We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jasmine Stokes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jasmine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
Wow, where do I even begin? Let’s see here to sum it all up…my husband spoke my business to me and into me. I have always been known as a intercessor, as a helping hand, as a comforting ear, as a fixer, as a problem solver. Late one evening my husband was speaking to me and he was like “babe you should just be a life coach”. Now this was something I would joke about and I wanted to do and be but I didn’t necessarily know how to go about it. After having a conversation with him, you know the meta powers that be went into gear, lol. I scroll through Facebook and there’s a class. My coach, Dr. Karen Ratliff was the mastermind behind providing certification courses and helping you launch a business. So quite naturally I was a little afraid but I decided it’s time. So, I signed up and I became a Certified Life Coach. From class ending and me working with my coach to understand the type of business I wanted to set up, me creating my very first website, and learning the woes of social media marketing, within three months, I was rocking and rolling in my business. After a year and a half, this grew into me becoming a Certified Master Life Coach where I could teach other women the foundational structure to coaching, help them start their businesses and create a revenue stream in their businesses. This all happened within a three-year time frame.
As a Certified Life Coach, I started with accepting one on one clients, I self-published my first journal, branched out into speaking engagements and then providing courses. From here, my coach tapped me on the shoulder and said it’s time to take it to the Master Coaching level and begin to teach what you’ve done. I never thought having the gift of helping someone, wanting to help someone and sharing my life’s journey and lessons would bring me to being an entrepreneur and helping women to this magnitude. From my corporate career and experience, I implemented a lot of knowledge from the different companies I worked for and also positioned myself as a student always, continuously taking trainings to learn branding, marketing, launch techniques and how to position myself as the expert. All of this combined has helped me to thrive in my business.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
From my introduction and explaining how I obtained my certification as a Life Coach, in conjunction, I formed The Greater Me Consulting and it is a Coaching and Consulting business for minority women. The sole purpose is to empower women to their next level in life, their “greater” level through Life Coaching. At the Greater Me Consulting, I teach women how to not only survive in their life journey but to thrive. I offer products geared towards confidence, empowerment and self-healing. The Consulting portion of the business launched The Empower You Academy in late 2019. Here, I offer online courses, webinars, and training certifications to allow women to better themselves in business and entrepreneurship. The biggest challenge I’ve faced with starting my own business was understanding it is mine. I was in Corporate America for over 20 years (just left in May of this year) and I was so conformed to doing everything “someone else’s” way. It was a daily struggle when I would look at branding, marketing or even catchy slogans. I kept thinking it had to be so “politically correct” and this isn’t the case. I’m the boss, I decide what I want/need, I get to tailor it all to me; my personality, my target audience and how I want women to feel when they first see or engage with my company. I had a serious pep talk with myself and released that energy and hold that had me. I want women to know and feel encouraged to be them, love them and most importantly Choose Them! My biggest message is titled “I Choose Me” and it’s a daily affirmation and lifestyle we all have to get accustomed to saying and living. It runs deeper than the outward appearance and it’s more than just a catchy slogan. I’m choosing myself still in so many areas but until I Chose Me, this business I’m running couldn’t. The life I’m living couldn’t choose me until I knew I was comfortable being me and I made no excuses about who I am, what I like and what I do.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I was a hot mess on social media in the beginning. lol. I decided to tackle Instagram as my main social media outlet for my business. I was not on Instagram previously and had no clue how it really worked. I jumped out there like a fish that didn’t know how to swim. I knew nothing about target audiences, branding, hashtags, you name it. A close friend called me on night and asked “Can I offer you some feedback?” Of course I said sure and she went to show me other businesses like mine, the aesthetics, messaging, etc. I was so appreciative of her taking the time to break this down for me. I then searched for a few training courses and started to get my page in order. Building your business on social media takes patience, work and time. If you don’t have those three or don’t want to tap into those three areas then please don’t attempt to tackle social media. lol. It took over a year of consistency in my messaging, branding, showing up, providing, trying what I think could and should work to finally see what did connect and stick with my audience.
My advice is first you have to start and get out there. Second, try it all. You honestly don’t know what is if you don’t try it. Third, stick with it and remember why you are doing it. Stand behind your business and your business goals. Fourth, have fun with it. Don’t make it any more stressful by being so serious. Enjoy the building process and acknowledge your growth.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
My transparency, honesty and consistency. I actually polled my audience and asked this question when rebranding. I wanted to understand the how and why behind it all. Being me, being true to what I was doing and not giving in or letting up helped me build my like, know and trust with my audience. I keep these three things in mind whenever I launch something new, want to make changes in my business or I’m looking for reassurance to keep going. With these three things, I’m not saying it happened over night for me or will happen overnight for anyone else but I do believe it helps stamps your existence and expertise.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thegreatermeconsulting.com
- Instagram: thegreatermeconsulting
- Facebook: The Greater Me Consulting
Image Credits
Brandon Hopkins Photography