By Zach Obront
Ainsley Rodriguez is one of the top influencers on Instagram. With close to 2 million followers and hundreds of thousands of views on each of her videos, she’s one of the most popular fitness celebrities in the world.
But that isn’t what makes her different.
In a world where many of her peers are struggling to make a few thousand dollars a month from sponsorships and half-hearted partnerships, Ainsley has turned her influence into a highly successful company with a full team of 8 people working for her.
Ainsley has no formal business training, no prior business experience, and no business partners carrying the load for her.
Instead, she’s managed to grow her business with one simple philosophy: listen to your fans, give them what they want and don’t let your ego get in the way.
I was fascinated to see Ainsley's growth, both as a brand and as a business, so I reached out to her to learn her story. For social media influencers looking to monetize their platform, here are three crucial lessons Ainsley shared with me:
1. Turn Your Fans Into Customers (Before You’re Ready)
In 2012, on a slow day at work, one of Ainsley’s colleagues challenged her to a bet that would change her life: Who could grow the bigger Instagram following?
Ainsley isn’t one to back down from a challenge. She began posting pictures and hustling to grow her following. She would set her alarm to wake her up every three hours overnight so she could keep posting photos and engaging with followers to keep her momentum going.
Before she knew it, she had 50,000 followers. More importantly, her following loved her content. They wanted more. She’d get emails every day asking if she had programs or more advice for them.
I’m sure many of you get similar messages. You might laugh them off, or plan toward an epic launch that you’ll do “one day” in the future. Not Ainsley. She decided to dive in head first before she felt entirely ready. She knew the best way to figure things out was to listen to her audience and give them what they were asking for.
She didn’t even wait to build a website. Instead, she put together a short ebook containing some of her favorite recipes and told her followers to email her if they wanted a copy.
The next time she checked her email, her inbox was overflowing with requests. With no system in place to fulfill orders, she manually sent PayPal requests to each reader and, one-by-one, sent them a PDF of the cookbook once they paid.
It wasn’t a professional operation, and her fingers were exhausted, but she’d made enough to pay her bills for two months and suddenly realized: “I can make a living from this.”
2. Ask 'Why Not?'
As Ainsley’s following continued to grow, she would have companies reach out to sponsor her. She noticed that clothing companies, in particular, kept coming back. They would pay her for sponsorship and, days after the post went up, they’d come back to hire her again. And again. And again.
Eventually, a light bulb went off. If they kept hiring her, she must be making them a lot of money. She had an idea to short-circuit the negotiations entirely. Girls were asking her about clothing all the time and clearly made purchases based on her recommendations.
Why not start her own clothing label? She spent hours researching online, talking to professionals and building a brand, and two months later, Immacul8 Collection was born.
This seems to be a recurring theme with Ainsley — asking "why not?' — that has led to many of her best business decisions.
When I asked Ainsley how she’s managed to take so many bold leaps, she seemed confused. Selling her first ebook was the obvious choice. Beginning online fitness programs to help others was the obvious choice. Starting her own clothing label was the obvious choice.
She turned the question back on me: "Why don’t other people?"
3. Don’t Just Amass Followers — Build a True Following
Starting her business made Ainsley face an uncomfortable truth: growing her following didn’t necessarily mean she was growing her company.
When she would post pictures in her bikini, she might generate a lot of likes, but not much revenue. When she posted intelligent, informative content, she often got fewer likes, but more loyalty and credibility.
“I think that’s where a lot of influencers — especially females — struggle,” Ainsley told me. “Ego gets in the way. When you post a personal picture and you see the number of likes or new followers, you’re like ‘Oh my god!’ But how does that translate to your business?”
Ultimately, it comes down to understanding your audience. Ainsley spends hours a day reading comments, responding to emails and analyzing what is getting the best response from her audience.
She’s on a journey to create the content that resonates most with her audience, and the way to do that is to truly understand their struggles and challenges to help them and deepen her relationship with them.
Ainsley's Secret: The World Is Yours for the Taking
Today, Ainsley’s business is thriving. From humble beginnings manually sending out PDF ebooks, her company has grown to a team of eight full-time employees, and she’s helped thousands of people meet their fitness goals and dress more stylishly.
The difference between her and many of the other influencers in her space?
Confidence.
Ainsley seems immune to the mistake many of us make, thinking there’s some secret to the world that only experts understand. Instead, she embodies the Steve Jobs quote that “everything around you was made up by people no smarter than you.”
When she sees an opportunity, her default assumption is that she can learn the rules of the game, figure it out, and make the most of it.
There are countless influencers online today with massive followings who are frustrated that they can't make the living they deserve doing what they love.
Ainsley’s story is proof that you can.
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Zach Obront is founder of Book in a Box.