Mastering Social Media and Entrepreneurship: A Deep Dive with James Webb

Welcome on board to a riveting conversation with the ingenious James Webb, the brain behind Dyce Media and Nashville News, now spearheading community and creators at Jumpsuit Agency. Get ready to unpack his wealth of knowledge on leveraging the power of social media platforms. James encourages entrepreneurs to experiment and discover the platforms that resonate with them while highlighting the immense potential of the creator economy. He shares anecdotes and insights into the art of crafting compelling content that truly strikes a chord with your target audience, with storytelling at its core.

The digital landscape is ever-evolving, and so we venture into understanding the shifting dynamics of social media with James. From the transformation of culture, the intersection of entertainment and education, to proficiently tracking and responding to feedback, James illuminates every corner. We also tread on a sensitive path as we explore the Christian perspective on handling negative feedback and comments on social media. We stress on the need to perceive social media as a virtual, not real world and endorse responding with love and empathy.

A class packed with everything from social media strategies to dealing with feedback and connecting with mentors, this episode is a goldmine for anyone gearing up to navigate the social media and entrepreneurship. To connect with James, you can email him at James@jumpsuitagency.com.  

To connect with Olivet’s Entrepreneurship Program, contact Program Director, Chris Perez at caperez2@olivet.edu.

To learn more about other entrepreneurship opportunities and the McGraw School of Business’s very own Createur Conference and Pitch Competition, go to Createur.Olivet.edu.

Transcript

Karli: 0:00

What does it mean to be a Christian entrepreneur? How can I turn my ideas into an actual business? How do I navigate my path to entrepreneurship?

Spencer: 0:11

Welcome to Creator, the podcast brought to you by Olivet Nazarene University's McGraw School of Business to unlock the secrets to Christian entrepreneurship and fuel your path to success.

Karli: 0:23

I'm your host, Carly Bird, graduate assistant of Olivet's entrepreneurship program.

Spencer: 0:28

I'm your co-host, Spencer, James and Olivet undergraduate marketing management and business administration major.

Karli: 0:34

Join us, fellow students, as we embark on a journey to discover the call of the entrepreneur.

Spencer: 0:41

This week, James Webb is joining us to provide valuable insights into effective use of social media.

Karli: 0:47

Where faith and business meet. This is Creator, Episode 5.

Spencer: 0:59

Hello everyone. This week, carly and I are so excited to welcome someone that has so much of a passion for entrepreneurship. It is contagious, james Webb.

Karli: 1:10

James believes in building a future for independence. He is a thinker, tinkerer and recently decided to go all in on the creator economy. James is the founder of Dice Media, Nashville News and currently jumpsuit agency's director of community and creators. And I'm just going to say it, but only because he wrote it in his bio himself the most impressive thing James has ever done is his hair. He's finally figured it out, you guys. With that being said, James, thank you so much for being with us today. It is never a dull moment with you. All right. So, James, I know that we've personally had this conversation before, but I think it's just so important to touch on it because it's one of the first questions, really, that pops into a person's head when they're getting started on social media. So, of course, the platform. What platforms should aspiring entrepreneurs be looking to utilize to promote their businesses and then to follow up with that question through those platforms, how do you create content that will actually resonate with your target audience?

James: 2:14

Yeah, so the social media landscape has become very interesting in the past, even two years. To answer the first question where a entrepreneur or any type of career or artist should be spending their time is, the answer is everywhere. They are like you have TikTok and you have Instagram and Facebook and you have Twitter and out you have Threads, which is an Instagram, twitter or Facebook Twitter competitor, you know? So there's so many options now that it can truly seem overwhelming to be like where do I start to even create content or join an online feud? So the answer is try all of them. But the more practical answer is truly, hop onto TikTok and create some content and see if that feels right. See if that's where you like to talk and interact with other people. Or maybe it's bite-sized pieces of text content on Twitter or Threads.

