Jenna Stakis is the CEO and founder of the True Empire, a marketing and photography agency and a podcast host.

Today we're going to hear her story, how she got to where she is, and we're going to hear about what is trending in social media content wise and what type of tools.

What are these tools that we can use so that we can level up our social media and our marketing?

Welcome back to the Hair, Just a strong show.

My name is Robert Hughes and I am your host.

And today I'm with Jenna Stakis.

How you doing today, Jenna?

I'm doing great.

How are you?

I'm very good.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for coming on the show.

I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today.

Thank you for having me.

I'm so excited.

Absolutely.

Okay, so why don't.

Let's just jump right in.

Tell us a little bit about how did you get into doing what you're doing?

Just kind of like the high level overview so the audience can get a chance to know.

Know, like your vibe, basically.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Okay.

Edit that part.

Yeah.

So, hi, everyone.

I am Jenna Stakus.

I have founded the True Empire, which is an empire for sure because it holds true media marketing, true smile photography and, and the True Talk podcast.

Some may know, but I battled some sort of autoimmune disease for about three years and was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis for about a year and a half.

I thought I had this chronic disease and I was battling so many different neurological symptoms and difficulties, and the biggest ones being that I had tremors in both of my hands.

And so I lost that ability to be able to write and later on developed even a tremor in my voice.

So it was more difficult for people to understand me.

And I couldn't even speak fast or at my normal pace.

So going through that, you know, I found out I learned a lot of different things about myself, about others.

I hadn't really found a job where I was happy.

I was doing stuff that I didn't even go to school for, and I just kind of felt lost.

And so after doing some soul searching and realizing sharing my story on social media and creating content was a form of art almost.

And I love art.

I have been drawing for so much of my life, I decide I'm like, okay, well, why not make this into a job?

Why not do this for a living?

And photography also being another form of art, that's another way to just.

I can't draw right now.

I can't write.

But this is another way of expression.

So I went to Greece.

I go to Greece every year.

I have family over there and I was over there, did some serious soul searching and thought about what I really wanted to do in life and ultimately decided to take on the entrepreneur journey.

So here we are.

And True Empire came to be nice.

So that your story is so, so wild and it's like, did they ever find out what was wrong with you?

No.

So I, you know, in.

I'm from Maryland, from Baltimore, more so near the Baltimore area and I went to the top hospital, Hopkins and I was, was going to an immuno neurologist there and did so many tests and they said it presents similar to Ms.

So that's what we're going to go with.

And the treatments were just making me worse and worse and worse.

And it wasn't until I decided to completely stop the infusion treatments of traditional medicine and, and seek out other remedies and my family and I ended up finding an incredible chiropractor who practices holistic medicine therapy.

It's called nutrition response therapy.

And in one year of being on vitamin supplement regimen, eating healthy, clean organic foods and strength training is when my health really made a complete 180 and I healed.

So are you all, you're like, it never happened or do you have any lingering.

Very, very rarely will a tremor show up.

It's more so if I'm like sick and you know, your body's just naturally, when it's sick it's just run down.

But for the most part, 99%, if not 100%, I'm healed.

I'm back to normal.

I couldn't be more grateful.

That's amazing.

That's so amazing.

Yeah.

Well, we're so happy that you have been healed and you're now you're here with us today and we get to learn about some, you know, we get to hear an inspirational story as well as learn about social media.

Absolutely.

So, so tell us like when you're, when you're thinking about, you know, this is what you do and when you're.

And I'm assuming, because I feel like that's pretty safe to do, that you're constantly kind of checking on social media, doing the trend checks and like seeing what the, you know, the narratives are and what conversations are happening online that, you know, we maybe people should jump on and stuff.

So what type of conversations are people having on social media?

So there's a lot of different conversations that go on constantly and we can even talk about the most recent One of being the tick tock ban, you know, that was a huge kind of ripple in the water for content creators that have made so much money and have made so much of themselves on that platform.

So that was really eye opening and just something that was awakening for these content creators and people who want to get into content creation that you kind of have to have that backup plan.

You can't always put all your eggs in one basket and think, okay, TikTok's my golden ticket here.

You know, you have to make sure you have those backups, make sure you're on other platforms and you know your audience is really on so many different platforms.

Don't, don't dial in and think that, okay, the only way to make it as a content creator or an influencer or even a business owner is on one specific platform.

