As a serial entrepreneur, Sue B. brings over 30 years of business experience to this episode. She’s had over 18 businesses, including a seasonal retail shop on Cape Cod in Massachusetts—where she discovered the power of Instagram.
Today, Sue B. is the #instagramexpert, creator of the online Instagram course “Ready Set Grow”. She’s a powerful speaker on prominent stages like Social Media Marketing World and highly sought after business coach and she’s on a mission to teach, mentor, and empower others to be highly successful entrepreneurs and leverage the power of Instagram.
Sue’s website: https://suebzimmerman.com/
Jessmyn:
Welcome to Interact’s Creator Stories podcast. Interact is the easiest way to convert curious people into loyal and happy customers by using a lead generating quiz. On Creator Stories, we get to hear the entrepreneur’s journey. This is a podcast about how those creators took their knowledge and experiences to carve out a place in the world, owned what they know is special about themselves and turned it into a successful company.
Today we get to hear from Sue B Zimmerman, the Instagram expert and creator of the online Instagram course, Ready Set Gram. As a serial entrepreneur, Sue B has 30 years of business experience. With her extensive knowledge of social media, it’s Sue B’s mission to teach, mentor and empower others to be highly successful entrepreneurs. All right, let’s get started.
Hi guys and welcome back to Interact’s Creator Stories podcast. So excited to be with you all again. Today with me, I have Sue B Zimmerman. Sue, thank you so much for hopping on with us today.
Sue:
Yeah, my pleasure.
Jessmyn:
Of course. And as you all know, Sue is a Instagram expert, and if you are watching the video and if you’re not watching the video, I’m going to describe it to you. She actually has, I love this, an Instagram pillow right in the background. And correct me actually, you are the Instagram expert, is how you call it.
Sue:
Yeah, the only one.
Jessmyn:
I love that. So, Sue. Oh my gosh. I am dying today. It’s Monday. We’re recording this on a Monday. So, everyone bear with me. Sue, can you take us back to the beginning, tell everybody a little bit about how you got started and what took you on this journey to where you are now.
Sue:
Yeah. So, I don’t want to waste the full hour because that’s how long it would take but I’ll give you the cliff notes. So, I am literally the definition of a serial entrepreneur whose had 18 businesses. And I discovered the power of Instagram in my seasonal retail shop on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, where we have a home on the Cape right now, at our apartment in downtown Boston. But I spent a lot of time there and I had a little shop called SueB.Do and 10 years ago. And that’s where I discovered the power of Instagram because I was doing everything. A lot of people listening probably are doing, which is everything to get people to know who you are and what you do. And in the case of retail, come into the shop. So I used in Instagram because my twins told me not to.
And you always do what your teenagers tell you not to do when it comes to marketing. And I am that mom who just is relentless and always figuring out social platforms. And I knew the power of visual storytelling, because my brain thinks that way. And yeah. I had so much success bringing the right people into my shop that I wanted to help other business owners really understand the power of Instagram. So I learned all about online marketing, which I knew nothing about. I knew that I was a good educator. I’ve taught social media. I’ve taught on stage, on QVC a couple of times. And I love speaking and really teaching. So teaching Instagram was just a natural progression for me from having results to helping other people have results. So I always like to say that, I always love making money.
Yeah. I absolutely love what money affords to buy, but when you understand the power of impact, which is where I’ve been in the last 10 years of changing people’s lives, money has a whole new meaning. And so I am extremely grateful for our thriving community and those that we get to serve in our business, in our coaching and in our programs. And the fact that I get to travel around the world and speak on stages and just educate. Educate mostly women, 45 and older who are not comfortable being on video because they did not grow up with a phone in their face, critique how they look every day and want all the filters all the time. And I always say, just find the natural light or get a really good diva light. And you’re all set and ready to go.
Jessmyn:
I love that.
Sue:
Yeah.
Jessmyn:
So what necessarily brought you to Instagram specifically with all the different platforms out there and then even just over time, what was it about Instagram that you were like, this is it?
