How Jen Ruiz Makes Short-Form Videos Go Crazy Viral (100M+ Views!)

When you buy something through one of the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Jen Ruiz is an accomplished digital entrepreneur, but she didnโt envision her life the way it is today.
While working in law, she participated in a travel challenge, and it really flipped a switch for her.
Although she strayed from the challenge slightly, her experience eventually led her to quit her day job, start a blog, self-publish several books, including a memoir, and diversify her income through social media and speaking engagements, among other projects.
Sheโs getting more than 100 million views to her short-form video content, sheโs won 6 national travel writing awards, sheโs a 6-time Amazon bestselling author, a 3-time TEDx speaker, and a 3-time book award winner, among other accomplishments.
In this interview, she shares tons of great insight and tips into changing industries, becoming an entrepreneur, leveraging short-form content, and becoming a writer and a public speaker.
She concludes with fantastic advice that every blogger, content creator, and entrepreneur should hear.
Watch the Full Episode
She originally started off as a lawyer in Florida and saw herself continuing in that sector, until the year before her 30th birthday, when she participated in a travel challenge where the objective was to take one trip per month.
She strayed from the challenge slightly, and her discovery led her to quit her day job, self-publish several books, including a memoir, and diversify her income through social media and speaking engagements, among other projects.
Jen talks about the importance of starting a side hustle when youโve got a day job and shares her thoughts about when itโs the right time to leave it behind and focus on your other projects.
She shares how she got started freelance travel writing, why she went to her first travel conference, and how she got her first hosted brand deal.
Jenโs had a lot of success with short-form content in particular, and she dives into that.
She talks about the shift towards authenticity and how she used that to develop a following on TikTok, with her videos going viral and getting up to 100 million videos. She talks about why the lower barriers to entry on TikTok, among other characteristics, made it the perfect platform to grow an audience.
She offers advice for what to do when you start with video on a new platform, and what metrics to use to determine your success. She also says what to do when you start to see success, and how she drove traffic from TikTok back to her site.ย
Moving along, Jen talks about writing and publishing books. She has experience with self-publishing and traditional publishing, and she talks about the benefits of both, how they differ, and how to do each of them.
When she discusses traditional publishing, she shares how to get an agent and tells the story of how she got her agent and her books published.
Jen talks about her experience speaking at TEDx three different times. She discussed the application process and explains why she wanted to speak at the events. She also offers a lot of tips for giving a successful talk and talks about what the talks are all about and how anyone can apply.
Lastly, she discusses how all of these elements make up her brand, from her book royalties and ad revenue to coaching and digital product revenue, etc. She talks about her skills, her monetization strategies, and her unique style.
She also mentions opportunities she sees in the future.
Links & Resources
- Her website
- Her Instagram
- Her TikTok
- Her book, 12 Trips in 12 Months
- Manuscript Wish List
- TED Talks guide
- The Power of Flying Solo TEDx talk
- Why Canโt We Be Friends TEDx talk
- Remote Work TEDx talk
Topics Jen Ruiz Talks About
- Her background
- How she got into the travel niche
- How and why she diversified her income
- How she got started doing freelance travel writing
- The importance of in-person events
- Getting her first branded collab
- Leveraging short-form content
- TikTokโs positive qualitiesย
- Being successful with short-form video
- Writing a book
- Self-publishing vs. traditional publishing
- How to get a publisher
- Speaking at TEDx
- Building her brand
- Future opportunities
transcript
Jared: All right. Welcome back to the niche pursuits podcast. My name is Jared Bauman. And today we are joined by Jen Ruiz with Jen on a jet plane. com. Jen, welcome.
Jen: Hi, Jared. How are you? Thanks so much for having me.
Jared: Oh, I'm very good. I'm very good. You know, this is the first time we've talked about a travel specific genre for a little while.
And, um, I'm really excited to have you on because, uh, uh, typically travel related, uh, episodes have done very well in the past. We've got a lot of people listening. They'd either like to travel or running their own travel website or blog or, or a brand. So just so excited to hear from you today about your story and your growth and what you've done to succeed.
Um, before we get into all that though, maybe tell us a little bit about who you are and your backstory that led up to what you're doing right now.
Jen: Absolutely. Well, I totally agree with you, especially because so many people are working remotely now that travel seems to be kind of the perk of that, right?