No, Pinterest is considered a social media platform.

I know for a lot for my own hair, when I go and get my hair done, I find my inspiration pictures on Pinterest.

That's a great way to grow as an influencer, as a creator, as a business owner.

And then of course, always have it backed up.

If you're on TikTok, you resurface that stuff on Instagram as well.

So that was a big conversation lately in the social media world and community.

And the other one is a lot of people are talking about different hooks, how to keep the viewer, how to keep the, the audience watching.

Because what we're seeing is that there's a lot of video content, so reels, TikTok being a huge one and a lot of people get lost in, well, should it be long form, video, short form, what's the sweet spot, you know, so that's where hooks come into play.

So for a hook, I mean, it's as simple as putting lip gloss on, starting to talk to the camera.

That immediately grabs the attention of the viewer and they're like, oh, what's, what's going to be said?

So it's very simple, subtle things that people are talking about.

But definitely video content is one of the biggest things right now.

And bringing in the viewer and your followers as though they're with you.

So the behind the scenes content, day in the life vlogs, stuff that you wouldn't think people would want to watch or care to watch, but it's actually enjoyable for them to watch.

If you're a salon owner and you've got two loads of laundry, you got to do of towels, you could do, it might end up being a two minute recording of you Folding laundry.

But you put a fast paced speed on that 1.5, 2.0x speed and people are immediately hooked.

And you just put some overlay text about some, some trending topic or something that client said to you.

So it's really cool how you can interact with that stuff.

But I would say those are the main things that people are talking about right now.

So you said so much and I feel like we should have a whole conversation about some of these things.

But one I want to point out, one of the things you said was what you were talking discerning between this long form and short form.

I was, I was watching a podcast on YouTube recently and it's like a bunch of venture capitalists in tech that talk about tech and what's trending and stuff and what they're investing in and stuff.

They seem to think that long form is back and, or no, not back, but like we've transitioned into long form and for so long we didn't have.

No one wanted long form for super long time.

Do you agree with that statement?

Do you disagree?

Do you have a different view?

Anything?

I think, I think they're correct in what they're saying that long form is making its kind of like grand return.

I think that is definitely true.

However, it's like that sweet spot that I mentioned.

So for example, for a long time from when Tick Tock came, it was.

Or even we can throw it back to vine where it was a three second video.

So think from where we started with video content for three seconds being something that could go viral if it caught the viewer's attention that fast to now TikTok being at a max of 10 minutes and I think it's in that 10 to 15 minute mark, that's definitely a sweet spot.

And I've even gotten that type of feedback for my own podcast because I have like 45 minute long conversations, 50 minute long conversations and a lot of people are like, I couldn't listen to all of it at once.

So.

Well, that's a wrap.

We're done with the show.

I hope you all enjoyed it.

Sorry, this is where it ends.

Tune in for part two.

Tune in next time for the rest of the conversation.

Exactly though, because I mean, unless you're getting the people who are, you know, avid podcaster listeners or they love watching you on YouTube and stuff when they're driving in the car, on the treadmill, cleaning the house, you know, but if you're looking to capture the attention of somebody who's just scrolling through their phone during the Day, you're going to have to be somewhere quick in that 60 second to three minute like range because people don't have that much time.

But definitely the 10 to 15 minute I would, I would think is a sweet spot.

Well, like I have a number of different thoughts.

The way this is how my brain takes all that information and processes it.

Okay.

I'm thinking that the longer people spend consuming one piece of content, the less content they're going to consume in total quantity.

Which means that I would, I make a jump from that to competition skyrocketing going up.

Like if, because now you're competing.

Like if, if, if the trend is three second videos, then well, we can watch a lot of three second videos.

So I could watch three second videos from a hundred people, but.

And that's 300 seconds.

So 300 seconds, what is that divided by 60 is like five minutes.

So like in five minutes, what if I only watch one person?

That's 100 people that didn't get my view.

And if you monetize your following, then that sounds like you're gonna have to produce super high quality.

But also like be aggressively competitive, which I would.

Then my brain goes to, well, what is aggressively competitive?

That is making super short form.

Short form, medium form, all in the purpose of driving that traffic to that long pole horn piece.

Right.

That's kind of my brain.

Well, what do you think about that?

Yes, I definitely see your point in that.

And that's where quality is going to matter more than the quantity of how many videos you're putting out.