Sue:
Well, it was a visual. People process visuals, I don’t know, 89% faster than text and that’s my brain. So I am that person that can put a puzzle together really quickly. I’m that person that do not give me the Ikea written directions, just give me the photos. And yeah, I just think that because of the visual component, which at the time when I started teaching was just the feed, which has now obviously we’ll have a lot to talk about with all the different Sue B neighborhoods, I call it on Instagram and what you can now do to create the content. So always evolving and growing and shifting, and that’s me. That’s my brain. I am that entrepreneur that is constantly learning and growing and changing with the times, and I think it’s so important to understand that kind of attitude and energy around that those that embrace change really are able to just make a bigger impact in my opinion, and not get lost in the dust. So I’m constantly evolving and growing and our business model is shifting and changing a little bit, but our community still thrives and is connected.
Jessmyn:
Yeah. I love that a lot because I think that, especially with the announcement this year where Instagram wants to favor videos, the sort of bite size content is booming. Right? And I think from what I’ve seen and I mean, even for us, for our Instagram, we’re like, this is so hard because you get so used to posting pictures, how to edit it, how to make it so people like it. And then all of a sudden they’re like nope, you got to do video.
Sue:
Yeah. I’m starting to see, I get bored looking at the same old, look and feel and quotes and the way that people are trying to do Instagram, because that’s the way other people are doing Instagram and I’m always thinking, how can I be different? How can I stand out? And it clearly is a big part of it is the video component and people connecting to my Boston accent or not, or the energy that I put out into the world and really identifying with something in the backdrop of my life. And so I think it’s so important to show the backdrop without telling what the backdrop is, whatever that lifestyle looks like. I’m someone that does travel frequently and people come along with me and really get to live vicariously through my travel and just get us sense of confidence of doing and being a 100% real.
Jessmyn:
I love that.
Sue:
Right.
Jessmyn:
How would you say is the best way for people to stay on top of the changing algorithm but also having to break down those barriers of being afraid of being on video or showing yourself, being more out there.
Sue:
So I think the word that everyone should write down is relevance. I think people get so overwhelmed with Instagram and the fact that there’s almost 2 billion monthly active users. And when I started teaching, there was only 140 million. So things have changed.
Jessmyn:
Wow.
Sue:
They continue to change and there’s more people coming onto the platform every day. But not only is there more people coming on, there’s more places to create content. And so I just think that it’s really important to know what is relevant to those that you want to serve and do business with and not everyone on Instagram. And I know that we grow our business daily because our email list grows by looking at our tracking links that we put everywhere, whether it’s in the DM or stories or a feed post or the bio, we know where our traffic sources are coming from, and our email list continues to grow, and our business continues to grow.
So I don’t don’t get caught up in likes or views. I really thrive on conversion in conversations. And so I think people need to shift the, my followers go up and down, my Reels, my views aren’t going viral. The word viral, I don’t care about going viral. I care about making an impact with my audience. So I think when people dial back, who is my audience? Can you tell me exactly what their pain points are and what they need and want desire and what their struggles are? When you know that it’s so much easier to create relevant content.
Jessmyn:
I love that. That’s great. Yeah. I actually, I was talking to someone last week who hates being on Instagram, but has to be because they feel like that’s where their audience is. And that’s where they can sort of show their business a lot, But they hate being on Instagram. And I think that if you do get caught up in, what are the numbers, what am I getting out of this, then you kind of have a harder time showing up more authentically to your audience and who’s there.
Sue:
Yeah. I mean, no one should hate what they’re doing. That’s a really powerful word. And I would challenge that person to really evaluate, is it worth it if you hate it? It’s not, in my opinion. You have to love what you’re doing or there’s a big problem. From all of my experience of growing businesses, every single thing I do, I enjoy and it brings me joy. And if it doesn’t, I don’t do it. I change.
Jessmyn:
I love that.
Sue:
Yeah. It’s just like energy is everything. Right? And to those of you listening, I do have a new puppy. So you might hear my puppy bark.