The ability to work from anywhere and the ability to kind of pick up and go set your own schedule, work from the beach or whatever fabulous location you're at. So that is definitely something wonderful and something that I didn't think that I would have. Because I was actually a lawyer before this. So I used to practice law, uh, in South Florida.
I worked on social security disability law and contract law. And, you know, I saw my life in 10 years as maybe being partner of a firm or becoming a judge. I definitely did not think that I would be making a living, uh, by traveling the world, by sharing my travel experiences, by sharing my writing, uh, and by having Those experiences and that expertise be something that people were willing to pay me for So it just wasn't something that existed right blogger content creator all of these terms They were not around when I was in law school Uh, and so definitely aging myself at this point.
Uh, I actually just celebrated my 37th birthday in mexico, which was lovely um, and i'm Again, a perk of being able to work remotely. So I practiced law for a few years. And then the year before my 30th birthday, I took a travel challenge because I realized I had gone all through my, you know, young and wild decade, and I had just focused on work, which I think many entrepreneurs can relate to because we are goal driven and we get focused on a task and where we want to be and, you know, excellence and striving for that, that sometimes you forget to just have fun along the way.
So I took that travel challenge to take one trip every month. The year before my 30th birthday, 12 trips in 12 months, I ended up taking 20 trips to 41 cities across 11 countries while being back in time for court on Monday morning. At the end of that year, I wrote my first book because a lot of people were asking me Many questions, but the big question that I kept getting asked more and more was how can you afford this?
You know, I was sharing all these flight deals. I was finding 70 round trip flight to Aruba, 16 flight to Ecuador and people were wanting to know how can I get those deals too? So I wrote and I self published my very first book The Affordable Flight Guide to answer that demand that I was already getting from readers And then after that, I self published four more books.
I quit my job and I pursued this full time. Uh, using Teaching English Online, which I had started doing during that year, as something, as a crutch to get me through as I was building my other online income streams. So I built out my blog, Jen on a Jet Plane. Uh, I built out my social media following. I now Actually wrote a memoir 12 trips in 12 months.
That is about that year And that is my first traditionally published book but six book overall And I made a career out of sharing my travel stories and my travel expertise in various mediums
Jared: Give us some context on how long ago that transition happened. You know, what are we talking about here? When you were doing all these things, you talked about how, hey, there wasn't really a traditional medium when you were in law school for a lot of this, but now there is, obviously, now it's quite a popular medium.
Like, what time period were you going through when you made that transition?
Jen: The year of adventure, my 12 trips challenge, was in 2017. And then I quit my job in April, 2018. So this was all before people even thought remote work was real. Even I, when I, you know, was getting that online teaching job, was really skeptical that this would actually be legitimate, that I would actually get paid worthwhile money, uh, because online jobs at the time just weren't a thing.
And then for two years or so, I worked in that kind of atmosphere, being one of a kind, building up my blog, doing the self publishing, trying all these digital income routes. And then the pandemic hit in 2020. And suddenly all of the jobs can become remote. And so now there's a lot more competition and a lot more content as these new platforms are coming out with ways for creators to monetize.
Uh, on top of that in 2020 blog revenue completely crashed for all travel creators because people are not traveling. They're just not looking for it. So a lot of travel creators created second websites. They, you know, switch to the food niche. Uh, and I think now we're seeing just a four year later repercussion of that with Google's, you know, hard, you know, updates and everybody's blog crashing even further.
And I think. I saw the writing on the wall already in 2020. And so I thought, okay, how can I diversify so that blogging is just one of the other revenue streams that I have freelance travel writing is probably my oldest revenue stream that I started in like 2016 while I was still practicing law, I was doing lifestyle pieces, things of the sort, uh, some travel pieces for pace magazine originally.
And then that has been something that I've always had just as an additional way to get credibility. And as a way to, um, just have bylines be current, right? Because in this atmosphere, I think that's something that's really unique about what we do is that the tenure is not a thing, right? And how long you've been doing something for doesn't really matter.
It doesn't really matter that you've been doing this for 10 years or 10 months and you can find people that go, you know, viral and their career completely takes off within three months of starting something and people that have been working on something for a decade, you know, can be thinking, you know, it's not fair because they've put in more time, more hours.