So I would say it's better to put out a 10 minute great quality video full of information and stuff like that.

And then that will attract the audience and have them grow that relationship with you where they're like, okay, I'm starting to build trust in this person.

I trust what they're saying.

I like what they're saying.

I'm going to try implementing those things in my life and I'm going to come back for more.

And then that's where you get your repeat followers.

That's where you get your community, really.

And then they're there for your, you know, 30 second video of you folding laundry.

They, they like that.

They enjoy it, you know.

Yeah, totally.

Okay, so we're saying like high quality is back, which, you know, some people may argue maybe it never left.

I would argue that it absolutely was, it was kind of like, you know, cheaply made goods.

You know, it's like it was good for a minute, but like the value of it kind of diminished quickly.

And so I like the idea of hearing quality is back.

That means it's time to step up my game, which is why I got you on the show today.

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

So.

And then we also have also.

Okay, so quality and shifting to maybe like people might be interested in a little more content or context within your content or, or information or something.

Like if people are interested in.

If you can get people to watch longer form video.

That's really interesting opportunity for an entrepreneur who, you know, you can kind of look at it that way as opposed to, I don't know, any negative way.

I guess I would say, like one of the biggest, most important things is that sense of community.

I just spoke about this at an event on Friday, is that Covid did us dirty.

Let's be honest, Covid did us dirty because we lost that human interaction for a while and it put a lot of fear in us to have that human interaction.

And.

And we're finally, over the past two and a half years, three.

We're finally getting that back and we're finally rebuilding on that interaction.

And that's why a lot of people are going to social media because they want that interaction with the biggest stars.

Like, I will give the perfect example of Alex Earl, who has built her following on Get Ready with Me.

She sits in front of the phone, does her makeup and just talks about where she's going, what she's doing, and that's it.

And people are hooked.

They are hooked.

So it's really about opening your door and kind of like throwing it back to MTV cribs.

Like, hey, this is my crib.

This is my house.

You know, come on in, let me show you.

Be a part of the business, be a part of the family, Be a.

Be a part of my community.

Nice.

I love that.

Okay, so we promised the viewers and listeners for some tools to.

Once they figure out a good idea for a piece of content, how do they.

What tools should they be using to make this new.

This content?

So when it comes to tools, there are so many.

I mean, there's an app for everything you can imagine.

Do not think that you have to be forking out hundreds and hundreds of dollars on subscriptions.

And you know, the newest editing software.

It's not like that.

If you can do.

If you can record yourself.

I'm going to use the towel example again.

If you can record yourself doing two minutes worth of salon work and then you download an app that I've used, it's called Inshot, free to use I mean, there's a paid version so that you don't get ads and stuff, but the free version works great.

And you go in there and you can just do some simple editing and boom, you have a great content piece to put out on your social media platforms.

Same thing goes with the photo editing.

I don't recommend photo editing if you're doing, you know, final products of hair transformations and stuff because obviously you don't want to mess with the colors.

But even going and checking the settings in your phone of the recording, a lot of us have these newer phones out here.

I don't even know what phone we're on.

16, 18, you know, iPhone, like in two months we're going to be on iPhone 23.

But they have some of the greatest quality that you can find on a $3,000 Sony.

So make sure you can Google best editing or best video recording metrics and stuff for your camera to use and then making sure that that's going to work with Instagram.

So one of the best ones is to record in 1080 1080p with 60 frames per second.

So that would be one.

And then also if you do have the capability to do 4k at 30 frames per second, that way you can have some clear slow motion ones if you choose to do, you know, some movement of a final product of hair or whatever the video might be, even you just walking.

And then Canva is another site that I absolutely love when it comes to blending in different pictures.

If you need stories to be able to do those graphics and have fun, you can be a graphic designer just by using the free version of Canva.

It's that easy nowadays.

Nice.

Yeah, we, we use Canva for like everything.

It's like it got to the point where we just had to pay to, for the, for the paid version and.

Right.

You know, like Sammy has, Sammy has like her own like thing.

And then we have like a team account and yeah, that's Canva's amazing.

Yeah.

And, and you can print from it.

You can build your own business cards on there.

You can do.

Well, they got A.I.

now you can tell A.I.

what picture you wanted to make.

Like we made some flyers and it said, you know, make a group of people in a hair salon hanging out.

And it's like you got to kind of tweak it.

