Today's episode dives into the world of Facebook and Instagram ads for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Luan Jardine, an expert in Facebook and Instagram ads, shares insights on how to effectively reach your target audience through advertising.
Luan is a Facebook and Instagram Ads Expert that helps changemakers reach their dream audience. Luan is a strong believer that by connecting entrepreneurs with the right audience through advertising, they can be *wildly* successful. Her advertising campaigns bring in results that consistently cost less than average because of her strategic and audience-focused approach. She’s managed hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad campaigns and achieved a cost per lead as low as $0.50 (19X lower than industry average).
We talk about creating a business that supports mental health and developing marketing strategies that seamlessly fit into your workflow.
Ksenia:
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Doodles to Dollars podcast. Today we have an awesome conversation about something that I'm sure has either crossed your mind or you probably have a bunch of question marks around, which is Facebook and Instagram ads. Not just posting, not boosted posts, but ads. I know as solopreneurs and small business owners, ads can seem like a really daunting thing. I know we like, we know big companies use ads all the time, we've seen them, we've probably bought from them, but how does that really apply for small business owners and entrepreneurs? Well, today on Unlocked, we're gonna talk about that and more with Luan. Luan is a Facebook and Instagram app expert that helps changemakers reach their dream audience. Luan is a strong believer that by connecting entrepreneurs with the right audience through advertising, they can be wildly successful. Her advertising campaigns bring in results that consistently cost less than average because of her strategic and audience-focused approach. She's managed hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad campaigns and achieved a cost per lead as low as $0.50, which is 19 times lower than industry averages. Today, we're going to be talking about how to create a business that supports your mental health. So how can we create marketing and an advertising strategy that fits into your life so that you don't have to change the way you work and it's not like this heavy burden added onto your already pretty big to-do list. If any of that piques your interest, click around as we dive in.
Luan Jardine: Hi, welcome. I'm so excited to have you on the show to get started. Tell us who you are, what you do, all that good stuff.
Ksenia: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you for having me. My name is Luan Jardine. I'm a Facebook and Instagram advertising strategist, and I'm also a freelancer coach. The journey on how I got started. So I started my business when I was Let me think. I think about 21 years old, just freelancing on the side. I joined, I was in a co-op program, so like practicum program at my university, and I got introduced to freelancing. So I've been freelancing since then. And then I started my business full time at the end of 2020. So I was finishing my degree in business management. And then I worked in several unfortunate jobs, as I'm sure so many of us have. My story is not glamorous. I just had a series of unfortunate events. And at the end of 2020, when we were all working from home, I just had enough of the job I was working at. Towards the end of the year is Black Friday. And the company I was working for had a lot of e-commerce clients. And I was doing a lot of advertising and email marketing and project management, client communication. And I had, I think, 12 to 13 clients at the time, which is just way too many. And there was no way I was compensated well enough for that. So I decided it was time, it was time to leave. I just wasn't being recognized as a human and I felt like more of a machine. And my mental health took a toll and I was just like, I've had enough. I think I need to start my own thing. And I kind of jumped in headfirst with one or two clients. And then things kind of picked up along the way, which is exciting. I niched down to advertising because there was a need for it in the market. I think there still is. There's so much stigma around advertising and people just like don't understand what it is. So I wanted to go into that field because it was filling a gap and it's also something I felt like I was skilled in or I am skilled in. Got to own that. And then I've developed courses and things along the way. And now freelancer coaching is one of my newer offers. I just really want to help people leave their shitty jobs and get ones that they love, create ones that they love.
Luan Jardine: OK, we're going to dive a bit deeper with all that. So you mentioned finishing up school for the business management side of things. First of all, is that like the main thing you went to school for or were you just like continuing education since you mentioned you've been like freelancing before then?
Ksenia: Um, it was my bachelor's. So it was my undergraduate degree. I went straight to university from high school. So I applied to, it's called like a bachelor of management program. And yeah, I knew I wanted to do business and marketing because marketing is the creative side of things, but I did not know I would end up freelancing. So that was a fun twist. Entrepreneurship was never something I like saw myself in, but it became a necessity and then it became something I loved.
Luan Jardine: Hmm. Okay, yeah, because I was going to ask if it was just something like for me, for example, I had professors be like, hey, I need you to do some work on the side here, go do it. But Yeah, you mentioned it being a necessity. So like having to freelance while you were going to school or after?
Ksenia: Well, going full time, I say, was the real necessity. Freelancing while I was in school was more like to network and have fun and just like to learn hands on because I think learning in university and like a chair is never as effective as actually doing the work.
Luan Jardine: Mm hmm. Well, I know that you focus right now, you focus on ads and you mentioned that you're kind of had that type of a role in your job as well. What's the connection? Did you end up doing what your degree taught you or were you kind of like, no, let's just go into advertising? I guess I'm trying to find like the connecting point between the two.
