Welcome to the Breakthrough Mastermind podcast. I'm your host. Jen Argue, and I facilitate masterminds for women entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses by helping others and creating long lasting financial independence. I'm so excited for our guest today, Jenn Possick. She is a member of my mastermind and actually just renewed for another year.
I'm so excited. She is a Facebook and Instagram ad strategist that helps six and seven figure coaches, course creators and consultants grow their email lists and fill their webinars and launches through Facebook and Instagram ads through her podcast, the ads Maven free trainings, ad makers members. And done with you services and ads management.
She is here to help you create more connections and more clients. And as a former elementary school teacher, she is really good at breaking down everything and making it easily digestible. Jenn is from St. Pete Florida. And when she's not riding her bike to the beach, she is rollerskating in the park or just chilling at home with her wife, Candice and their four rescue dogs.
And they are really cute dogs. Let me tell you, she believes strongly that love is love black lives matter and black trans lives matter. She believes in intersectional. Feminism is for everyone. No human is illegal and kindness is everything. So let's not wait anymore. Let's meet Jenn Possick and get ready to fall in love with Facebook Ads.
Yeah. Hey, Jen. So great to have you here today. Hi, thanks for having me. Yeah. One of the things I love about you is your story about how you got started in this business. It seemed like a really natural progression. And could you tell us what that story is all about? Yeah, of course. So, um, back in the day I used to teach elementary school and I taught for eight years.
I spent five years teaching kindergarten and three years teaching third grade, and I loved teaching. And it's so interesting because when I was a teacher, My whole identity was wrapped around that. Um, I loved teaching. I loved instilling a love of learning I loved of literacy. Um, I loved my students. I did not love the politics and yes! they goes along with teaching in the public Elementary school system.
And so when I stopped teaching, I spent some time trying to figure out what I wanted to do next. And I mean, it's funny. I like it. It was a few years of trying to like figure, figure stuff out, trying some things on, seeing what worked and what didn't. And in 2014, um, my parents had been introduced to a health and wellness product that had a big impact on them.
They've been entrepreneurs. As long as I can remember. And so they started sharing the product with other people. And I had worked with them in a different business before, and I had been on the phones, like talking to customers and I, uh, am very much an introvert. I wasn't even making cold calls. I was just taking calls from people that were calling with questions and stuff, but it stressed me out a lot.
And so I knew I did not want to do that again. But I wanted to help them with their business. And I knew we needed an online presence. So I very much believe that I'm a lifelong learner. And I also like to implement what I learned. So I just started learning, literally everything I could from everywhere I could.
Um, like I watched all the webinars. I listened to all the podcasts, read all the blogs. I bought a ton of courses and I just started applying it and implementing it and figuring out. What worked and what didn't and just tweaking it. Um, so I started by doing all the online things. So I created their website.
I started their email list and all of that. All their social media management and pretty quickly I learned really the power of growing your email lists that you can sell to the list. And I started running Facebook ads in like January of 2015. And pretty quickly realized how fast that gave us the ability to grow.
So I ended up, uh, growing my family's email list to over 160,000, which was really responsible for bringing in well over 2 million in sales. And then I just started. Uh, sharing what I knew and helping others kind of do the same and that's, I mean, it's evolved over time. And so now I really work with coaches and course creators and online service-based business owners to help them grow their list and launch their, like, fill their launch events.
Um, yeah. I love how that natural progression happened for you from being a teacher. And, you know, [laughs] I think teachers do love to learn and how you also have, I mean, it just shows what a big heart you have that you wanted to help your parents with this business. And you invested into learning what you had to learn in order to help them get their presence, you know, out there.
And. Grow that list, like you said, I mean, a big list is so important and wow. Did you explode their list? I did. [laughs] That is true. Yeah. And that was mostly through the power of ads that you did. Yeah, it really was through Facebook ads. And now, so typically it's funny, typically when I talk about Facebook ads, I mean Facebook and Instagram, because Facebook owns Instagram.
