We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carol Lorraine. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carol Lorraine below.
Carol Lorraine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.
The first client that came to me for my marketing services was because of them seeing my social media & so they started asking me for advice, & then asked if I could take over their social media for them as a paid service. Initially, it started off organically as me just helping them out with tips, & then they turned into a client. I preach to everyone to be of value to others. Most of the jobs I was offered in my life came to me because I offered value to them, and because they liked my advice or work, they became a client or they offered me a job. I’ve even had several people create a role just so I could join their team.
Carol Lorraine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
The funny & beautiful thing I’ve realized is that I’ve been doing what I do for people since I was in high school 25 years ago. Back then, AOL was the social media. All my friends, both guys and girls, used to give me their passwords to get into their profiles so I could make their profiles look COOL! =D I had taught myself the coding to create artistic looking AOL profiles, so all my friends wanted something creative for their profiles as well!
I also was in yearbook for three years in high school & so I got to go take pictures & film video content at all the fun events, sports games, student & teacher interviews, you name it! I got to design many pages of our yearbooks from start to finish. I had so much fun coming up with fresh ideas to implement into the pages to create a fun culture! I LOVED that class & all the ways I got to exercise my creative bug!
Back then, I used to think, “I want to do this for a magazine one day.” Of course, this was before pagers & beepers turned into cell phones, before iphones existed, and before Instagram, Facebook, and all the other social media platforms existed, so what I get to do today, is the modern day version of what we had back then, because social media platforms are today’s version of our own branded magazines in a way. Back then, blogs didn’t exist either. So today’s Instagram is another version of a magazine or blog. :D
Something a lot of people DON’T know is that when I decided to stay home for a little bit with my first son, Xander, back in 2011, I still worked freelance type of jobs. People paid me to do their resumes, cover letters, coach them for job interviews, be their personal assistant or marketing person, you name it. I also created & managed two YouTube channels as a means of connecting with other women with common interests, because a lot of my friends were working during the day, and I’m such a social person, I needed some interaction! I LOVED those hobbies, and within a year or so, YouTube started paying me for my videos. Equally awesome is that I still have a lot of the friends I made off of YouTube today & I would consider them all close friends of mine. :D
I believe in that mindset: “Do what you love, and the money will follow.” I’m living proof of it, along with millions of other people in our world!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Growing up, my parents and siblings were all competitive athletes. It was all we knew, in terms of balancing school work & daily practice. There honestly wasn’t much “rest” time. My father’s father brought the family of 12 over from Mexico when he was 7 years old, and so they have this extreme work ethic that I’m fortunate to have learned as well.
The part I had to unlearn, was the part of embracing some rest. Depression and anxiety also runs through our family, and I believe part of that is due to not enough rest.
In college, I had to go to therapy to treat a more severe depression. It was such a simple lesson, but my therapist taught me how important it is to recharge our batteries and to also see THIS as “productive”.
I used to feel guilty if I ever wanted to do something other than working towards a goal that was either academic, work-related, or physical (sport) related.
This is still an area I’m not 100% at yet, but I’m more conscious of it now, and I’ve definitely seen the benefits of taking some time off, even if it’s just an evening, a morning, or a day off. I feel more creative after and ideas come to me easier this way.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I always advise building a community based on one’s own passions, interests, etc. I enjoy being inspired by others, and so I also take pleasure in inspiring others through my own testimonies. An area I’ve grown a lot in is that in which of embracing vulnerability with my network and audience.
People should focus on adding value to their community. Sharing my stories of overcoming really hard times in my life, scary times, sad times, etc. has been really instrumental to my community really feeling close to me and like they can relate to me, because they CAN. We all struggle with similar things in life. It’s part of our time here on Earth.
I’ve attracted my ideal clients through social media because they feel safe with me. They know my story. They know the journeys I’ve been on to get to where I’m at today. And they’ve shared private experiences with me because I’ve put my experiences out there for the world to hopefully see and pull inspiration from to help them overcome obstacles in their lives as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: linktr.ee/CarolLorraine
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sizzlingmarketinggroup/ & https://www.instagram.com/CarolineintheCityyy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.lopez.00/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9D%96%A2%F0%9D%96%A0%F0%9D%96%B1%F0%9D%96%AE%F0%9D%96%AB%F0%9F%92%9B-%F0%9D%96%AB%F0%9D%96%AE%F0%9D%96%B1%F0%9D%96%B1%F0%9D%96%A0%F0%9D%96%A8%F0%9D%96%AD%F0%9D%96%A4-755a15166/