Ksenia: Yeah, great question. Well, my degree was pretty broad, like a business degree is pretty Like you touched on all the elements of business, accounting, finance, marketing, human resources, like all of the things. You learned a little bit about a lot. And then in my work placements while I was going to school, that's where I kind of dove in more to marketing and I honed in my skills. I did not learn how to advertise in university. I learned that at the marketing agency that I worked at. Yeah, it's really funny. I loved going to school and learning, but I feel like the skills that I picked up weren't what I learned from the textbook. It was more like people management, working in groups, presentations, things like that. But the things that professors actually teach you is not quite applicable because a lot of them are on tenure. So they aren't actually working in the field. So what they're teaching isn't actually relevant. So Yeah. 99% of what I learned is self-taught.
Luan Jardine: I so get that. I remember I had the same feeling too. I went to school and some of my professors still worked as designers and some didn't. And you'd always put more weight into what people were actually in the field doing the stuff. At least for design, there was a lot of… The other professors were obviously still good because they taught a lot of theory or I remember one who taught how to make typography, which is a very niche thing to do. But yeah, you'd put more weight into the people that are actually out there. I think when you said business management, I'm like, oh, it's like managing a business, but no, like you're diving into all the different avenues and then you kind of decide.
Ksenia: Yeah, definitely. I wish it was what it sounds like it is, but it wasn't.
Luan Jardine: That's a bummer. So after university, did you go full time right away or because you mentioned going to like the little the practicums and all that stuff?
Ksenia: Yeah, I actually I started working at one agency. While I was still in university, I was working 20 hours a week, which felt like a lot at the time in fourth year university. Yeah. And the job was really, really not good. That was probably the worst job I ever had. The owner of the company had anger management problems. They weren't giving me a set task list. So they just wanted my me to like sit in a chair for 20 hours a week, which just like was super boring, especially as someone that needed to be studying. So that was not great. So I quit that job before I went full time. And then I had a lot of trouble finding a job after that. So I was trying to figure things out. I should have started my freelance full-time business then, but I didn't. I was really hoping for that like corporate experience that like we all hope and dream for. I just wanted my freaking cubicle that I never got because open concept workplaces are like such a big thing right now. It's so tragic. No privacy. So hard to get work done. Anyway, I ended up getting hired at a corporate company and the work was It was a good job, but I ended up getting laid off because of budget cuts and marketing is always the first thing to go.
Luan Jardine: Was that the job that led you to go full time with your business? Oh, no.
Ksenia: I had, I think, four jobs, four or five after graduation of university. So there was that corporate job and then I quit that. Or no, I didn't quit. I got laid off from that. And then after that, I got hired at a spa to do their marketing, which sounds super fun, but it was owned by men. And these men were not feminists, unfortunately. And for anyone listening, feminism means equality. Feminism doesn't mean women are before men. So it was really unfortunate to work at that job because they made a lot of really inappropriate jokes. And I got talked over a lot. A lot of my ideas were stolen from me. So I did a presentation to them about feminism, and then I quit. And then I got hired at the agency. So I guess it's four jobs. I got hired at the agency that I worked at most recently, that I was at for about a year, and then I quit at the end of 2020. Yeah, it was a journey. Freelancing and entrepreneurship is the longest job I've ever had, and no regrets, but my God, the journey to get here was bumpy.
Luan Jardine: Yeah, I love like talking to people about their journeys because we all have different ways of getting there. So like you just mentioned, the road has been bumpy after leaving that job. So it's been four years, three to four years now of flowing full time. Yeah. How has that been for you?
Ksenia: It's been it's been good. It's been challenging, but in different ways than working for someone is challenging. I think I had to unlearn the 40-hour work week, which was really, really difficult at the beginning. I found myself overworking. And there was this weird… I think it's still around, but everyone says entrepreneurs need to work like 80-hour weeks and need to only sleep five hours a night and all that stuff. Just like the old kind of system of entrepreneurship that just doesn't need to be a thing, probably before the internet existed. So it took a lot of unlearning that for the 40-hour work week and a lot of me taking care of myself and my mental health. I was also the breadwinner for the four years, three to four years that my partner was in school, finishing his degree. So that was an added stress while figuring out my business. But I grew it really fast and I'm really proud of the work I did. I just think I pushed myself a little bit too hard because of my expectations of myself to carry our household and also to, I don't know, all of those negative beliefs just from working for so many bad employers.
Luan Jardine: Yeah, it's interesting that you mentioned that. The 80-hour workweek entrepreneurial thing, I honestly, it's interesting because as you were talking about that, I feel like that might be really old, but there's definitely a newer version of that falling into all the hustle culture and just kind of like productivity but to the negative side of it like yeah it's great to be productive but then it's like overboard yeah it's so interesting and it is hard like i i totally relate because i definitely have that where it's like oh I don't know, I feel like I'm curious if you have this too or maybe you've balanced it out and you're doing great which I'm like amazing. But sometimes I'll be super into hustle for a period of time working more obviously if projects need it then that's what it needs but working more than I need to or closer to probably like a nine to eight. And then other times it's like, I'm a freelancer, I can do whatever I want. No, like my schedule is super free. Some weeks I might do some work, some weeks I might not. I'm curious what that is like for you.
