We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joshlyn Davis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Joshlyn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I moved to Dallas in December of 2017 and like most folks struggled to adjust and make friends in the large city. I had been doing social media for about 7 years and my personal media invites for my influencer page @Joshlynphotography started picking up in 2018 but I didn’t have any friends or community who understood content creator speak, or that I could invite that I knew would enjoy the opportunity and not look at me crazy while I took photos of food. I attended several eventbrite events that year and met other influencers as 2018 progressed but I never felt I quite fit in. With that in mind and an acquaintance that mentioned it would be a cool idea to start a new type of group, in 2019 I came up with an idea to do a free photo walk event at the Dallas Farmers market. With the network I had built over the last year I invited friends and new people to come out, be brave, and meet new people and take photos. By 2020 I had my amazing COO Jen Cox join my team. With her we eventually turned DSI free photo meet ups, into a membership based group where girls could go to collaborations and learn how to pitch businesses. Now, 5 years later we continue to help influencers network, promote local Dallas businesses, make lifetime friendships, and all while learning how to grow their platform.
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?
Influencers / content creators are some of the best forms of marketing for the new social media era. At a click of a button, you can have tons of options of restaurants to visit, places to go, and all from your favorite social media content creators. but how do you even get started or become an influencer??
With influencers who are starting out, knowing how to pitch business for the first time or get collaborations can be scary. DSI (Dallas Social Influencers) takes out the guess work by pitching business for our paid members in order for our influencers to get collaborations. Girls can then sign up for opportunities we have available and if selected by the business, they get to attend collaborations and post while helping promote local Dallas businesses. It allows for our girls to understand the process of what a collab will be like, posting expectations, and how to get good content that the business can use.
For those interested in joining DSI we have quarterly application opportunities where girls can apply for a membership. we are a very diverse group and we welcome women who feel like they would like to find their tribe, to come out and meet new people!
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
I can not brag enough on my partner / best friend Jen Cox. She has been a pillar of DSI and withought her continued support DSI would not what it is today. I met her in 2020 and ever since then we have been inseparable. She has such an excitement and passion for helping women. whether through social media or partnering with women owned businesses, she constantly pushes us to do more, find more opportunities. While we withought a doubt get on our nerves at times since She is my positive ray of sunshine while i am ever the cynic, we have the perfect team dynamic that allows our business to persevere.
Jen also has her own social media page @nowhereiwouldratherbe where she share mural monday’s and vacay vibes all over DFW. I super recommend folks follow her on all of her adventures, she is an incredible human and friend!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
There are so many social media gurus telling you all the tips and tricks that it just gets absolutely exhausting. Ultimately, there is no secret formula, no magic thing that is going to make you famous or make your audience support you, you have to put in work like everything else. That being said here are a few tips that I think are a good starting point.
One of the first things you need to consider, what is your niche? Do you have a defined page and do people understand what you are sharing about.
Two: are you brining some type of value to your audience and what is that value? is it comedy, teaching, drama, what?
Three: Engaging with your followers. unless you are famous (and even then) you need to be connecting with your audience. respond back to comments, make time to engage with their pages as well. Answering your DM’s and making real conversation in order to create real followers who care about what you do.
Four: Quality content. Make sure to put up quality content that you feel proud or happy about. when people you try your audience can tell!
Five: BE AUTHENTIC. Ultimately have fun. yes you want to grow your audience but you also want to be real and enjoy posting whatever it is you are sharing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://msha.ke/dallas_social_influencers/?fbclid=PAAaaefy89RJquTS0GLMluHImPQj0N5s71EraDT-Hlr1W5Kmie1ejPbJ8GrwE_aem_AXr0hllCJr_-pYb_n5BMjqwPhZ55A0AGu5vWjRNvzVhfJOJXxNdG11fSTKYVTbknnfA
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dallas_social_influencers?igsh=MWxnZmxvNXZsNnR6dA==