And that's just not the way this industry works. You really have to remain current in the digital space. You have to be creating more. You have to be present. You have to be top of mind. Uh, and so for me, Knowing that and knowing that that's something where, as a creator, it can lead to burnout really quickly if you're not really monitoring this, uh, I really, I think I've grown slower because I've spread my eggs in so many different baskets.
And because of that, I don't have any one basket that has skyrocketed, but all of the, like, super fast, but all of the baskets have been floating up slowly, if that makes sense.
Jared: Rising tide raises all ships, I think, right? Is that the right analogy?
Jen: Exactly. Exactly. Like if I wanted to, I could have put all of my effort into TikTok, which quickly became my biggest, you know, social media channel.
It's where I got the most traction. And I saw that one TikTok followers didn't necessarily translate, even though I was reposting content and those videos, they don't really go to other channels in the same way as they follow you on TikTok. Uh, and then also. If I had gone and just tried to do, you know, just that platform, I have had my accounts, you know, closed on several platforms.
There's so many things that happen by the time you get a support channel to write you back. If your entire livelihood is on any one thing, I think I'm very weary of that. Because I've seen so many things in this digital age, just fall to the wayside. You know, TikTok now is on the chopping block, but there have been so many other things.
Twitter now turned X, which was a huge place for journalists to find leads and to connect with each other. The writing community on there was so strong and now it's, you know, changed a little bit, but I'm still on there because of those contacts and those, you know, calls for pitches and people looking for press trips and things of the sort.
So It's really, it's such an interesting field. And I think that's what makes us these dynamic people, right? Because we're constantly on our toes and we constantly have to adapt. And I think if you're an entrepreneur and you're a digital entrepreneur, it's because you like that. It's because you don't want the monotony of like every single day is going to be the same because that's definitely not the case.
Jared: Yeah. I think a lot of people listening are very familiar with a lot of the updates that have happened. Google the last couple of years. You're kind of right. It does drop a line in the sand. Like what kind of, you know, entrepreneur are you looking to be? I mean, it's frustrating, but that completely changed the way people write and produce content research, but it kind of is what it is.
It's the nature of the way these platforms work. You've mentioned this a couple times in different, um, in different, uh, points already. So I want to kind of double down and ask you a question about you mentioned that you, uh, when you were transitioning, when you were first getting started, you were writing as a freelancer.
You mentioned also, uh, about teaching English online, like these seem to be some things you were doing before you went out on your own, before you quit your, your, your lawyer job. And I think a lot of them listening might be wanting to hear more about that. People listening, sitting here at work at a full time job, having aspirations of doing their own thing.
Maybe talk a little bit more about some of the things you were doing and then how you evaluated when to move on from your law career and into doing this full time.
Jen: So I don't think that there's any better time to start a side hustle than when you are gainfully employed because you have nothing to lose, right?
You can really risk something and try something different without fearing, like, you're all in on this, if this doesn't succeed, you're not gonna be able to pay your bills. So, I do encourage Starting while you have a steady income, and I don't think there's any shame in continuing while you have a steady income because we've seen so many ups and downs.
So there's a way that you can build a really profitable business, you know, while doing that with a nine to five. So for me, it started with blogging. because I knew that I wanted a creative outlet. I was writing really boring legal papers all day and I wanted to write something different. I'm a writer.
This was dull. Uh, and so I started a blog just to have a way for my brain to stay fresh and I really enjoyed writing for the blog, but I knew that my blog wasn't going to take off unless I got linked to by other bigger sites and unless I got more. You know just help being seen so I started by pitching elite daily And elite daily did not pay me for my contributions.
They've since been acquired Uh, you know, they have a different contributor program now, but I did really well for them And this was at a time when I was pending bar clearance In Florida, I had already been a Bard attorney in Maryland. But when you go to Florida, you have to take the bar again. It doesn't matter what age you are.
It doesn't matter how long you've been practicing. So you want to get that out of the way. And I was waiting for my Florida bar clearance, working as a law clerk, making like 12, 15 an hour as a Bard attorney doing law clerk work. And so I felt like this was the most. brain numbing, just like, wow, like paper pusher.
