and delegates the rest
It took Frances time to give up managing customer support emails and social channels, as mentioned above. Right now, she’s solely responsible for the overall vision of the business, her Instagram channel, her newsletter copy, her sales page copy, creating courses, mentoring her clients, running her mastermind, and self-publishing her book (she’s currently recording the audiobook). That’s obviously still a full-time creative job, but she’s been able to release the entire working flow of the business, piece by piece.
“My words are how I connect to my audience, and I’m not ready to give that up,” she added.
3. Her family time is sacred
“After the kids go to bed and I’m hanging out with my boyfriend, it’s rare that anything will be captured,” Frances says. “Now, if he says something funny, or we cook something incredible, I might record it.”
Other elements of her day that are free from capture moments for social media include her working hours (unless she’s sharing with her audience about an email that just went out or something unusual or interesting from her work day), and the majority of her time with family throughout the day.
4. There is no judgement for the working brain in her world
While many of us are on the elusive hunt for work-life balance, Frances owns her working tendencies without any need to improve herself.
“My mind is always looking out for good content,” she says. “That isn’t something that happened because of social media. I was a sixth grader running around with a disposable camera doing the exact same thing. I was always this way. I was just born at the right time to be able to use this gift to make money and help people.”
Related: 4 Do’s and 4 Don’ts for Businesses Using Social Media
5. She understands the process of entrepreneurial change
“If I truly want to delegate this, it would be delegated,” she says to me when I ask if a copywriter is in her future.
When I ask her what she sees for the evolution of her business as she continues to grow her family, she says, “I have to trust myself that, at this point, I can figure it out. I’m doing more than I ever have, personally and professionally, and the business is still growing. In 2017, my first seven-figure year, my fear would have been that if I added in a relationship or too many things that didn’t directly make the company revenue, that my business would suffer. Today, the business has a lot of momentum. It’s so much bigger than me. I trust myself more. I trust my team more. I allow myself to let go a little more. I trust that I can continue to expand the company and also make more babies.”
6. Lastly, she elevated her team to take the pressure off
“If the same person answers your email for like, four years, you eventually are like ‘Is this Kim?! Kim, can you help me?’”
Frances has helped her team grow as her business does. She has included them in many trainings and conversations so that her audience knows them. This helps her audience feel as comfortable with them answering an email or DM as they would be if Frances herself responded.
There you have it, friends, six ways you can enhance your content creation so you too can change hundreds of thousands of lives — and enjoy yours too.