Jessmyn:
They’ll be wondering like, what’s the noise. I actually didn’t even notice it because I have a dog too. But now that you mentioned it, I heard it. So I want to bring it back to, you mentioned that you had 18 businesses before this.
Sue:
Yeah.
Jessmyn:
And my question for you on that is I guess, how do you come up with 18 businesses, but also why did you move on from each one of those?
Sue:
Yeah. So I am that person that either gets bored quickly or notices trends are shifting. And so my first million dollar business was right out of college. And I started a trend with boxer shorts. I was hand painting them.
Jessmyn:
Wow.
Sue:
And then I started silk screening them. And we sold them to every college campus before anyone was wearing boxer shorts as outerwear. And so I was on the beginning of a trend. We then got licenses for Disney and the Simpsons and little mermaid. And that was a real fortuitous true entrepreneurial story, where I went to college for nutrition and that is not what I did. And so I learned at a young age to always follow the passion, the joy. And because of that business, I had the confidence to basically lean in to doing what I loved. And that gave me just all of the next opportunity.
That was in Virginia Beach. I sold that business to my partner. I moved back to Boston, started a family. And most of my businesses that I’ve had was when my three daughters were young. And I am that mom that cannot just be raising my kids, I definitely needed to have something on the side. And this is me basically find finding opportunities in businesses that worked while raising my kids. So whether I was teaching art classes in my basement or doing vendor shows at college campuses or consulting for kids, and I did a lot of variations of pretty much consumer products related businesses. And build a scrapbook company. Was on QVC for that. That was exciting. Trends change, opportunities change, relationships change. And I’m always leaning into the joy like I said.
Jessmyn:
[crosstalk 00:12:59] that.
Sue:
Yeah. I don’t mind taking risk. I don’t mind changing. A lot of people get stuck in status quo. And I always evaluate just kind of the quality of my life and what I’m doing. And so right now, they’re heading into year 10 of teaching Instagram, and this has been the most joyous experience because of the impact that I get to make globally. I mean, most of our students are from the UK, Canada and Australia. I mean, we have a global audience, which I never had when I ran my small business from the Boston area, whether it was a retail store or a consulting business. It was very geographically located in base. Not online where there’s so much opportunity with targeted ads to grow a business, which is so awesome. I just love that software or changes and opportunities change.
Jessmyn:
Yeah. That’s awesome. I think what’s so cool to hear you talk about that is really just that. I feel like, I don’t know, as talking to a lot of people on the show, people do have a journey of going from one business to another business, but it always feels like, I got to find that one that sticks and that’s going to be the one that’s going to stay forever, but it doesn’t have to always be that way.
Sue:
No. And it changes. I started with just my CEO. We founded this together and we now have a team of 20, I don’t know, five.
Jessmyn:
Wow.
Sue:
Yeah. And I say that because the more you let go of the task and the things that you’re not good at, I am so not good at booking air travel. I need a travel planner, seriously. I travel a lot. And so we’re looking for someone. When you hire, you want to hire to the strength. And we’ve done the strength finders test and we’ve done the engram test and we all know what each other’s strengths are. And when each team member plays to their strength, the team as a whole is so much more productive. And you don’t judge with what people aren’t doing at a high performing level, you appreciate their gifts and their strengths as they contribute in their niche into the business. And so whether it’s a copy editor for our launches or a graphic designer or a customer care, director, we hire positions. And the more we hire the right person for the right position, we continue to scale and grow this business which is exciting.
Jessmyn:
Yeah. That sounds awesome. I love that. And I guess while you are growing, right? And I know you mentioned finding the right people for the right stuff, what do you do in situations where it’s just not the right fit?
Sue:
We’ve had that a couple of times and it’s so hard because we are so maternal over here and really care deeply about people and their livelihood. But you always have to say, what is in the best interest of the company. This cannot be personal, although it is personal, it’s emotional. I should say it’s emotional. If you want to scale a business, you always have to do what’s in the best interest of the business as a whole. And so on a couple of occasions, as difficult as it was, we had to really shift roles and people.
Jessmyn:
Does it feel hard ever as the owner of a business to start kind of letting go of certain pieces that you were once in full control of but now you have to sort of allow someone else to take full control?