James: 3:24

All of these platforms truly, truly, truly are. They're just free media and we can upload to them for free and it's like the analogy I love is like if you turn on your TV, you have ABC and CBS and NBC and you also have Netflix and all these subscriptions and all these different places where you can watch media. Well, youtube is ABC and Twitter is NBC and TikTok is CBS. They are just distribution platforms that they, the companies that own them, were like. These are social media platforms and they are, but they're truly just distribution platforms, no different than what's been on TV, what we watch on TV with these big corporate media companies. The difference is is that it's free and that we can quite literally just take an idea and share it on these platforms and the algorithm will show it. It's an unbelievable thing that oftentimes it's just a part of our lives and we're like oh, here's another thing we have to do. But truly it's, in a way, democratization of the power and of ideas. Did that at all answer your question?

Karli: 4:50

It did, definitely. I've always liked that analogy that you use, comparing the different social media platforms to network channels. I think that's a great example.

James: 5:03

It's a world that, unfortunately, has not really been taught.

James: 5:08

We didn't go to school to be like, hey, how do we use social media?

James: 5:11

We might take a marketing class that teaches you about it, but how do we actually use social media to connect with people that aren't just our family, or to use it solely as entertainment, which it oftentimes is when, in reality, you know, through two or three connections digitally, you might be connected to someone that you want a job from and you're like, oh my goodness, they're right there, they're on LinkedIn, they're on Facebook, they're on Instagram, they're on Twitter, and so really learning how to use social and really the only way to learn is just by being on it and seeing how the different tools want different people to communicate and each tool is differently, which goes back to the original question. It's like it really does go back to if someone would rather write than maybe Twitter or threads is good for them. If someone is great on camera, then using something like Instagram or TikTok or really anywhere you know it's finding the platform that works for that person and expanding from there, because it can certainly be overwhelming when you're like there's like 20 different social media apps, I have to create content on all of them. Are you kidding me? This is crazy.

Spencer: 6:29

Yeah, you talk about social media being entertainment, and so much of that entertainment has to be storytelling, right? How do you think that you incorporate storytelling into the different social media pieces that you produce, or create engaging content that tells a story?

James: 6:47

Yeah, it's a challenge. I mean it's a challenge to the point that the biggest companies in the world will spend millions of dollars to try and tell the most engaging story on social media. Like it is actually a real challenge. But like the truth is is that we're moving into a marketplace and, honestly, a culture that is like, hey, stop putting on a show, we're done. We don't want to see a TV show anymore, even if it's on social media. We don't want it to feel like. We want our shows and our television and our like movies to feel like movies and we want our people to feel like people and we we unfortunately this whole thing was built on an age where we were only watching television and so we built shows around how we interact with each other and we did that on social media because that's that's all we knew what to do, just as a culture.

James: 7:53

But now it's all changing and tick tock has kind of helped. It's helped and hurt that a little bit, but it's helped. It's helped. Culture push this idea forward that, hey, let me just be James and let me talk about some things that I'm interested in and the algorithm will serve this thing that I'm interested in, two other people and I can start to engage with like minded people and I can just be me in the process, versus putting on this whole show. You know it's, it's, it's shifting, it's. We're not there entirely. I don't know if we'll ever fully be there where everyone is just being their true, authentic selves online, but there is a cultural shift that is happening where people are, are demanding it in a sense, and we're we're like hey, we need this, to feel more human.

Spencer: 8:45

There's such a blurry line between what social media is and what an entertainment app is. Right, like TikTok right now is ranking as number two, you know, as an entertainment app, but a lot of people would think that that's a social networking app, but it's really not even categorized as being social media. And so there's such a blurry line in how people would affiliate their connections with between what is real one-on-one brand engagement versus how are they just trying to entertain me?

James: 9:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that is the predicament, truly, like we were. We call things social media, but then it's presented to us as entertainment. Then we get confused about wait, is entertainment social media? How do I interact? Do I need to be entertaining in order to be on social media? Like it becomes a actual mental struggle that I think I don't care if you are 13 or you are 90 years old, like if you were on social media. There is confusion happening and so, like to your point of like, oh, it's labeled as entertainment and it's like it starts to skew how people interact on these platforms.

