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Focusing On Creating An Instagram Community, This Founder Surpassed $1 Million In Sales In 4 Hours


With every new social media platform comes the hope of becoming a social influencer. During the pandemic, an increase in the number of brands connecting with influencers drove the 2021 influencer marketing predictions to a $13.8 billion industry. Instagram alone was involved in 96% of all influencer marketing campaigns in 2020. Also, during the pandemic, social influencers became more conscientious of the brands they were promoting and the types of communities they were building. 

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Suzy Holman, influencer turned entrepreneur, recognized a gap in the way she engaged with her followers. She decided it was more important to create a community than attract new followers. So as she grew her community to over 150,000 members, she leaned on them to help her name and launch a new company, Jovi, a patch that mutes menstrual cramps with nano capacitor technology. It is a medical device undergoing FDA approval and is protected by U.S. Patents. Jovi went live with pre-orders this past February and surpassed $1 million in sales within the first four hours of launching. 

“I asked my community how they were feeling about the patch, about this technology,” Holman explains. “There was so much interest in it that I decided really to drop everything I was doing as an influencer, everything I’d been building over the last five years. I said, ‘Ok, let’s all go all in here on Jovi, and let’s take this to the world together.’”

Holman’s rise as a social media influencer started with her photography business. She owned a small studio and set one of her goals as becoming an influencer. She thought it would be a way to receive free items while having fun with her company. She grew her following to over 100,000 followers, which enabled her to add the swipe-up feature in her stories. Brands began reaching out to her to promote their products. 

“This was at the height of the Instagram aesthetic when everything was perfect,” she explains. “The kids were perfectly dressed in $200 outfits, and I had the extensions, the fake hair, the braids, and I was really good at it. But the problem was, I am so not that person. I have four kids; my life is crazy chaotic. The whole house would be a mess. I’d move everything out of the way, except for this two-foot space that had white walls in my house. That’s where I did my jam. That’s where my influencing was born. I was just doing the swipe-ups for the meal kits and the Hello Fresh and Amazon. It felt like actual garbage that just sucked the soul right out of me.”

After experiencing some trolling and mom-shaming, Holman began asking herself if this was something she wanted to continue pursuing. However, even though the endorsement money provided her a comfortable lifestyle, she wasn’t happy. She decided to make her accounts private and stopped accepting requests from brands. 

She implemented a new strategy. Instead of trying to garner likes, she focused on the engagement aspect of social media. She treated her followers as a community and began showing them the real her as an entrepreneur, even if it meant showing the non-glamorous side.

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Holman’s friend approached her, stating that she was working for the inventors of the patented technology, nano-sized capacitors. They were initially tasked with creating powerful antennas for military use. They needed something reliable, durable and rugged that was also lightweight and could function with no external power supply. They ultimately created antennas small and light enough to be worn as a patch on a soldier’s shoulder. The versatile nature of nanotechnology makes it applicable to be used in other products or equipment.

Holman’s friend talked about a patch that could be used to relieve menstrual cramps. So she decided to test it out on Instagram Live in front of her community. As the women watched the patch work in real-time, Holman knew there was something to it. 

She dropped everything she was doing to create this business alongside her childhood best friend and the founders of the technology, nCAP, to help women gain some relief during their menstrual cycles. Through Instagram polls and questionnaires, the women of the community voted on things like what color the patch should be and the name of the product. They launched the company with $60,000, and within four hours, they sold 15,000 patches. 

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As Holman continues to transition in her career and expand Jovi, she focuses on the following essential steps: 

  • Don’t overthink the pivot. If you take too long to act, the opportunity may pass you by. 
  • Embrace the mess. It’s not always going to be perfect or glamorous, and that’s ok. Prepare for the highs and lows and keep moving forward.
  • Be patient with yourself. There’s a reason you’re doing what you are. It’s easy to fall back into old routines or habits and question yourself. Give yourself grace and remember why you started in the first place.

“It was awkward to find out who I was, basically publicly, in front of 100,000 people,” Holman concludes. “That was an interesting journey with some highs and lows. I showed it all. I showed me on the floor crying because Cheerios had been spilled again for the 400th time. … They saw it all, and it was special. It really was in that experience I learned that the community was basically the greatest asset I had; the community saved me.”

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