Ksenia: Oh my gosh. Yeah, I feel that so much. I think that at the beginning of Well, really all of 2021 and a lot of 2022, I was like full force, like working way, way, way too much. I didn't realize I should rest before I'm tired or like force myself to rest, even if I feel inspired to work. So, yeah, I was like in full grind mode. Like there was a lot of days like I'm like, I can sleep in because like I just can't. And then I would like work so freaking hard during the day. And then last year, my partner, he's working now. So I took, I was like, I'm going to take a vacation. Like, I'm just going to take a bunch of time off work. And then that turned into so much more time off of work than I thought it was going to be, which ended up being so nice and exactly what I needed. Because after grinding for so long and so hard, I didn't realize how burned out I was. And now I'm pregnant. So I sleep so much. So basically I'm taking full advantage of the flexibility and grinding way less but trying to make more of the time that I have where I feel good. It's just like there's never gonna be that consistency like week to week. It's crazy.
Luan Jardine: Yeah, I definitely feel it. It's so interesting because even if I look back at the past year, like I've been running my design studio for seven years now, which is crazy to me that it's been seven because it doesn't feel like it's been that long. But then I'm like, yeah, I have been around for a while. Yeah, like last most of last year was more slow, more introspective. I was like redoing a bunch of internal things. And then from November to now has been like full steam ahead. So like, I guess I got my little like, break. But also looking back, I kind of wish I really relaxed into it. Because that whole time was like, what is happening? What am I doing in my business? So Yeah, there's seasons to everything. I think that's one of the things where it's like in a job you might, there is more routine, but as an entrepreneur, like you have seasons, right? Like you're the one managing the seasons versus your boss or whoever.
Ksenia: Totally. Yeah. And when you don't work somewhere where your boss says, like, you need to take a vacation, then you're going to go and work for yourself and never think you need a vacation, never think you need time off. And even when you do work corporate, you get like two to three weeks off a year when you might need a hell of a lot more than that, especially when you're self-employed. But we're just we're just so ambitious and ready to grow. And we're so hard on ourselves. And it's Yep. It's a double-edged sword, like it's so good, but it's so bad. Yeah.
Luan Jardine: I feel like that's like everything too, you know, like there's kind of like that little range or this, yeah, there's this range of like, yeah, this is a good area, like too much, not good, too little, probably also not good. Yeah, I keep, my mind keeps coming back to how you mentioned like the cubicle dream of like open workspace because It's so funny, I never thought about it this way, but I 100% know what you mean because my one job, like one full-time job out of university, it was all open concept. It was so hard to work. I also just remember getting my work done really quickly and then you're just sitting there and everyone can see that you're just sitting there. Yeah. And I'm like, yeah, privacy probably would have been sweet and having my own little spot in my cubicle. But it was just like, desk, desk, here's another person working right here. like, meetings are also open concept. So there's like, you hear everyone's meetings, and you have to be like, I can't hear anything. I do not hear you yelling at this person, reaming them out for something that is not their job. So yeah, it's so interesting how it's like, I don't know, I feel like I've noticed this also in past conversations and on this podcast, too, where Some people have like terrible corporate experiences, but other people have really great ones. And that I know, especially in the entrepreneurial or aspiring entrepreneur world, it's like corporate is the devil, like you need to leave. But it's it really just depends. Like some people have great experiences and they just want a different lifestyle. And then sometimes cubicles aren't good, you know?
Ksenia: Totally. I think I would have been so happy in a cubicle, but I just never got the chance.
Luan Jardine: Nice.
Ksenia: You should build yourself a cubicle. Honestly, I should. Yeah, a cubicle in my office to keep like no one away because I'm like the only one home 100% of the time.
Luan Jardine: I feel that. Yeah. Looking back at your whole journey, everything that you went through, the good, the bad, the ugly, are there key points that you remember whether they're like pivot points or lessons you learned that really stick out and really stick out and then also help you with what you do today?
Ksenia: Oh, wow. Um, yeah, I think there's a lot I think. Well, a lot of stuff happened in like my personal life that made me grow. Like, I don't know, like, my high school relationship ending that was really big. And I think that made me come out of my box a lot more. Just like allowing myself to be confident in who I am and own it. I think that was really big for me. And then seeing that come through in my work, the big pivotal moment, I think, for me was at that one job at the spa when I gave that presentation about feminism. I was so nervous and it was not required. They didn't know what the meeting was going to be about. But I was like, hey, you said this the other day and that was completely offside and is actually quite sexist. You should probably not say that in front of any other woman. And yeah, I like went on and told them all the things that were not appropriate. And looking back now, I'm like, fuck yeah, like that version of myself, like good for you. And in my business now, just the fact that I'm showing up on social media is like, if I saw myself 10 years ago or 10 years ago, if I saw myself now, I would be like, who is she? Because I did not have the confidence to be doing what I am now. I was so afraid to show up and exist and take up room. But now it's just you put out what you want in the world. You don't care if you're judged for it. You just hope those people unfollow you. And you get to talk to some people that you really connect with the more that you share. Of course, there's like a line with everything, but it's it's cool to see the transition. And I think there's so much confidence growth that happens along the way. And if you surround yourself with supportive people, then like you're going to grow. So, yeah, I'd say those are like some of the key things that stand out to me. I'm sure there's way more, but yeah.