James: 10:02

And I think you know these social media platforms are always reacting to the market, meaning they're reacting to how people are responding on these platforms and right now, entertainment in the US is a major component of that. It's getting everyone on TikTok to actually be on TikTok and to engage and interact and be entertained, but by dance. Who owns TikTok? They in China and other countries they are. They have like tabs where the education that you're or the content that you're scrolling through is only math, science, history, like it is only actual education and it's teachers teaching on that platform and so like.

James: 10:55

All these social media apps are, in a way, being like yes, we're entertainment, because that's what allows them to get all the users and all the eyeballs, but they're slowly shifting into providing actual education, which, like you know, five, 10 years from now, you're going to have a large majority of humans on earth that are being educated by the world. They're being educated by TikTok and they're watching their favorite creators on TikTok and they're learning math and they're learning science and they're learning history, like these big media platforms will, in a way, own the education of an entire generation, and so that's a great thing, and it's also like it's just, it's just a weird thing that this universe is actually happening in this way. It's, we're seeing it happen in other countries and they're testing it here. But, yeah, the future of entertainment is education and you know, the best videos are a little bit of both.

Karli: 12:05

James, just to you know, kind of go in another direction as well. You know, I think another area that influences a business's success on social media is how much they're actually monitoring that feedback and responding to the feedback from their customers or individuals that simply show an interest in their content. Do you have any personal recommendations with your experience for how our listeners can effectively monitor and respond to the feedback they receive on social media?

James: 12:36

Yeah, I mean really, it's just being on the app and like and spending time being able to like. If you're saying in the comments, it's just being inside of these platforms and so on and just spending 30 minutes commenting on someone else's post, and then, if they comment on yours, you are saying, hey, it's so great to to connect with you. Like, if you want to talk more, you can just keep talking in the comments, or you can move it to the DMs. Or if it's like a business connection, it's like hey, here's my email. Like, it's social media and every social media platform has about at least three different ways that you can talk to each other. You can talk to each other privately or publicly, and each one of those are different avenues to connect with another human that you're interested in connecting with.

Karli: 13:30

Absolutely, and you know that goes back into what you were saying earlier about. You know we're able to build these connections so fast now and grow our network with people you know from everywhere. So that is so you know, true. Okay, now I'm going to kind of flip it a little bit and say Do you have any best practices, though, for handling negative feedback and comments? Because, especially from a Christian perspective, we want to shine our light and have people see Christ within us. So I think this is an area that you really need to be careful in how you react or respond, and make sure you take the time to think through how you handle that negativity.

James: 14:11

So I think the first thing to kind of set the stage with this conversation is that Instagram is not a real place, twitter is not a real place. The social media apps are just tools and they are not me, they are not you, they are all just representations of, and so looking at them as that and nothing more is a good first step in handling the negative feedback, because the conversation is always like oh cool, would you say that exact same thing if someone was standing right in front of you? Probably not, probably not. And so the internet is just filled with those people who, even if they may not even actually they may not even care, they're just leaving a mean comment. To leave a mean comment and it's like it's not a real place Doesn't mean that the comment doesn't sting any less, but the disconnect is helpful. That being said, when you are in these platforms, a good way to look at that is just with gratitude, just be like hey, listen. One, you don't have to reply back to them if you don't want to. That's totally your prerogative. Two, if you feel like you need to, then just say hey, I'm sorry we disagree, or like here's. You can just reply out of love and empathy, but the truth is, is you're going to get? If someone's truly growing a social media following, you're just going to get it. There's no stopping it.

James: 16:04

And, honestly, a lot of times with celebrity profiles, a lot of the comments aren't even coming from real people. They are coming from robots that other people have made to leave comments not everyone, but that is also happening. So there's a very real possibility that myself included that I have replied to a robot in a comment. So it's truly providing context for what the thing is that's happening and not just getting lost in. Oh, what do I post on this account this day, which is also important? But, yeah, I think truly like looking at these social apps as they are nothing more than a tool and that's it. They are not a real place. If you are having any type of mental trouble being on those apps, get off them. Get off them for even a time.