Sue:
I love it. Because I get to be front-facing, educated, motivating, inspiring every day, and that’s my wheelhouse. My wheelhouse is growing community. So I love that we have the resources and the people that can deal with all of the backend systems, processes, automation, you name it, software tools, that is not my brain. So, we have a lawyer now. We have an accountant now. All the pieces are in play where it doesn’t take up mind share which can mess with your mojo. And I think one of the reasons people are like, “Are you always this happy and energetic?” I’m like, “Yeah. Because I don’t do anything I don’t want to do.”
Jessmyn:
I love that. That’s so true because I think when you do start to let go of that stuff if you are scaling for those who are listening and you’re at that place where you’re ready, it can only sort of bring you up higher-
Sue:
Oh yeah.
Jessmyn:
… and make you better at the same time. I love that. I think that’s great. You mentioned being excited about having a more global audience. Tell me a little bit more about sort of, I feel like for those who might be smaller or just starting out, they are going to target probably more people that are in their region, more close by before they are able to get a more global audience. Would you say there are any differences between working with people in your area versus somebody across the world?
Sue:
Well, I mean, our business has always been virtual, so we are used to reaching people from all over. But because I speak on stages globally, a lot of people have either heard me speak in the audience or connected with us through a targeted ad. And what I love is no matter where I travel, this past weekend I was in Chicago and three of our high end pro coaching student had dinner with us. They all happened to be doctors, which was really funny. But no matter where I go, Iceland, Budapest, Israel, New York, you name it, there are students. There are people from our community that want to meet me. And I do a meetup no matter where I go and connect with people intimately. Being intimate is a really big core value of mine. I’d rather go deeper with the relationships that I have and nurture those more than go wider. It’s just so much easier. So I do make the time to always meet up with people and connect with people, which is exciting.
Jessmyn:
Yeah. I love that. I think that’s so important because especially with an online business, it is a lot harder to sort of have that connection. If it’s always like this, right? We’re always on Zoom. Where we’re always meeting through a video. I remember actually this last year, we had hired a few more onto the team during the pandemic and then met up for the first time sometime in, I think it was June or July, but we talk all the time and every day, but I was like, this is the first time I’m actually seeing you in person.
Sue:
Yeah.
Jessmyn:
That so different.
Sue:
Yeah. We had a team meeting in Tennessee and just now, Chicago. And when I spoke at traffic and conversion, my team came to learn and listen, but we don’t get to be together in person frequently. So it is really special when you do.
Jessmyn:
Definitely. And I guess being on Instagram, and I’m teaching people how to show up on there, how can you I guess, show or create that connectivity since you are reaching a more global audience, it’s wider, it’s not necessarily one on one and you’re not necessarily talking to a person, right? You’re talking to people in general.
Sue:
Well, I spend time talking to a person. So I am that educator that does send voice messages in the DM or videos in the DM. I also do video chat calls in the DM. And I go live frequently. So I am connected to people regularly. And it goes back to what we said earlier, where I think the more people can see you and feel your energy and really see how authentic you are. You’re not reading anything from paper or just citing some blog posts or article, you literally have the knowledge and wisdom around what you’re saying, there’s nothing greater than this in my opinion.
Jessmyn:
I love that. Being on video often, do you ever feel like there’s a sort of a difference between, the best way I could describe it is like being on, I’m doing this in air quotes, being on all the time versus having a regular conversation outside of being online?
Sue:
Well, I’m really fortunate because I literally do everything that I want every day. I choose to do the things online that I do. And I am all about your health is your wealth. That is my motto. I have a gift. If you search Sue B Zimmerman and the gifts, I have my own branded gifts. In my apartment building, there’s a gym. I have a virtual trainer. I get outside, I walk my dog. We went to a concert this weekend. I have the work life balance that people strive for and want and crave.