Luan Jardine: Yeah that's so good. It's interesting that you say like the confidence piece because I also like growing up I was like I have an older sister who's usually very loud so I like grew up as like the quiet one. Yeah. And it's interesting how like entrepreneurship but I feel like also everything that kind of leads up to it really trains you like no you have to talk to people. You really do have to talk to people saying this like laughing to myself because there was a point in time where I was like, I don't want to talk to anybody. My business will be successful and I talk to zero people.
Ksenia: Yeah, I will not network. I'll do it all myself somehow. I'll figure it out.
Luan Jardine: Yeah, people will just know that I exist. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And yeah, for anyone listening, unfortunately, you do have to talk to people. And I so relate, like, I feel like that learning or that growth, that transition is probably one of my favorites. And it's interesting, like, You mentioned like the confidence of putting yourself out there. And that really just reminds me like, it's crazy to me that even seven years in probably in the past three to four months is when I've actually been like, Oh, I actually know what I'm doing. Yeah, like, actually having confidence, like, no, like, I know what I'm doing, my process is spot on, like, you're actually doing great. me saying this to myself. So it's interesting how for some people it might be like innate, maybe you just grew up and had a bunch of confidence, yay for you. Yeah. But it's like, I don't know. I don't know the point that I'm trying to come across here. But just it's interesting how that happens. And it can still happen seven years in. And I don't know, it's a really nice change. Like, I remember having that thought and being like, that's nice. Like,
Ksenia: Yeah, I was thinking, I've been thinking about it a lot lately, too, just because I haven't been able to work as much because the pregnancy has been so physically draining. But I'm like, dang, like, thank you to the past me for showing up so much so that now people know that they can come to me even when I'm not showing up. I did so good. So now I don't need to push myself so hard. It's yeah, it's like, thank you for being and doing the work to be confident. And now you can just like ride the wave.
Luan Jardine: That's awesome. Pivoting a little bit towards like what you do now, I know you mentioned ads, which is, I so relate to you being like, some people don't know what to do with that. I'm like, I don't know what to do with that. What inspired you to, I know you mentioned skill and also there being kind of an area in the market that needed it. Is there anything else that inspired you to go into that? And how has that gone so far?
Ksenia: It's been good. But yeah, to answer the first part of your question, Well, I really enjoy advertising because I was doing a lot of social media management in freelancing. And it's really fun. And it's really great, especially if you're good at it. But social media management is very hard. And it's really hard to get your clients the results that they want to see. I also did some SEO work at the agencies I worked at. And if you've worked in SEO, you know those results take even longer to appear. So I have had a lot of clients were like, I want results now. And why aren't you doing the work? You must not be putting in any hours. And it was just so frustrating. And then when I started learning how to advertise, I was like, oh, the results come literally like the day you hit publish. Like my clients are happy immediately. This is so much easier for me, so much easier for them. Like everyone gets a mental health break. Sure, it's more of an investment because you have to like pay to have your advertisement appear. But the cost of stress is so much more expensive. So that's kind of what drew me to it. And also the people I get to work with now is they just like make everything so much fun because I get to like spread messages that actually mean something. I'm not just trying to, like when I worked at the agency, I'm not just trying to make a sale so someone else can get rich. I actually get to spread a message that helps people feel good and that is what brings everything kind of full circle to me. Because advertising, as frustrating as like meta Facebook and Instagram are, it's such a powerful platform for you to advertise on. So it's the people that I get to connect that make it so awesome. Yeah, and things have gone really well. for me. The clients I've gotten to work with have been amazing. And the people that I've enrolled in my courses have been really amazing. I love seeing people grow and be able to grow their businesses with advertising because it's such an underused tool. People think it's so expensive, but really, it's the cheapest thing you can do. You can run a $50 ad campaign and get really great results. And people, for some reason, have their heads stuck on $500, $5,000. You have to invest so much to run ads. And you just don't. But yeah, the results come fast. The people are amazing to work with. The only downside I would say is busting the myths around ads like so many times. Like, no, you don't need that budget to run ads. No, you don't need to have like 10K followers to run ads. And just repeating myself on those. Like if you scroll through my Instagram, you'll see like, hey, like you don't need to have a whole bunch of success in organic marketing in order to advertise. You just need to show up and do the work. So that's the only frustrating piece, but that's OK.
Luan Jardine: Well, it's good that you mentioned that, because I was going to ask for people like, is there a bare minimum before someone should consider running ads?
Ksenia: I'd say just have a message that you're confident in. Know what you're trying to sell because you don't like definitely using ads to grow your email list is amazing. But if you don't have an offer to sell, then you're not going to be able to monetize your email list. So have a good message, an offer that you want to sell and $50 and you're ready to advertise. That's it. It's way easier than people think.