My skills were beyond it at this point. And so I needed something to distract my brain. So I actually got a lot of joy from Elite Daily. Every day they would send out trending hot topics, and you could write about these topics, submit them before noon, and then there would be a high probability if it was well written and, you know, on point because they wanted to cover this, that it would be published.
So I would get such a kick out of, like, secretly writing this article while pretending to do paper pushing work, uh, on this, uh, at the law firm and sending it in before noon. And then, you know, I have the whole afternoon to also do work. It was just work that I could do faster than the time that was allotted.
And so to fill that brain energy, I dedicated it to these freelance articles. Those freelance articles, freelance, I say loosely because I would imply payment contributor articles. So, uh, those contributor articles did really well. They went viral. So they had over 10 million views. Uh, and that's how the editor from pace magazine found me, reached out to me and said, Hey, would you like to write for our travel vertical?
And at the time I was a lawyer, I wasn't traveling. You're not allowed to have vacation. Nobody wants you anywhere but the office. And so I didn't, I, I just said yes. And I think that's a really big role. Like just say yes. And just figure things out later. It doesn't matter if you don't know, like even still to this day, I use that rule.
Like people just talk about things. I have no idea what acronym they're using. I have no idea. And I'm just like, yeah. And I just make a note to figure things out later. So he asked me to be a travel writer and I was like, okay, I will figure out how to write about travel for them because they're going to actually pay me.
Uh, and so that's how I started getting paid for my writing. Uh, and I was able to write a lot of different articles for paste. Uh, they since discontinued their travel vertical, but that gave me enough bylines that I could then start pitching myself elsewhere. So that was how I got started with freelance travel writing.
That whole time, on the side, any articles that weren't getting accepted by Elite Daily, I was publishing on my own website. Which didn't really have its own niche yet, uh, it was not a niche pursuit, uh, it was just a catch all pursuit of whatever wasn't accepted by Elite Daily. And so ultimately I, you know, rebranded twice and refined that until I got to Jet on a Jet Plane, which took me a little bit of time, but it was still such a fun project to work on in the meantime.
The things I did get to do under My first site was 20s chic, um, because we're like broken in our 20s, but we're going to be fabulous. I'm no longer in my 20s. And so it's not a sustainable site unless you make it like a contributor site. Um, and I didn't want to do that. So, but it was really nice. And I got to do some great projects and it was, you know, one step leads to another, you never know where something's going to lead.
Uh, and so it took, you know, two years and two rebrands to finally land on Jen on a jet plane. And. I, one other big game changer for me while employed was that during that year of adventure, one of my trips was to a travel conference. I think if you're going to run a business, you have to understand that nothing in this world like works in a bubble, particularly in business.
Like it's such a social thing. It's who you know, it's being in the right places at the right time. Like. If you're going to work with brands, if you want people to pay you for things, they need to know about you and you need to be top of mind for them and you need to be, you know, first on the list and to do that professionally, you have to show up in these professional spaces.
So when I went to my first travel conference, that was a big game changer for me because now I've been, you know, it took a lot because I was like, it was in Huntsville, Alabama, and that was my year of. Amazing travels, right? And so I'm like, how Huntsville, Alabama, that's not, that was not on the list. It does not sound, doesn't sound exciting.
I don't know. It actually is pretty cool. It's like, uh, the, the most rocket scientists that you'll find in the U S because they have a space center there and they do, they have like a space camp you can go to. Like, it's actually a really cool place with a lot of ridiculously smart people who live there.
Um, and so. I've learned that now that, you know, places can be deceiving. Um, but I went on that travel conference and I just loved it. I found myself really engaged in the sessions, sitting in the front row, taking notes, wanting to talk to the speakers after, making networks of brand contacts. That's how I got my first hosted brand deal.
I got a free hotel stay at Margaritaville Hollywood resort. And I remember going there and, you know, being this VIP guest and seeing my name on the list for everybody to know I was coming and thinking like, this is really cool. And it happened because the PR rep liked my story. She liked meeting me. She liked me as a person.
And that's why she pushed me through versus me being just. An email in her inbox asking for a free stay.
Jared: When did video and short form video come into play? Because you, you, you, you, you, you started, well, we'll get into all the stuff you've done. I mean, you kind of mentioned there's so many different threads we can pull here, but short form video is an area you've been really successful.