You got to be like, hey, make them.

You know, this group of people isn't very diverse or this group of need to be wearing, you know, like the right, like, like smocks or something like that.

And you know, the customer or the person should have gloves on.

You know, you have to tweak it.

But it's impressive.

Like you don't have to go and find the perfect picture.

You can tell it what, how to.

Because it basically, I think it takes all the elements from all the pictures right together for you.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

You can definitely see that in some of the images that AI will make for you, but it's really cool.

And then not only that, AI is a great tool.

ChatGPT.

It's a great tool if you're in a rut when it comes to content.

You know, it can help you with some ideas and everything.

But definitely I would still put your own personal twist to it.

Give it, give it the little seasoning that it's going to need.

Yeah, and I would, I, I definitely agree with that.

My experience, not for what you're talking about using it, but just how I use it.

I have to edit everything.

It just, it just helps me with like, idea formation or like, if I'm tired and I'm like in a bind for time, it can kind of do the heavy lift for me.

But yeah, edit everything.

Do not trust AI.

If you trust AI, it will bite you because you'll put something out there that you regret putting out there.

I promise you.

Yes.

Be very, very careful.

Yeah.

Well, this has been great, you know, so, like, I imagine that there's some people listening that are watching, that are being like, yeah, this sounds great, but like, I got time for that.

So if someone's like so busy in the salon or in their suite or maybe they're expanding, opening up, you know, whatever, and they want to up their social media game, their marketing game, you know, I guess I, I, I'm, I'm assuming that's what, where you would come in for that.

Like, can you tell it, tell us a little bit about, like, about what you do or what services you provide and like what that's like and how people can find you.

Absolutely.

So part of the true empire is true media marketing.

We specialize in social media management for influencers for businesses.

And I actually do have on client, so I'm going to use that as an example.

I go in there about twice a month and I'll be there for about two hours, two and a half and get a good bit of content.

So that's going to be, you know, videos of hair, transformations, pictures.

But being there, I'm able to get the, the salon owners, the stylists, get them working.

I can highlight the different areas of the salon and then we also have a shared folder so they can submit pictures when they finished a client.

And then I compile all of that and I create the content.

I manage the account, post three times a week, active on stories, active in community engagement and keeping up with the trends.

Because like you mentioned earlier, it's constantly changing.

There's constantly something new that's going to come out and no one person, especially if you're a business owner, can keep up with that.

So that's where a social media manager comes in handy.

They take that stress off of you and are able to get your Google ranking up, get you in that search engine optimization to make your business a little bit more.

More.

I don't try and think of the word more present like being one of the first results that shows up.

So helps a lot with that.

And then we also have that, that creative eye on how to make sure the, the technicalities of videos, you know, making the content something that's going to be engaging, capture the viewer within the three second sweet spot and stuff like that.

But they, if anybody wants to get in contact with me, absolutely I can be contacted on either one of my social media pages at Jenna's Stacus or at the True Empire TM and we can set up a consultation, consultation call that's completely free and we do brand strategy, we can do brand design, logo design, websites, content creation, all that kind of stuff.

Nice.

Cool.

Awesome.

So I'll, I'll make sure to leave all that information in the description below.

So will include any links that you, that you want to send me and for anybody to contact you as well as your handles and yeah, anything else that you want to include.

So if you're interested in talking with Jenna, just yeah, use that information and make sure you tell me how awesome of an experience it was.

I'd love to hear from you all and it's been a pleasure.

Jenna, thank you for taking the time.

It's, it's always nice to kind of get a check in on what's trending for, you know, especially those of us who might be a neck up in, you know, to do list items, you know, managing a business, managing a team or just like life stuff, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

So it's good.

So thanks for taking the time and I look forward to talking to you again soon.

Maybe checking in on the latest trends and maybe having one of these other like conversations more in depth.

You know, I like the idea of having a conversation about the.

The.

Oh no.

Oh, multiple platforms like, like, you know, how, how should we leverage multiple platforms?

I think that would be a really cool conversation.

So let's.

Let's talk about maybe doing that or something in the future.

Yeah, I would love to.

Thank you so much for having me.

I love the conversation.

I mean, social media gets a bad rep sometimes, but I love it.

I think if it's used correctly, then it is beneficial in so many ways.

100%.

All right, well, you have a good one, and I'll see you later.

Sounds good.

Thanks, guys.