Luan Jardine: Well, I'm curious, with the people that you work with and even the people in your courses, where do they fall in in terms of the type of business? Like, are they service providers? Do they have a product? Like, are ads better for one group of people than another? Oh, yeah. Good question.
Ksenia: I think ads are great for anybody, really, like e-commerce companies, coaches, any type of entrepreneur. The people I primarily work with are coaches and people like service providers and people that sell courses and digital products. So I do a lot of email list growth campaigns. So basically campaigns like sign up for this freebie and you'll get obviously the freebie and you'll be on my email list. And then you use that group of people to monetize your email list. and also launch campaigns. So people that want free webinar, like they're hosting a free webinar and they want signups, I help them with that campaign and then a retargeting campaign to sell the course that they pitch at the end of the webinar.
Luan Jardine: That's good to know. Something to consider for Accenture.
Ksenia: Absolutely. Yeah. I'm your girl.
Luan Jardine: obviously. Do you find that because obviously I know like done for you services and when you have you're doing it for your client there's probably a higher level of success because you know what you're doing there's less like troubleshooting but do you find that that also translates well to like your courses?
Ksenia: Yeah, definitely. My students have had better results than me for like my personal campaigns. So definitely would say like, if you have a strong message, and you know who you're targeting with your audience, you can get like insanely good results. And yeah, my one student I was working with last year, she got a cost per lead of $3.33. And it was a $50 campaign and she grew her email list from it. And it was awesome. And that was lower than my $50 campaign cost per result. So yeah, the, I mean, kind of tooting my own horn, but I worked so hard on my courses. They actually show you what to do every step of the way. So she did really, really well. And I was really stoked to see that she outperformed my campaign.
Luan Jardine: That's awesome. That's such a like great bragging point. Like not only do you get what I say but you could… I had people beat me so it's like that's awesome because yeah, as someone who's taken so many courses, it's like am I actually gonna get what you're telling me I'm gonna get? Like is this actually gonna happen?
Ksenia: Yeah, it's so true too. I think a lot of courses promise that you'll make X amount of money at the end of it. And it's just, I don't know, I think that's such a red flag. So I don't guarantee you'll make a certain amount of money, but I do guarantee you'll get the lowest cost per result. And if you don't, then I'll do everything I can to make sure you do.
Luan Jardine: If anyone wants ads, you know where I'm going. Yeah. Pivoting a little bit, I know we touched on this throughout your journey and even with kind of like the hustle and relaxing side of things, but how has it been like focused, like creating your business to support your mental health? I know that's been really important for you.
Ksenia: It's been a journey. Like I said, I think I hustled too hard at the beginning and pushed myself too hard. And a lot of the financial stress was on me for the past however many years that my partner was in school. So managing my stress was something I needed to do and something I wasn't always great at. But I think unlearning that I needed to work 40 hours a week was big and actually like letting myself rest, letting myself take breaks, letting myself sleep. Those were all big wins along the way. Also, like going to therapy, highly recommend it. I think, I mean, everyone can benefit from therapy, but in self-employment, there's so much pressure on us, especially if you're a breadwinner. So talking to someone and actually voicing all of those concerns is so helpful, especially someone that's not going to judge you. And having a community, I'm in Quinn Tempest's community called the Create Your Purpose Collective, and it changed everything. The journey of entrepreneurship is so much less lonely, so that all has really helped my mental health. I think the biggest lesson I learned now is I should have been resting before I was tired. And I really wish I had the past few years. I grew a lot really quickly, but there was a big health expense. So I think that I wish I would have rested more.
Luan Jardine: Yeah, that's so huge. I say that as someone who like completely does not listen to my body's cues on like, you should rest now because yeah, I'm sure like you mentioned this before, you just get so into your work, especially if it's something that you're into and you love doing and you're passionate that it's like body cues and like resting before you're tired. which kind of just goes out the window. So, that's something that I'm still working on to be like, no, okay, it's you work to full day, go do your puzzle because I freaking love puzzles. With all that I'm learning, are there things that you have set in place now? Like I know some people have systems and like automations and all of that. Is there anything like that, whether it's software, processes, maybe support, maybe if you have a VA, are there things that you have in place that help you keep that balance?
Ksenia: Hmm, I think more boundaries more than anything have helped. I don't, I'm like a one man or one woman show, so I don't have a VA or any other support like that. I use Airtable. Airtable is great. I use MailerLite to like email my list and I have a bunch of automation set up, which has been really helpful. But boundaries is like the biggest thing. Not checking my phone in the morning, sleeping with my phone in a different room at night. I don't have an email app on my phone, but I check it on my browser. I used to be a lot better, but I used to not have my work email logged in on my phone, which is really helpful. I do now. Something I should probably log out of. But yeah, things like that have been really helpful. Just setting boundaries between me and work and trying like that's the one good thing about corporate jobs is you walk into it and then you check your email and like you've already had your morning. But when you're self-employed, you can like log into it right away. And that's what's and you like get caught up in it. You don't do any self-care before you start working. You just like dive into it. And I think that's when it starts to get tricky.