And so when I’m on, it energizes me because I get that dopamine hit from the validation of people saying, “Oh my God, you’ve helped me so much. I’ve grown my business because of you. I’m making more money because of you. You gave me the confidence to go on video.” Or whatever it is that they’ve worked through because of the way that I’ve educated them and pushed them a little bit is true validation. And definitely the dopamine hit that makes me come back and want more. So yeah. That is my drug, is like the positive reinforcement of people telling me how their lives have changed.
Jessmyn:
I love that. That’s awesome. Would you say that there is sort of a, I guess like something you can practice in order to be able to figure out what that work life balance is?
Sue:
Yeah. I think it’s all priorities. I mean, anyone can be busy. Busy doesn’t cut it for me. I hate that word. But being productive is a whole different level. So for me, it’s having the right tools to be productive. So we use ClickUp. We used to use Trello, but we move to ClickUp. We use slack and we use Voxer, walkie talkies. And I live and die by my calendar, which is blocked. My team blocks my calendar for me, literally. I don’t go into my inbox. I have a team member in my inbox. I don’t look at anything there unless it’s starred or I’m told to. So I protect my energy around what I want to see and do. And I set myself up for success every day. And it’s easy to go down rabbit holes with reading the news, watching the news, which I very rarely do.
Or scrolling on Instagram too long, or comparing yourself to everybody else around you or not doing the hard work. I mean, it’s the doing that gets you what you want. It’s not the wishing, wanting, hoping, looking. It’s the doing. And a lot of people don’t show up and take action and do the work. We’ve been doing the work for almost 10 years and we have the results, which has been a wildly successful seven figure plus profitable business. And it’s exciting that we can really work with other women who just get to have the same work life balance. I mean, I love that my team gets to experience that.
Jessmyn:
Yeah, that’s incredible. And it’s super important. I feel like, especially after this last year, I don’t know. I just remember it time when they were like, “Do not say work life balance. It is the worst thing you could say.” But now it’s like, actually that’s probably the number one thing that I’m thinking about.
Sue:
Yeah. You got to know when to turn it off and on.
Jessmyn:
Right. I think that’s great. So I guess my question for you from that really is, if you are in a space where you’re just starting out, you don’t have the resources to hire a team basically, to do some of the stuff that you don’t like to do, what are some of the ways as a new entrepreneur that you can sort of figure out like, okay, here’s how I could space out my time. Here’s how I could do-
Sue:
Yeah.
Jessmyn:
… I guess a little bit of everything without going crazy or burning out.
Sue:
Yeah. You have to get scrappy. You have to get really scrappy and set priorities. And those priorities really should be around money producing goals and understanding how to reverse engineer what your goals are. A lot of people don’t understand calendar blocking and reverse engineering. In fact, when I was in Chicago with my executive team, we literally planned 2022, quarter by quarter.
Jessmyn:
Wow.
Sue:
Goal by goal, project by project. And we were together for four days. And it takes a lot of work to think about what are your goals and why? I have so many people like messaging me, do you want to scale your business? I’m like, “I am. Do you know who you’re talking to?” I’m not in it for a quick fix or a quick road. I like the slow and steady wins the race mentality and enjoying the journey along the way. And I’m really fortunate.
I’m able to do all the things and alleviate the stress. Now at the beginning, was it hard and different? Sure. I definitely learned CAMBA. I’m not doing that anymore. I have a graphic designer. And I used to do all of my Instagram posts. Now I’m the talent. So I’m doing the Reels, I’m doing the videos and I have other people transcribing it and editing it and doing hashtag research and adding the alt text and optimizing every post. So I’m not in the minutia of posting. I’m not looking at my phone all day. I do engage with the notifications, but we have automation in our DM to help alleviate the 100s and 100s of DM’s that we get every day. So it’s all about having systems and processes to work smarter and not harder.
Jessmyn:
That’s incredible. I love that. I do feel like, out of some of the people that I talk to, this is where they want to be at in their business. And it sounds awesome.
Sue:
Yeah. It’s exciting. And it has been an exciting journey. I want everyone to hear that, being an entrepreneur is a journey. There is no destination. I mean, I have two business coaches. There is always things to learn and ways to up level and more impact to make and more income to make. And so you just have to set priorities, like what matters most. And the question is why. Like why does it matter? And so if you don’t know, you have to do that kind of hard work first.