Spencer: 17:06

Yeah, social media recently has shown to be so damaging and we see new studies come out every day where people are at an increased risk of depression, anxiety, loneliness, a lot of real issues. How do you, as a Christian, handle these side effects? It's your job to be on social media. Are there any quick fixes that you do, or do you take a certain amount of breaks to help kind of be able to cope with this really just dark place?

James: 17:39

So one is, if I'm in a, if I get down some dark rabbit hole inside of YouTube or somewhere and I'm like, oh man, I'm not feeling good or what is this, or I'm not feeling like I'm educating myself or entertaining myself in a healthy way, then it's just, it's truly just recognizing that and being like I got to put this phone away for a day or two or even an hour, you know, like it's truly just recognizing when that negative feeling appears and you're like, oh, I need a break and you know that is not just for social media, I think that's anything. When you're like, wow, I, I, I do not feel well, mentally well or physically well. I need to talk to someone, I need to read a book, I need to go for a walk, like anything, like it's. It's it's just being honestly self aware that like it's affecting you and here's the truth, it's affecting everyone, it's affecting people younger than me, it's affecting me, it's affecting my parents, it's affecting my grandparents.

James: 18:52

Like it is a cultural shift that we were never trained for in culture. Like our schools were not teaching us media literacy and how to navigate the internet and how to navigate this whole world. We are just having to figure it out for ourselves and every generation is experiencing it very differently, and that is just fact and there's nothing wrong with any of it. It's just an unfortunate byproduct of where we're at. But I actually see a ton of positivity in where we're headed because, like social media and even the internet is brand new.

James: 19:33

It's brand new and this space is only growing. We are only going to see this. I mean, we think it's a part of our lives. Now it's going to be fully ingrained in you know, a decade. So there's a lot of really awesome things coming out of social media and allowing people to create and find audience and be able to build lives that they never would have been able to build without the internet, without the social media platforms. So, like, there's absolutely this negative stuff, but I truly believe that, like, there is a shift happening in this space that is going to really, hopefully, at a level of, like you know, everyone's like OK, cool, we can live in this digital age and not all feel depressed.

Spencer: 20:29

It's definitely. You know it takes work, but I personally feel like a lot of these big companies have done some real work in recent years to be able to provide a lot more resources for their platforms to you know better, kind of enhance Absolutely what content is being shared on their platform.

James: 20:48

And that's so important, so important.

Spencer: 20:50

Right, right. Yeah, I would ask kind of one other question here. Obviously, you've worked with different small businesses and startups who have had limited resources and the ability to effectively manage their social media, and so I would ask what advice would you give to these young entrepreneurs or young business owners who maybe don't have the resources that some of these really large brands have to be able to grow their social media?

James: 21:18

Yeah. So here's the real advantage that anyone has is that some of these really large brands oftentimes are so. There's so much red tape involved in getting out even a single piece of content to market that it really slows them down. And so the internet is built for speed. It's built for taking an idea and putting it out there as quickly as possible, and a lot of these younger entrepreneurs that are trying to build anything it's like whether they're 18 and just starting out or they're 20 years into their career the ability to just test and do it quickly and efficiently is a major component. That sets you have these smaller companies that are taking market share from some of the biggest companies in the world, and it's because they're able to do things quicker and more efficiently. And I mean, I know there's even all of that students who have built an online following that, just from that, they're like oh wow, I get to scale and build my business, and while they're doing that, there's also 10 other companies or 20 other companies that are doing exactly what they're doing, which really goes to show that there's more than enough. It really is. There's more than enough for someone to be like, hey, I want to start a t-shirt company as well Great, you should. Or I want to start a marketing agency as well. Yes, you absolutely should, Because people can't do exactly what you do.