Luan Jardine: Yeah. I so relate 100% it's interesting especially with email like email on your phone I tried the whole like deleting it and then I check it in my browser and then at some point it's like gotten to the point where I'll like I'll open my email and refresh it just as I would Instagram Yeah, it's sort of like that becomes the addictive thing of like, Oh, I need to know if clients need me right away. So now I've Yeah, it's so interesting. It kind of flows. Like sometimes I'm really good at it. Sometimes I'm not. I try and like put my phone away when I'm focusing and working. And especially when I'm making puzzles, because I'm like, no one can contact me. I am in the puzzle zone. And that's so yeah.
Ksenia: Yeah, I love that. That's your self care time. There's also an app called Opal. I think that's what it's called.
Luan Jardine: I have it. You have it? Yeah, I use it for Instagram and Facebook. But honestly, it's annoying because sometimes I'll need to go into Instagram to post something. And I have to like go through the whole thing. And my app has been really glitchy, like the Opal app. So I'm like, waiting, like, come on, we gotta post right now. But that's also on me to like create a schedule and I probably need those, those boundaries, those guardrails. Yeah. It's nice.
Ksenia: Opal like locks you out of your apps. So it's really hard to get into them, which is, I love it. I love being locked out of things, which it sounds so weird, but my schedule is 8 PM to 7 AM. So it's usually not around my posting time. Okay. I don't post in forever, but yeah.
Luan Jardine: Yeah mine is actually it's interesting mine's the other way around so mine's during my work day and then in the evening it opens up but then I also have like an hour and a half limit on the apps in general for the day which like sometimes I decompress watching like cleaning scrubbing videos. Yeah I love carpet cleaning videos. Yeah I'm like really this sounds so weird but like listening and watching somebody scrub something, I'm like, scrub my brain from any stress. I so get it. Yeah. You mentioned this a little bit with boundaries, but I think that it's interesting because you always hear people talk about boundaries with people. You're setting a boundary with someone else or something else, but it's interesting because when you mentioned it, it was like, no, I need to set boundaries for me. Like my phone is somewhere else and I think that's so interesting, but it's probably the most useful because I so get like putting your phone in another room and Being like, no, you're not doing this right now. Go do this over here. And kind of, at least from what you mentioned, I've picked up like you really set up an environment so that even if you're not feeling your best, or maybe your discipline's like not there that day or whatever, like you will still succeed. Well, thank you. That sounds nice. Like, like, you know, like, you're bound, like, you have the boundaries in place so that like, your phone's not right there. So even if you wanted to scroll it in the morning, you still have to get out of bed, go walk to where your phone is, like, there's, like, you're setting up your environment so that it's harder for you to fail at what you want, if that makes sense.
Ksenia: Yeah, yeah, totally. Well, thank you for saying it like that. That makes me feel very nice. But yeah, it's been a really good transition. It was so hard at the beginning because I used to check my phone first thing in the morning. I was always pretty good at not checking my phone before bed, but first thing in the morning. I mean, that's my clock. I literally don't know what time it is when I wake up. I really need to get an alarm clock. But when I do have meetings in the morning, I set an alarm and I have to get up and walk to my office to turn off my alarm. Some days I don't hear it, which is scary. So yeah, I really need to get an alarm clock, but that's all beside the point. It's been the greatest transition, not bringing my phone into the bedroom. The only time that I do is when I take a nap and I want to listen to a meditation. I do watch TikToks in bed, but it's only during the day. It's never in the morning or at night. So that's helped a lot, I think, my mindset.
Luan Jardine: Yeah, I was just like, it's so true how I think my mind just keeps thinking back to how you said like in a corporate job you don't have to think about like your day starts when you get to work and when you log in not when you wake up and it's yeah I don't know I think I've noticed over the past couple conversations on this podcast but also in networking and in other conversations in my life, there's actually so much that we could as entrepreneurs take from the corporate world. And I feel like sometimes the corporate world is like, like I said earlier, like it's the worst thing ever. You don't want to take anything from it, but it's like, well, no, like cubicles, you need, you need a space to zone out. Like, Like setting those boundaries of like, no, this is my workday. I'm going to have a life outside of this. And yeah, as entrepreneurs, unfortunately we have, well, unfortunately and possibly fortunately, we have to set it for ourselves. So it really just depends on how good you are at keeping your agreements with yourself, which is a work in progress for me.
Ksenia: Yeah, I think for like all of us, really, it's so much more work to do all of the necessary things that corporate does so effortlessly. Yeah. Like having those boundaries and having a community, like just people that are around you and you're working, you really have to seek that out in entrepreneurship. And that is hard. And it's such a foreign thing for so many of us.
Luan Jardine: Yeah, that's interesting you mentioned that because I recently had a conversation with my boyfriend and he was like, you really like group courses, huh? Like, you really like going where there's community and I'm like, yeah, it's because I work alone all day. I sit in this room, I'm alone, like, Meanwhile, he works in labor, so they have a crew and all this stuff. He's always around people. To him, it's so foreign that I go seek out community in my free time, whether it has to do with business or I'm going to church or I'm doing an art class or whatever. That's just what I need. He's like, you really need those people, huh? Yeah, because I'm alone with my cat. Leave me alone.