Um, or now I should say meta owns both. Um, but at the time this was before Facebook owned Instagram. So it really was just Facebook ads back then. Amazing! Amazing! Yeah. So you used all that, that love of learning and your heart to help others to get your parents to that amazing level of success. And then you turned to wanting to help others with that knowledge.
I did. Yeah. And how did you, um, because if your parents were in, they were in a wellness business, was that right? Yeah. Then how did you move into helping people who have courses and. That's a good question. I mean, it just organically kind of happened. Um, so back in the day I was a certified facilitator of this, uh, modality called access consciousness.
It's, um, kind of similar to like law of attraction type of stuff. And so just from being involved in that, I ended up working with other access consciousness, facilitators, um, who are similar to coaches, but a little bit different. Um, And yeah. So I think that kind of was how it started and then it just progressed with referrals and just kind of naturally, that was who I was around.
And I took, I mean, okay. So like back in the day, I. Um, I mean, I started listening to Amy Porterfield's podcast and started her courses. Like my first course with her was in like 2015. I was in her last round of, um, oh my gosh, what was it even called? It was something like. I can't believe I can't remember it, but it was like, well, before, you know, digital course academy, well, before courses that convert.
So I was in that world of like online courses for a long time too. So I think just being around people that were course creators and that were coating. Yeah. Um, And it's funny that you bring up Amy, because that's where we met, [laughs] I know, Amy conference. As I said it, which is so funny. Yeah. I know that was such a beautiful conference.
Um, so fun to meet you there at the end, just to process it all. So funny, it feels like a lifetime ago, but really it was only like. Two years ago, anything before the pandemics sounds like a lifetime. Ah! so true. Yes! So I, I haven't, uh, this question that I always like to ask people and what is the one soft skill that you see as really important to growing your business?
Yeah, so, um, I mean, I think it's kind of two things. I think one like being a lifelong learner and like, feeling like that is, I think that that is absolutely important. The biggest thing though, I think is constantly working on mindset stuff that, I mean, honestly, like even that's the stuff that always is holding me back and it's always the stuff that I'm having to constantly work on.
And sometimes it's similar stuff that. I already worked through this what's even going on, but it's like when you get to a new level in your business, that's the stuff that, it just, it comes up, but it looks different, but it's yeah, it's true. It never goes away. Does it? It's... it really is always. There's always some peace to keep working on.
Yeah. It's so funny. I saw something, some type of like me or something about how like, oh, I started this business because I really wanted to like work on all of my personal development stuff, [laughs] which I was like, oh my gosh, it's so true. Because like, I feel like I've had to work on myself as a person so much.
Through wanting to grow my business, which is such a weird thing, but I think it's so true for any business owner really. And that's where, like the mindset stuff just constantly comes back to it. Uhmm It's so true. And if you think about early on in your business, when you were doing. Um, when you were doing ads for your parents, let's say, or maybe when you started doing it for other people, can you think of a mindset block that you had back then that maybe you've grown through and don't struggle with so much anymore?
Oh, like an early one. So it's interesting because like, I think a lot of the, yes. And I still like it still, because stuff still comes up again. That's very similar. I've had to work through so much stuff with visibility. That's one of the big ones that keeps coming back. Um, but I used to, like, I used to say that like, I was like the best kept secret and like, I feel like invisibility has kind of been like my super power, like even to the point.
Where like, I would be like multiple times I've been standing in line at the grocery store, like waiting to check out and like the like cashier, like literally has not seen me standing directly in front of them for like a minute, like, [laughs] yeah. So, and then I got to a point where I was like, okay, I can't grow my business and be the best kept secret.
So sometimes even as my business has grown. And it's like, I'm so much more visible than I used to be. I still find myself having to revisit all of that and really consciously choose to step up and be more visible again. And sometimes it's almost like an energetic thing. And sometimes it takes like actual action, like physical action of showing up so well, and that makes sense.
I think the two always go together and I like how you were able to identify that. This is. You know, whatever mindset block you've struggled with early on is probably going to be carried with you throughout your lifetime. So how do you, you know, develop the skills to be able to revisit that every time it comes up with new resources that you've gathered along the way?