Jessmyn:
I love that. Well, Sue, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story with us today. I do have two questions that I close out with if you’re up for it.
Sue:
Go ahead.
Jessmyn:
So second to last question is what are three things that most people would not know about you?
Sue:
Oh, cool. Yeah. So I roller blade like a boss and I’ve been rollerblading for 30 years.
Jessmyn:
Wow.
Sue:
So that’s one. The other thing is I have mad selfie skills on roller blades or on my bike. People are like, “What do you have attached to your bike to do all those videos?” I’m like, “My pop socket.”
Jessmyn:
You’re just with your hand out, oh my God. I would crash.
Sue:
Yeah. I’m really good at it. And another is I have a hat for every occasion. So hats are my signature. That and my potty mouth are my signature style, although I was very good on this interview. And I have a hat of every color, all the fields, all the seasons, all the looks and I like it that way. So,
Jessmyn:
I love that.
Sue:
Yeah.
Jessmyn:
Where do you store your hat?
Sue:
Believe me you, I’ve got lots of storage. I have bins and baskets and hooks, and because we have two homes, I’ve got my fedora collection on the Cape and my Winter collection here. And I do go to [inaudible 00:30:31] for two months in the Winter. I live there and I bring lots of hats. I don’t know. I love hats. And I can’t deal with dealing with my hair. So I just put on a hat.
Jessmyn:
I love that. That’s the way to go. That’s usually me only in the Winter time when I can just throw on a beanie.
Sue:
Yeah.
Jessmyn:
So last question for you, if you could give yourself a single piece of advice at the start of it all, what would it be?
Sue:
It would be to not pay attention to what anyone else is doing in the space that I wanted to dominate.
Jessmyn:
I love that.
Sue:
So I used to look at other Instagram educators and be like, I just taught that. I can’t believe she’s doing that. Or I said that, why? So I unfollowed anyone and everyone who teaches Instagram. Now mind you, a lot of my students teach Instagram to a niche, Instagram, for photographers or Instagram for Etsy user. They learn Instagram from me and then they teach it, which is great. But I have just let go of comparing and just totally leaning into my true personality, and it’s working really well.
Jessmyn:
That’s amazing.
Sue:
Yeah.
Jessmyn:
I think that’s important. I love that. Awesome. Well, Sue, oh, go ahead, were you going to say something else?
Sue:
Yeah. I was going to tell your listeners, I really like to take people to Instagram at the end of my interviews.
Jessmyn:
Yeah. I was just bout to ask you that.
Sue:
Yeah. So I always say, come on over to Instagram @theInstagramexpert is my account. I’m Sue B and let me know what landed in your ears that really is making you think a little bit more. Anything that was said, just leave it on my last post. I will get a notification that you did and extra points. If you tag your account. You want to tell everybody what to tag?
Jessmyn:
Yep. @tryinteract.
Sue:
[inaudible 00:32:35]. Yeah.
Jessmyn:
Love that. And we will link that also in the show notes. So don’t worry about that.
Sue:
Yeah. And did Kate give you a little surprise for your audience?
Jessmyn:
I’m not sure.
Sue:
Yeah. So a couple of keywords, I’m going to say out loud for you guys to type in my DM, you will experience Beth the bot when you do this, she’s wicked smart as we say here in Boston. So if you type the word YouTube, you’ll get served up my channel with over 450 videos that you guys can subscribe to and hit the bell to get notified when I drop a new video. If you type the words, three keys, or the three gold emoji keys, you will get my free training. It’s the three keys training. It’s an hour long.
And if you want to learn, you heard me say alt text. If you want to learn how to do alt text correctly as well as pinning, just type an emoji B. Those three things will get you really good information. But the training is absolutely what you want to go through especially if you want to understand how to attract the right followers and buyers on the gram. And that’s what I got for you today.
Jessmyn:
Love it. All right, Sue. Thank you so much. And guys, we will see you next time. Bye.