Ksenia: Actually, though, like you have to seek out the social interaction. Otherwise, you'll go your whole day without talking out loud.
Luan Jardine: Yeah, 100%. I'm like thinking like, yeah, I don't really talk much during the day unless I'm talking to my cat.
Ksenia: Yeah, yeah. The amount I talk to my dog is like, maybe worrying. I don't know.
Luan Jardine: We should do a poll. Do you talk to your animal as an entrepreneur?
Ksenia: Please vote yes, so we don't feel crazy.
Luan Jardine: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Looking back at your history and your career, are there things that you've seen apart from like the really, really obvious things like the spa bosses? But are there things that you've seen that you're like, yeah, I'm not doing that in my business?
Ksenia: Oh, dang. Like when I was an employee or like self-employed?
Luan Jardine: Well, both, honestly, because sometimes I come across other, like I'll hire someone, I'm like, Hey, I'm not doing that. I'm a business.
Ksenia: Yeah. Yeah, fair. I think the, as an employee, I just always wanted to assume the best in people. Like looking at my bosses, they would always assume the worst. And I think that's what led to a lot of like of their anger problems. So I always wanted to assume the best in people and. It was good in a way, but also bad because People in employee situations, they complain a lot about their work. So as a project manager at the marketing agency I was at, I was like, okay, people don't want to work. People are complaining. They have too much work. So I'm going to try to do all of the work. And that was like good because I mean, Hey, I'm self-employed now. I am doing all the work, but really bad because I had a team that I could have been delegating to. And I was burning myself out like twice as fast. So that was a learning experience, just, and I guess that kind of speaks to automations and things like that, like delegate out where I can now to, I mean, a lot of these resources are free, which is great, but making things easy. So I don't have to be on as much as of the time. And then in terms of entrepreneurship, oh my gosh, like this is a, like I could go off, but like I said before, there are so many people that promise financial outcome to their program courses, working with them. That drives me up the wall because I have been that person that's been like, yes, I'm new to this. I want that financial outcome. I'm going to sign up and give you a whole bunch of my money. And then they like took my money. They met their financial goal, but I didn't. So that drives me crazy. And I can see right through it now. Sometimes I still catch myself being like, Oh, that sounds really desirable. Like I kind of want to sign up for that course. And I'm like, wait, they can't guarantee that I'll make that much money. So that is something that I'm not going to do in my business. I'm never going to guarantee someone's going to make X amount of money, because if I haven't created the offer, then I can't guarantee people are going to want to buy the offer. I just won't ever know enough about it. And yeah, just the authenticity of it all. I think people are really good at selling a lot of the time that they forget to deliver. And then there's the switch side. People deliver so much value, but they don't sell it. Yeah. So, yeah, it's difficult, but that's, I don't know. Yeah, I could go off on that forever.
Luan Jardine: Yeah, I still relate to that, especially that specifically with like hiring people, whether more so I feel like on the educational coaching side, hiring other service providers, I definitely see things like, oh, I would probably like more communication or something like that, or just comparing it to my process. I think that just naturally happens because you're always trying to improve. So if someone has a good process, you kind of like taking that and putting it into my process. But I still relate with courses and coaching. I've definitely made some dumb decisions and been burned by people that just… There's a lot of that. Like you said, selling, but what's the substance? What are they delivering? So, Yeah, I so relate. With that in mind, like you mentioned, you catch yourself when doing courses. Do you have a mental checklist that you go through whenever you're considering signing up for something? I actually haven't thought about it.
Ksenia: I suppose I do in a way. It's funny. I know how advertising works and email sequences and selling and all of that, but I still get sucked right into it. So I sign up for that freebie. I'm in their email sequence and I'm like, Oh, that sounds so great. Maybe I should sign up for this. And then I do a bit more research. I try to always research the coach or person selling. I just, if they're using income, like their income to sell their program, that doesn't mean it's going to work for me. And it means they're good at selling their program, but it has no implication that they're going to be able to help me sell mine. I just try to think about it like, are they an authentic person or do they have a marketing team that's really, really good at what they do? So I try to think about it like that. And I also try to only buy from people that I trust and that I've had a conversation with. So whether it be call or chatting on Instagram, like I like to build that relationship. And I think a lot of other people do too. Yeah, there's so many big promises that people have. And it's so easy when you hear the, or another red flag, when the price isn't on a website for like a course or a program, that drives me crazy. I will not invest if I do not see the price. Like, that just like, they'll just get you on a sales call and somehow trick you into saying yes. Not about that. Yeah, there's actually a lot of things that are red flags to me now that before I was looking for to invest in those programs. But yeah, I think investing in people that I actually trust is the way to go.