James: 23:01

And back to the conversation of these new wash renewers most likely a lot of them are probably generalists. They might have specialties in certain sections, but they're just someone who loves to learn and keep learning, and they see an article and they see a video and they want to keep diving deeper. And being a generalist when building any type of company is very important, because you're going to have to have like you're going to be wearing 10 different hats, You're going to have to know finance and you're going to have to know how to edit a video and you're going to have to know how to be in front of camera. And if you don't maybe have one of those things, I'm sure you have a friend that does and have them do that part of the puzzle that you just struggle with. So, like for me, I am somewhat of a scattered person. I am organized, but only to an extent. But, like having people around me that love process and love organization and I can like say something to and they're like, yeah, do these four things. And I'm like oh yeah, wonderful. Yes, thank you, that was very helpful, Just having people that kind of match. Or have those people that you can match with that have skill sets that don't align with what you're able to do. So and if you don't know those people, you can find those people on the internet through social media.

James: 24:30

It's a whole vicious circle, Like it's a lovely thing and it's a terrible thing. We're just always living in it, but it's solely just what we live in now and we can't escape it. So, you know, we could completely disconnect and live in the woods and not, you know, have an internet connection. But, like the reality is, it's just a part of our society now and our culture now and of us now, and we are having to learn it in real time. It's tricky, it's very tricky. So anyone that's like struggling with this, it's like, yeah, this is a weird thing to navigate. You have to be vulnerable and put yourself out there in a way that you haven't been taught to do.

James: 25:15

So yeah it's a, it's a again, it's the wild west.

Karli: 25:20

Yeah, I completely agree with you though, james. That's a great point you made. You know, we aren't going to know everything, and we have all these sources available to us now, these connections that we can cultivate, that do have, those skill sets that we might not possess, and, you know, that's what it's about is building those relationships, finding those people that balance you out, like you're mentioning, and, yeah, growing from there. So, james, you know it has been so great having you with us today, but unfortunately we are already almost out of time.

Karli: 25:53

But before, I know right, but before we go we do have to take a minute to do our what we like to call quirky question of the week. So, james, are you ready?

James: 26:05

Oh, I think so. Let's see it.

Karli: 26:07

All right. So your question is if you could collaborate with any celebrity or social media influencer on social media, who would it be and why?

James: 26:20

Oh yeah, honestly, it would probably be Ryan Reynolds right now, because obviously he's an A list actor but he also has a marketing agency and he is like the commercials that he puts out and the creativity he puts into them is very interesting. I mean, he also bought a soccer team in Europe and so like he's just a very interesting entrepreneur that like obviously you know he was doing sitcoms not sitcoms, but romantic comedies but like now he's transformed to this movie star but is also like this unbelievable business owner and so like watching it all and then he's documenting all of it on his social media and I'm like man, you're pretty cool, this is great, I love this. So he would be the celebrity that I'd want to like interact with in some form or fashion. All right.

Karli: 27:16

Well, that's a really good answer, and I like how you back it up. Yeah.

Spencer: 27:21

All right, well, james, hey, it has been again such a great opportunity to have you on today just to discuss the world of social media the wild west of social media, as you put it, and how our listeners can use it to their advantage, and I just want to thank you so much.

James: 27:35

Yeah, thank you. This has been so fun.

Karli: 27:36

Yes, it's always fun to pick your brain on this topic and listeners out there. If you want to connect with James, you can always email him at james at jumpsuitagencycom, so go check that out.

Spencer: 27:48

That's right. And if you want to connect with all of that entrepreneurship program director, Chris Perez, or Discover Under Entrepreneurship Opportunities the program has to offer, such as the McGraw School of Business's very own Creator Conference and Pitch Competition, which James actually happened to be part of this last year, Just go to olivetteedu slash creator.

Karli: 28:08

Yes, thank you for listening and don't forget to tune in next time when we have Sam Kwok join us to offer some advice on finding your niche as an entrepreneur.

Spencer: 28:17

Where faith and business meet. This is the Creator Podcast. We'll see you later.