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But it's good. I, and I love that you identified that one block and that that's something that is not a tangible skill typically, you know, for, for growing a business. But getting through that visibility fear is, is so important for stepping out into bigger things. For sure. Yeah. So tell me about one hard skill that has really served your growth as an entree.
Yeah. Um, so I think probably just really understanding funnels and how they work, um, and really what's needed to bring somebody into, into your email list, but then also into, like, into your program, into your services and all of that, because I work with a lot of people where. That that's a struggle for them and they don't really understand the full thing of how that can really flow.
And I don't know, I just, like, I understood it very intrinsically from early on and that has served me well. Yeah. Do you think that you're a visual person? Oh, I'm definitely a visual. Yeah. Okay. Cause I feel like the funnels are always so visual, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That totally makes sense. I know. It's so funny.
Cause I just recently did like a private podcast where, and talking about, um, talking about ads from like only audio I'm very aware of. It is way more challenging than putting it together in like a webinar or some type of like visual way for people to see it. Um, yeah, I'm definitely visual. Auditory is like my last one.
And then like kinesthetic would be after visual [laugh] I love that, you know that about yourself. So my biggest question, when it comes to funnels, And you, I want to remind everybody listening that you have a lot of clients who are upper six figures, seven figure entrepreneurs, who you run their ads. And so you're very successful at what you do.
What do you see as the biggest mistake that people make? As an ads manager. Um, oh gosh. I mean, there's a lot of mistakes [laughs] people make, um, honestly, one of the biggest ones though, and I see this from everybody is boosting posts. Um, I see so many people boost posts and it just wastes waste your money. Um, so like 95% of the time it wastes your money.
So essentially Facebook's algorithm is... really smart sometimes like almost like scary, smart. Um, but one of the coolest things about it, even though it knows way too much about us is it knows how we use Facebook and it knows. So it knows who's most likely to scroll. Who's most likely to engage. Who's most likely to click and who's most likely to convert.
And so as advertisers, we can use that to our advantage because when we're running ads, the majority of the time, we probably want somebody to be signing up converting. Onto our email list or converting into a sale and making a purchase. So, if that's your goal and you're boosting a post, it's not going to work.
So when you're boosting a post, your given objectives at the beginning of, Hey, what do you want as the goal for this ad? So the most common one is, um, post engagement, which means they're liking it. They're watching it. If it's a video they're commenting, clicking, or sharing, most likely they're just going to like it though, or watch it if it's a video.
And so. When you boost a post, you're having, you're saying to Facebook, okay. I want you to show the ad to people in my audience that are giving most likely to basically like this post or engage with this post. But if what you really want them to do is to convert into a lead. It's not going to show them that to the people that are most likely to convert.
And so it ends up having much higher. When you are running it for post engagement, even if you're running it for traffic, it's going to show the ad to people most likely to click, but that does not mean they're most likely to convert. And one of the things that I actually talk about a fair amount is back in the day.
I didn't have a coach. I didn't have somebody like looking over my ads and helping me with them. And I made so many mistakes. [laughs] I mean, you know, as you do, I wasted a ton of time, a ton of money. Um, but one of the things that I did, I just didn't know anything. Is I ran the ads for traffic. And as soon as I learned that I should be running my ads for conversions, I literally cut my cost per lead in half because Facebook was able to optimize and send the ad to people that are going to be most likely to convert.
So when you're boosting a post, it's even worse than that, because most likely people are not converting at all. So one of the biggest mistakes I see from people is they're like I tried running ads, but nothing happened right. Well, of course not because you boosted the post, so it just spent money and you got some likes, but nobody converted.
Yeah! Yeah! That's so interesting. And I think that's the best explanation I've ever heard for that argument. [laughs] That was really good. Cause I hear that a lot and you know, I can always imagine why, because you have more control, but just how you explain that was really helpful. Um, when you think about people's ads and how people, you know, analyze them, how they come at them, there's all the different parts of the ad funnel that can be broken down and give people information as far as where attention needs to be given. What do you find is the most common break when it comes to setting up ad funnels? Oh, oh, uh, Facebook pixels. [laughs] Oh! It's always, the Facebook pixels are so hard and such a challenge for people.