And I think I saw in your file, like, over a hundred million views now on short form video content. I, I think a lot of it on TikTok. And, uh, you know, you talked about not putting all your eggs in the TikTok basket, but When did, when did short form video start for you and how have you leveraged that? Have you leveraged short form content over the years to grow your brand?
Jen: I think it was definitely with Tik TOK because with Instagram, there was still a lot of pressure, especially as a woman to wear this perfect, you know, bright dress with the perfect flow and the perfect ribbon and the perfect filter, uh, and. I did that for years and it performed well on Instagram. And I think when the pandemic hit, people were tired.
People are at home. Nobody has the time to put on this perfect dress and fake it. And honestly, nobody has the will or the energy because it just feels inauthentic. And I think we have seen that shift in how we consume content, where we appreciate more real content from people that aren't made up, you know, to the nines and look.
Like unattainable. I think we've seen that a lot. And the same thing with decentering celebrities. I think it's just a general trend that we're seeing with people. So people like real things and TikTok provided this outlet where one, there was a feeling that the people that I know aren't going to come to TikTok.
They think TikTok is all dancing teenagers. So I can actually just sit here and. Speak honestly without feeling like I have to be this perfect, filtered, amazing version of myself that I've created elsewhere. I can just be new version of me here. Also, since this was during the pandemic and all travel crashed, I didn't, didn't really need to talk about travel because everybody was going down your throat.
Even if you would be like, this is for later, they would be like, ah, don't promote travel. So everybody was really edgy, uh, around that time. So I was like, I can go and share something completely different. On tiktok and just talk about my entrepreneur journey. You know how I went from law to doing this now and so I think that mix of authenticity of being able to really share what I wanted to the lack of editing required.
I could just speak and within a minute or two, I can have a video and have it out. There's really so few other platforms where that's the case. I think threads recently has captured some of that. Mhm. because you can share a mix of photos and videos and just kind of pick from your thing, put a quick caption and share it.
So you can have a post within a few minutes. I think something like YouTube long form can take people days to edit a video. Like I said, those Instagram filters, I mean, they're so tricky and so it can take a long time and that can be a barrier for people. TikTok had no barriers that allowed more content to come through.
Now you can post five, six videos in a day and it doesn't even take you a half hour to create. Um, and so I think those were all really key integral shifts that made me go from that traditional photography, Instagram, perfect picture to short form video and how can we share content of substance? What I loved about short form video is that in 60 seconds, I can quickly summarize something you need to know about this destination, why you should visit, you know, why this is something that's important or unique or one of a kind or.
The only thing in the world and you can share that like enough information within 60 seconds to get something through. And then if there's more questions, you know, do a follow up, make a series on it. Part one, part two. Um, but it really made it so easy to share valuable content. Even I, as a consumer now.
It's changed the way that I look for how to do things. When I go on vacation, I just came back from Mexico City to celebrate my birthday. And I was thinking to myself, where do I go in Mexico City? And TikTok is the first place I went to type best places to eat, you know, best restaurants, best things to do, best day trips.
And that's where I go. Um, so I think it really changed. How we do short form and so much so that every other platform has then tried to imitate TikTok. So then Instagram brought out reels, YouTube brought out shorts, uh, Facebook put more emphasis on their reels. And so, and now it's showing them like every.
Three swipes that you do. Um, so everyone, LinkedIn, LinkedIn is doing video now. So everyone's trying to capture that same magic while simultaneously burning TikTok down to the ground. It's been really interesting to watch because no one has been able to emulate it, uh, but they all want to be TikTok. Uh, and yes, I think that was part of it.
And also TikTok's magic is that you do not need to have a lot of followers. To get a million plus views it goes based off of how your content performs So you could have one follower and get a million views if that video goes viral if people are sharing it and that and that's not Really the case in other platforms either.
So I think that was encouraging to creators the fact that your content would get seen The fact that it would, you know, perform really well and that it continued to perform for destinations that were smaller destinations. Maybe the video initially got 10, 000 views, but over time it would be at the top of my of the rankings for that search for the hashtag.
So when people do go to see things to do in that area. My video comes up and I've had videos my Rochester garbage plate video is at over a half a million views And I think it started with like 20 000. So over the last two years it's grown exponentially Something that other platforms also don't do give you you know That may be youtube But they don't really give you views to old videos in that way that it keeps growing and growing and goes newly viral months or years after it's been published, so That was what made TikTok so appealing and what made it such a wonderful ride.