Luan Jardine: Yeah. Yeah. I can't remember where I heard this, but someone mentioned like if are you buying this course because you actually want to learn it or are you buying it because by just the act of buying it you like assume that that's gonna like catapult you to whatever the outcome is and it's so interesting because like I also still have to be like okay am I doing this course because I actually want to learn what there is in here or like if I just buy it then I'll suddenly have 50k months have whatever whatever they're talking about and it's Yeah, I think that's something that I always check in internally because even if the person's amazing, even if they deliver and I know they deliver and especially if it's someone I've taken a course from before, that it's like, are you trying to buy? One, do you have time to do this? Are you actually going to do this course or is it just going to sit on a shelf and then eventually not matter anymore because you're not doing that? And then am I trying to buy the outcome versus actually doing the work that it takes to get there? And I'm, yeah, I've definitely been one of those people that's like, wants a quick fix, for sure, in different areas of my life also, but especially in entrepreneurship, because you see all these like, flashy marketing, at what you just see flashy, obviously things to sell. So it's like, but they need that much money in this much time, that would be amazing. And then you're like, Yeah, did they actually though? Or I think I had a conversation with someone recently where it's like, yeah, they might have made 50k, but maybe their expenses were like 49 and a half. And so they only made 500. Yeah.
Ksenia: It's actually such a big thing. It's the transparency just like, isn't there. And all these entrepreneurs that say they're six figure entrepreneurs or seven figure entrepreneurs over how many years are they counting their income? Like, we don't think about that. We always just think like, Oh, they must have made six figures in one year. Like, no, if they have a six figure business, that could mean anything. So, yeah, it's just building the trust in who you're going to invest with because there are loopholes and people that are money hungry will find the loopholes in order to sell.
Luan Jardine: Yeah. That's what people are listening. There's 100% good people out there. Just trusting your gut and doing your research. really helps and sometimes you'll make mistakes because even thinking back to my biggest mistake with getting courses that's so not worth it and thankfully the person shut the program down but somehow I still had to pay for it. Even with that, it's interesting you mentioned getting on a call because I got on a call with her. But yeah, sometimes you won't even know. Sometimes you'll have to be so in it and then be like, oh, no, this isn't it. And then take it as a learning lesson because sometimes people aren't as gracious or understanding with reasons why you need to leave. And it's interesting, too, because you'll get the flip side, like that was a terrible experience. But then I've had other people that are like, oh my gosh no we totally understand like this isn't the right fit for you like here here's your money back even like thank you for understanding yeah the human approach yeah yeah i think it's so easy to get sucked up into like what everyone else is doing and forget that like we're all humans we're all just trying to do our best and like live a life yeah yeah absolutely Yeah. To wrap it up, I know we're close to our hour. Is there anything else that you'd love to share, whether it's about anything we talked about before we dive into where people can find you?
Ksenia: Well, the only thing that just came into my mind, but the other filter before investing in something is identify the skill you want to have before trying to find a course or seeking out a course for that skill. Because so many times we look for a quick fix, but we don't actually know what we're trying to solve. So knowing the skill that you want to have and then finding the course for it. And the other thing is just, yeah, if you're a new freelancer, just if you're scared, show up scared and the confidence will come with time. I promise. Because I was the least likely person to show up and I did. So you can do it too.
Luan Jardine: Nice. I love that. So agree. Okay, thank you so much. I'm so excited that you were on my podcast as a guest. So where can people find you? What are you up to? How can they work with you?
Ksenia: So I'm on Instagram the most. It's just at Luan Jardine, just my name. And I have a website, luannjardine.com. Everything is pretty much just my name, but yeah, to work with me, if you want freelancer coaching, let me, you can just send me a DM and I'm happy to create custom packages. That's kind of what I'm all about this year is custom pricing, custom packages. And I do done for you advertising. I have. course called Dream Audience on Autopilot that teaches you how to run ads to grow your email list. And then I also have a course called DIY Facebook Ads that teaches you all the tech for ads. And I have other courses. I have another course that's called the Ultimate Ad Strategy that just teaches you the strategy that you should have when you're approaching an ad campaign. But I also have freebies. So I'd love to offer your audience a freebie. It's called Swipe My Ad Strategy. It'll walk you through like my whole process when I created an ad campaign. And it's really in depth. It has like journal prompts, all the things that I use with my clients and myself. So if you want to get that for free, I'll send you the link and you can pop it in the bio.
Luan Jardine: All the links will be in the bio and then also on the podcast page on my site, which will be linked in the bio as well. And yeah, thank you so much. I feel like this is going to be such a good episode for the people listening.
Ksenia: Yeah, thank you for having me. This was such a good conversation. I'm excited for it to go out.
Luan Jardine: Thank you for joining us for today's episode. I'm very excited for this podcast and I'd love to hear any feedback, what you thought about it. Please let me know as I want to make this a very useful resource for you. We have some amazing interviews coming up as well as some solo episodes, so keep an eye out for those. Subscribe if you want to be notified when those come out and have them automatically go into your podcast player of choice. All the links mentioned will be in the show notes and also on the podcast page on my site. And lastly, if you'd like to be a guest on the show or have a topic you'd like me to cover, please reach out to me at podcast at Xenia.co.
Ksenia: And that concludes our episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Again, please give me feedback. I want to make this really awesome for you and I hope you have a great day. Thanks for listening.