Um, so when you're running your ads, so Facebook pixels are a little piece of code used to track where somebody is kind of like Google analytics and you want to have a regular pixel on your landing page. And then you want to have a standard event pixel to track when somebody becomes a lead on the thank you page.
So you put this lead pixel on the thank you page, and it's able to say, okay, I know somebody became a lead. They signed up for the email list because they hit this page. They're being tagged as a lead and they pixels are confusing and technical. And with the IOS updates, they have shifted a bit. Uh, you have to have some extra steps in place with verifying your domain and setting up aggregated events, which are all related to the pixel.
And I help people so often with pixel stuff, like when people are setting up their own ads and running them on their own, and they're just not converting more often than not. It has something to do with pixels being not properly placed or just some, some type of breakdown in their. Yeah! Oh, interesting. Okay! Did not here.
I did not expect you to say that either. Oh! really [laughs] What did you expect the answer to me? I think I was thinking, um, like if an ad's not converting, well, the typical break would be between when somebody clicks on the ad and the landing page doesn't match up. Oh, gotcha. You know, I think I was thinking something like that, but it totally makes sense that the pixel can something we often don't think about.
Yeah, well, and usually with like landing pages. So let's say like the cost per lead is like kind of high that's when like you can look at like, okay, how does the landing page look? Cause sometimes I'll see people do things like, um, if the landing pages on their website, they have the menu at the top, which just can make people click away.
So you don't want there to be a menu. You also want the call to action to be before somebody starts to scroll and make sure to check that on mobile. So stuff like that can make a difference in the cost. But typically if it's like not working at all, it's a bigger issue than, than that. But tweaks to the landing page definitely can make a difference in getting a better cost per lead cost per result.
Yeah! Interesting! Okay. That's so good. [laughs] Oh, um, if you were to give encouragement, let's say to somebody who is they've hit the 10,000 a month, mark regularly. And they want to scale and they want to use paid efforts through advertising. What would you recommend to them? Um, oh gosh! Okay. So first off to make sure that you're ready for ads.
So there's two ways that ads really work well to... To help. So one is ads to continue to grow your email list, warm up a cold audience, right. We buy from those we know like, and trust. Uh, you probably have heard that plenty of times before, um, and then adds to any type of launch event that you're doing.
So a webinar workshop, online challenge, private podcast, um, Those ads, you're going to want to run them really to your warm audience, but also to a cold audience. The cold audience is not going to be as likely to purchase, but it's still good to run them to them because then you're continuing to grow your list.
Some will likely purchase. Um, yeah, so. Making sure that you have all the pieces in place for that and that those are working. And then if they are, that's how you know that you're like really ready to start to run ads because if the funnel is not working, it's not bringing people in organically. And when I say organically, I just mean without putting money behind it in ad spend.
Facebook ads are just going to waste your money because Facebook ads will not fix a broken funnel. They will just give your money away. So making sure that those pieces are in place and are working. Um, and then honestly, when it comes to running ads, I would say to get help from somebody who knows what they're doing, because it is so easy to waste money with ads.
And I mean, I did it with my parents [laughs] back in the day, just cause I didn't know, you know, like I spent so much time trying to figure it out and I spent a lot of money also trying to figure it out and I did get really good results, but it, it took time. And if you are. The owner of your business, it's like you are best served really in your zone of genius, doing what you do best and not trying to figure out something that I know is very frustrating for a lot of people.
That is such good wisdom right there. And I honestly feel that way about so many areas of business, like. Hire somebody to, if not do it help you do it. Of course. It's good to understand it yourself first, but, but doing that as so important. And when, when you start helping somebody, how long do you think it takes before they start getting the ROI that they're hoping for?
Yeah! Oh, that's a good question. And it depends so much on. What their funnels look like and what they're, what they're doing, because, um, if you're running ads for list building, I mean, it's a, it's a slow burn. It takes, it takes longer because you're warming people up for the next time that you're launching.