Uh, and what made it so that I could get, you know, 100 million views primarily through that platform. Um, so I, I'm really grateful for it and I would just maximize that. When something went viral, I would do Uh, follow up videos to all of the most popular comments. So that way, you know, that traffic automatically gets directed to those videos as well as people continue to open the video.
I would share those, uh, reels everywhere else that I just mentioned. Pinterest, Pinterest is another one that went video first. They all went video. Um, and so yeah, that, that's been the journey.
Jared: For those people who are struggling with maybe a TikTok or just short form video in general, I mean, you talk so much about authenticity and I think it's fascinating that you were able to kind of start almost a travel, uh, short form content platform during the pandemic, which goes back to what you're talking about, like not necessarily focusing on, uh, the travel part of it, but on who you are and the authenticity of it.
But what other like tips would you have for people who might be running up against a brick wall when it comes to, um, The TikTok. And then my follow up question to that would be, because you mentioned it, so I'm glad you did, TikTok is known for having people that want to stay on the platform, and so how do you, how do you get the most value from what you do on TikTok when, you know, it's like, well, what do I do with all of them?
What do I do with all these followers? What do I do with all these video views? So, you know, kind of a two part question, but those are my two questions as it looks back on your TikTok journey.
Jen: Yeah. Well, I think the first thing that I would advise when you're joining a platform is to kind of throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks because you don't know what's going to go viral on this platform and what are people really going to like here.
So maybe people really like it when you share a story with you and your dog, or maybe people really like it when you share a B roll content with text over screen, or maybe people really like it when you do three quick tips. So. Try when you're starting, that's the best time to experiment. And then I would take whatever people have responded the best to, and I would look at that by shares.
Um, shares and saves because that's going to be something that they want to send to somebody else. They want to reference later. And so I think that that's strong for you, maybe more so than likes. Um, so I would look at that. What has the most shares and saves? What do people really respond to and engage with here?
And how can I do more of that? Is it the style? Is it the tips that I shared? Is it the particular topic that I talked about? Was it because I had something distracting in the background and that drew, you know, comments and more interactions? How can I keep Adding more of that into what I'm doing. Um, and I think that that's a good first place to start What was the second part of your question?
Jared: Yeah, so I mean you could look at it like what do you do when you do get success on tiktok? Like how do you turn that into a following that goes beyond just view video views and you know comments?
Jen: So when you go viral definitely as I mentioned those comments you want to make other videos so that you can have related videos link to that original viral video and kind of send people down your video funnel so they can see more.
Also link them to a playlist or something else where they can continue to reference other videos like this so that if they like this they can easily see more like that. One thing I like to do is I like to kind of put What the juicy thing is in my Lincoln bio. So, for instance, I went viral a lot with sharing, um, travel deals and opportunities.
Like, let's say Delta had a, you know, a particular giveaway or something where they're doing something. And then I would say, so this is everything that's included. This is what you win. And then if you want to apply, I have the link on my page. So now you've like this, but you You like it because you want to do it.
And it's easier for you to just go through the link on my page and to go to Google and try to find it yourself. Um, cause people like everything that way. Um, and I can't include links in the comments in Tik TOK. So I just haven't, I used to have like a travel deals and opportunities page where when you click, it just had links to all these things and that would get, you know, on a viral video, I'd get 10, 000 hits in a day just to that one website page.
Um. Because you have that much traction because people are really motivated because they want to apply they want to you know Get these things uh get the discount get the deal Whatever the case is so that was how I was able to direct traffic from tiktok to my site um Occasionally I would also direct it to sign up for an email or a freebie or something of the sort so that I can Get people on my email list Uh, and then beyond that, I would say, yeah, starting a series of something, you know, to be popular.
So I saw like, I'm a solo female traveler and I went to X country, um, it's always a good way to start for me. So I can do that for almost anything. I'm a solo female traveler and I went to Mexico. I'm a solo female traveler and I went to Egypt. I'm a solo female traveler and I went to Japan. People just want to see.
Um, and so if that's something that, you know, is working, you know, do more of that. Uh, and make a whole series around that.
