We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Caitlin Jenco. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Caitlin below.

Hi Caitlin, thanks for joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Back in 2020, I was working full-time managing a gym and I was in school on an accelerated track to obtain my law degree. I had been in college for 2 years and transferred 3 times in desperation of trying to make college feel right for me. At all 3 schools, I felt too big for college and I felt that there was something else I should be doing but I didn’t know what that was. Once Covid started, the gym shut down immediately and I found myself with 3 months of down time to explore. While I was scrolling on Tiktok, I found a girl who was an Instagram Manager and went from making $7/hr to $100+/hr in a few short months. I thought “I grew up on social media and I enjoy art, visuals and marketing so I’m going to give this a try too”. At this point, it was time to return to school so I started my semester and then I got to work and legalized my business. Once everything was set up, I started on the monsterous task of social media. I was making the typical graphics on IG but Tiktok was new and I knew I needed to be on it. I started to share my process but I wasn’t seeing any results. In the meantime, I landed my first every agency client but instead of them needing IG services…they wanted Tiktok.

At that point, even though I didn’t have the viral results myself, I felt confident in my ability to grow their account and I was eager to have a client. So, I dove in and started creating all their content and the 4th video went viral. Within 48 hours of starting their account, I was able to grow them past 10k and that changed everything. I knew if I could do it for them then I could do it for myself with the right strategy. I overhauled my page and starting sharing tips on how to grow on Tiktok and create content that converts and within two weeks I went viral and grew over 15,000 followers.

With that new found momentum, I knew I needed to take advantage and that’s when I started my Tiktok agency to help brands use Tiktok to increase exposure and revenue. At the time, I was one of few doing this which allowed me to scale my agency fairly quickly. I surpassed my entire months income at the gym with only 1 client…

I continued to balance the business, my job and school for a few months but I quickly realized it was too much. I considered dropping out of college or quitting my job but I figured I should keep my income source incase I lose my clients so at 20 years old and against the advice of every adult in my life…I dropped out. That was risk #1 in my journey and I was faced with a lot of criticism but I knew it was right.

With the pressures of school gone, I continued on and grew my following to over 100,ooo followers. I decided to rebrand my agency to a Tiktok consulting agency for creators because I had a high demand of creators who wanted to know how I was able to grow my own accounts and all the brands I worked with with. Once I shifted to a mentor and coach, I saw my business truly flourish but there was still one thing holding me back from being free and that was my other job. I knew I had outgrown that place for a while but I was hesitant to lose the income safety net out of my own self doubt, so I continued to work but I kept cutting my hours until I was miserable having to go in for one 8 hour shift a week. After months of holding on, I took the biggest risk yet and quit my job. I put all my faith in my business and my Tiktok presence and decided that if I wanted to take this to the level of success I imagine, I need to be free of all other commitments.

I think it took a few weeks to really quick in but once it did, I felt pretty d*mn good about all my decisions. The following month I was invited to NYC for my first creator event where I really got a taste of what being an entrepreneur was all about. With the freedom in my schedule and the pressures of a second job lifted off of me, I was able to fully dive in. Because 100% of my focus was on my business, I was able to continue to grow my audience, increase my income and attract a ton of new opportunities. After NYC, I was flown out to Los Angeles for another creator event. I was then flown out to Las Vegas to speak at an event. I’ve also been featured in Bloomberg and The Leap and had the opportunity to speak at multiple events. I have seen myself transform in so many ways and the best part is that I know this is just the beginning.

In hindsight, I wish I had the courage take those two majors risks sooner but I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason. At 22, I am self employed and building something that no one thought I could. Those same people are in awe of the successes I have been met with by having the courage to break the societal norm of college and working a 9-5 till 65.

Caitlin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hey! I’m Caitlin Jenco and I am a Tiktok Strategist and Content Creator Coach. I started on Tiktok in 2020 when the platform was still relatively new. I devoted my platform to talking about the Tiktok algorithm and teaching creators how they can grow using strategy. I quickly gained momentum and now have over 115,000 followers on the platform. From my own successes, I have been able to monetize my platform so I know coach creators on Tiktok strategy, creator monetization and influencing.

I had an influx of inquiries looking to work with me so that’s when I started my company, Luxuriant Social Co. At first, I was working exclusively with brands to help them use the platform to increase exposure and revenue. After doing that for months, more and more creators wanted to work with me so I decided to rebrand my agency to a consulting agency so that I could help creators to use Tiktok to transform their life, just like I did.

Now, I have coached over 100 creators to help them to grow on the platform and turn it into a monetizable audience so that they can replace their 9-5’s with the passions. I offer 1:1 services, as well as other coaching offers to help creators at any point in their journey. Without a doubt, the best part of all of this is seeing my students succeed. I get emails all the time from students who used my techniques and were met with insane results. One of my most recent students Becca (@Becca_spt) had one 30 minute session with me and since then, she has grown over 10,000 followers and gone viral over 6 times….after only 30 minutes together!

Tiktok has revolutionized social media and I am honored to be a leader in the space so that I can help creators see their potential and dominate the digital world. The 9-5 life wasn’t meant for creatives and that’s why I do what I do!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Unless you were born into wealth, you are going to need to unlearn everything you know about money when you start your business. One thing I did, and I see a lot of my students do, is project their limiting beliefs about money onto their business. Your time is worth money. You services are worth money. Don’t let yourself be the reason why you don’t succeed. Charge for your worth and NEVER be afraid to increase pricing as you gain experience. If one client won’t pay, there’s 5 more that will. You need to realize that you are not in the business of serving everybody. Look at high end fashion brands. Are the shoes worth $2000? Usually no but they sell to a buyer pool who thinks $2000 is $5.

One of the biggest issues I had in my business was the fear of pricing myself fairly and increasing my pricing due to the limiting beliefs of money I grew up around. When you’re in business, you can’t view money as something that’s hard to come by and requires struggling. Instead, you need the self confidence to know that if you show up consistently, the money will continue to flow in with the audience who sees your worth.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One aspect of running an online business is that it requires you to shown up consistently on social media and your success is reliant on the platforms. That being said, it can be extremely daunting to take on multiple platforms and it’s even more discouraging when you’re spending so much time on content but none of it is performing well.

One major lesson I had to learn was that the only way to truly fail is to quit. Does it suck when I spend hours filming and my account is in a period of low engagement? Absolutely BUT the only way to get it back up is to keep going. There has been times where I just want to throw in the towel and have the simple life of working a 9-5 but I know deep down that I’ll never go back. I remind myself of all the success I’ve seen. I give myself a break. We are oftentimes our own harshest critic but nothing gets accomplished when you’re in that mindset. So, while the lows suck, I encourage you to let yourself wallow in self-pity for 5 minutes and then remind yourself of the bada*s you are and resume as scheduled.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://stan.store/caitlinjenco
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caitlinjenco/
• Other: Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@caitlinjenco