Um, if you are running ads for like a workshop and then you're promoting your course or you're promoting your program at the end of it. And I mean, you're going to see a return much faster. Um, yeah, so it really, it really depends. Yeah, I'm sure it depends on what the person is coming in with. Like you're saying.
Absolutely! Yeah. So also, if you already have a large warm audience, that's highly responsive to what you're putting out there. That makes a difference too. Um, versus like if you are just starting out and you're, you don't have any audience at all. It's like, it's gonna take a lot longer to build that up. Um, before you really see the type of return you're looking for. Most likely.
I love that that's so helpful. This was so helpful. I want to close with one question that you weren't expecting. [laughs] That's something that is really important for especially entrepreneurs, because a lot of entrepreneurs love to work and have a hard time stepping away to play and to rejuvenate their soul.
So what is one way that you have found. Really refreshes your soul. Oh, um, okay. So I fully recognize that I'm very privileged, but we live, um, we live about two miles from the beach. So as often as possible, I just go for walks on the beach. Um, I especially like to walk around sunset and I always have my feet in the water, even when it's, when it's pretty cold out.
We're in Florida though. So it's not. Super super cold. [laughs] Um, I mean just yeah, being outside and having that time to like, Yeah, that is so needed for me. Um, I also, anything things around water are like big. Like I take a lot of baths. I also, I have a full setup so I can work from my bathtub if I'm not on calls.
Um, there's something about it that I just like, I love it. And it's like relaxing, but I'm also more productive. [laughs] Oh my gosh! I loved that so much. [laughs] And I'm wondering to, to everybody who's listening. I wonder if they do that too, you know how like how many people are secretly or not secretly working from their bathtub.
So I know, [laughs] let us know like dm us and let us know if you do that too. [laughs] I think you're secretly a mermaid. Oh! It's not so secret.[laughs] Yeah. That is awesome. There is something about getting into nature though, too, you know, like you said, about the ocean. Yeah. And if you follow Jenn, um, if you go give her a follow on Facebook or Instagram, you will often see, she will post stories about her walk... her walks along the ocean. [laughs] I can't help it. I saw me [laughs] that was like a, like, it was one of those like, Ooh, like struggle ones where it's.
You see a sunset, but like, if, like, how can you take, like, not take a picture of a [laughs] sunset sometimes I'm like, ah, I think I'm posting too many videos of, [laughs] oh no, no, no. You're just delivering it to us. So if you're willing to share that moment with us, then please do that. I love it. [laughs] I love it. That's great. So if people would like to get ahold of you and work with you, what is the best way that they can do that?
Yeah. Um, jennpossick.com is going to be the easiest way to do that. Um, I also, again, I recently put out a three-part private podcast about a simplified launch ads formula. Um, that really goes into good detail about. Yeah, what you really need to be able to run, run your ads, um, that you could check out at jennpossick.com/launchads.
Um, yeah. And then I'm at Jenn Possick everywhere on social. Hm. Well, I just want to vouch for you because I did go to that private podcast and it was amazing and you are an excellent teacher. You really are. That's such a gift of yours. Um, and. I do know that you are so like, your clients are so successful and you have this adds concierge service, I do and yeah.
And so I just wanted to highlight that as well as the option. And I'm sure if you, do you want to explain a little bit what the. Yeah, sure. So I offer done for you services, which is ads management, but then I also offered, done with you services where basically we work together, um, to get your ads up and running and as successful as possible.
So basically we have on zoom, you share your screen and we just get to work step-by-step we do all the pieces together and yeah. I love that. That's great. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so glad you were able to come and for being so generous with all of your wisdom and it was so great to hear all, all those things that I'm sure will really help people as they're building their business to feel encouraged and to also feel empowered.
So thank you so much, Jenn. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so grateful that we had Jen on the show today, and I have all the links for you to get a hold of her. In the show notes, you can reach her on her website and on social media or her private podcast or her public podcasts. So many options. [laughs]
Also, you can hit your lunch goals without wasting time and money in ads manager. And if you're looking for more support, challenge and inspiration in your business, I would love to have you apply to my mastermind.
Check it out! @jenargue.com.
