We were lucky to catch up with Grace John recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Grace thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

To find success when starting your own business, I think the one thing that matters most is passion. Whether that is passion about what you do, passion about helping who you serve, passion about making something different, passion about supporting yourself, or even just passion about getting and staying out of the corporate world, I think that passion will carry you. Passion leads to motivation, commitment, and drive to get things done. I think commitment and the will-power to keep going, even when things get tough, are also big factors. It’s really important to have a major sense of self-confidence because in order to be successful in starting your own business, you have to KNOW that you can make it work, even when logic is telling you it can’t. On that note, delusion definitely plays a small role in success as well. You need to be delusionally sure of yourself to see things through to the end when all signs are pointing to “QUIT NOW!”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started my business, Grace John Creative, during covid! I had just graduated college with my BFA in graphic design in May of 2020 and was working part time for a local corporation as a contract design associate. When the office moved to working from home, they decided to keep me on; however, my hours were cut from 30 per week to 5 or less a week, so I needed a way to bring in more money to pay my bills. While doing my daily pandemic death scroll on TikTok, I stumbled upon a video of a girl saying she made $5-10K a month as a virtual assistant and as she began listing off the tasks she did for clients, I realized that it was something I could easily do as well.

So, I took a masterclass on how to start your own business with what money I had saved and then signed up for a 2 month group coaching program to learn the in’s and outs of being a Virtual Assistant (VA). Within 2 months of starting to market my business on social media & doing outreach to businesses that I would like to work with, I had my first client. From there, I steadily continued gaining clients, refining my services, onboarding process, built myself a website, and within 2 years, I was making enough to support myself and leave my contract corporate position.

It’s crazy to think that had my corporate job extended the offer to make me a full-time employee, my business may have never been born! I’m so grateful that I had the time & support to create something of my own.

Now, three years in, I’ve narrowed down my services from general Virtual Assistant work to Pinterest Management, SEO blogging, and Instagram content creation for online service providers and creatives. I love helping coaches, copywriters, functional nutritionists, therapists, interior designers, photographers, personal trainers, copy writers, and online store owners refine their online presence, boost their ranking on google, and drive traffic to their services and both physical and digital products.

I think what sets me apart the most is that I have a background in graphic design, unlike so many other social media & pinterest managers, so the instagram and Pinterest content that I create for my clients is always super refined, on brand, and designed to stand out against the competition. Not only that, but the SEO blogging to Pinterest funnel that I build custom for each of my clients is one that I have been refining over the past three years based on collected data. Consequently, it is guaranteed to build brand awareness, drive more subscribers to their email lists, and to make them more money selling their digital products. Client satisfaction is of the utmost importance to me & I think that makes me stand out as well. I work in an industry where so many people will just say “yes” to every inquiry even if they’re unsure whether they have the knowledge or experience to complete the task at hand, so I pride myself in knowing my capacity & having honed strategies that are proven to work.

If you had told me that I was going to start my own digital marketing business while I was studying graphic design in college, I would have laughed. But here I am, and I’m so proud that I have been able to support myself in a way that also helps others!

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

This isn’t so much a lesson as it is a story of personal growth, but before I started my own business, I was a TOTAL introvert. I could not hold a conversation with a stranger to save my life! I had always been “the quiet kid,” so starting a business that required constant introductory calls, catch up calls, and client correspondence never felt like a real option to me. This was something that I 100% had to unlearn.

I was terrified when my first client booked a discovery call with me. I wasn’t used to having to lead conversations, sell myself, or answer questions on the spot. Forcing myself into this leadership role in which I had to be in constant communication with new clients, online business friends, and past clients truly forced me out of my comfort zone and gave me social skills that I never dreamed that I would have.

Now, I can hop on discovery calls with total strangers feeling confident, make educational tiktoks and reels for my social media audience, and chat to my camera on Instagram stories without hesitation. Starting my own business has really impacted my personal life as well, for this reason. It has made it easier for me to express myself to friends and family & has opened the door to so many amazing networking opportunities that I would have been too afraid to embrace in the past.

Just this March I went on a business retreat in Charleston, SC where I knew absolutely NO ONE. Five years ago, I never would have done that! But this business forced me out of my introversion and taught me that it’s okay–in fact it’s GOOD–to have a voice & to express your thoughts to others.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I would say that the best source of new clients for me has been a tie between Instagram, Referrals, and Facebook groups. Instagram is more of a long game–I will make connections there that will turn into clients after months, sometimes years of nurturing the relationship.

As for Facebook groups, they’re a great place to go if you’re looking for something more immediate. I am a member of several women in marketing & online service provider Facebook groups. On each of them, there is typically a monthly job thread where people will list roles that they’re looking to hire out or sometimes individuals will make one-off posts about looking to hire within their businesses. I like to comment on these posts with a short pitch and a link to my website & instagram account. That way they have the option to learn more about my business and get in touch if they would like to or go in a different direction. The smaller and more intimate the Facebook group, the higher my success rate has been.

Referrals have been my main source of new clients! Referrals are my favorite because I love working with people that know my current or past clients. It gives us something in common and makes it feel like we’re in a supportive online community. To encourage clients to refer me to their friends, I offer a 15% off referral discount upon the person they referred signing a contract and paying their first invoice! There isn’t a cap on referrals, so if clients refer someone who signs a contract and pays an invoice every month, then they can get the discount every month!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gracejohncreative.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/gracejohncreative
• TikTok: Gracejohncreative

Image Credits
Pink Headshot: Nia Rincon Poston, Outdoor Photoshoot: Emma Fox, Vixen Ruse, www.vixenruse.com