Jared: Let's talk about books. Because that's clearly an area that you have a lot of experience in. And really, beyond books, like also public speaking, I mean, uh, six time Amazon bestseller, uh, three time TEDx speaker.
Talk about the value and the role books have played in your overall brand. I do think a lot of people think of books as a very difficult thing for them to do, but also how much value is it going to add to their overall brand. So maybe touch on that, we can get into talking about Writing books, traditional publishing, self publishing, some of these topics, a lot of people are interested in.
Jen: Yeah, I think the mistake that most people make is in thinking that when they write a book, that it has to be something that they do at the pinnacle of their career, towards the end of their life, right? That it's not something they're ready to do now. That writing a book is something they haven't earned the right to do yet.
I'm not ready to write a book, I don't really know. And I think they intimidate themselves out of it, not realizing that being an author, is more of a lifelong career. It's very rarely your first book, you know, your second book that does well. And most successful authors that we've seen have 20 books or more.
They're very prolific. So if you want to be a writer other than just have like one main book, that's your main, uh, entry into speaking or, you know, what you want to sell on your website. And that's fine as well. But if you know that you want to write, you should start writing sooner rather than later and start publishing things now.
So that you can get better as you go instead of holding off and expecting that you're like one grand project is going to be mind blowing for everybody because that might be disappointing. So I think that also takes the pressure off of having to perform. If you know that your goal as a writer is to always be writing.
Uh, and so for me, I did. Both the self publishing route and the traditional publishing route. I did self publishing because I wanted to have a passive revenue stream. I wanted to work on building my income streams when I, uh, left law. And I did want to have that, uh, authority. So I did three books on travel, two books on remote work.
And then when the pandemic hit. I was actually on track to just keep self publishing more, uh, but I thought this is actually a, might be a good time to try to get a traditional book deal since I'm not traveling. I can't keep putting it off. I can actually put the time to devote to this. Uh, and so I would say that the Self publishing was good for establishing a digital income stream, for becoming an author, for being able to enter yourself into author awards, author conferences, for saying you're an author when you're applying to be a speaker, things like that.
And that the traditional publishing was good for things like getting media recognition, getting, you know, traditional TV appearances, doing a book tour, getting distribution in bookstores and Barnes and Noble and things of the sort. Um, so I think depending on what your goal is, both are valid.
Jared: Your book that went on to be, uh, traditionally published, um, Uh, for people who, uh, maybe want to go down that route, like from a high level, what's the process look like?
Um, do you have to go fig, figure it all out yourself or do you kind of, uh, latch on to a company? How do you get in with that company? What are some of the details to doing a traditional publisher route?
Jen: To be traditionally published, you need a publisher and usually publishers only take queries from agents, not directly from authors.
There are some exceptions to that. So there are some publishers that you can pitch directly. You have hybrid publishers as well, but a traditional publishing house will usually only take Submissions from agents and so that means that you need to get an agent. That's then going to pitch your idea to the publishing company Another exception is if the publishing company comes to you because you're just so fabulous You had something go viral your jewels and you made demure like the word of the year And so they want you to write a book and that happens as well but for most people it's going to be that you need to get an agent to then be your Key to the publishers and then they're gonna go around and shop your book to all of their contacts at these publishing companies Which is not easy for you to do on your own so the person that you need to get on your side is an agent who's going to be fighting for you who believes in your Book and who wants to represent somebody in your genre.
There's many ways to do this. There's like manuscript wish lists and S. W. L. Hashtag M. S. W. L. You can search on social media and you'll see agents putting out calls for submissions. So they'll be like, I'm looking for a story about a young adult, you know, fantasy novel, whatever the case may be. And they're going to break down their genres of what they're looking for.
So you can search that you can search different agents from books that you like. So you can go and see who's the agent for this book and, you know, pitch them and say, Hey, I saw you represented this book. I have another book that might be of interest to you because it's similar. And, you know, things like that.
Um, for me, I found my agent through the writer's digest conference. So again, the power of conferences, right? I learned really quickly that It's easier for me to make an impression when you can see my face than me just sending an email. It's so easy to just delete the email, ignore me, never get back to me.
And a lot of people go that route and they get really discouraged when they're pitching agents because they're like, I've pitched 200 agents and nobody's responded to me and my work must really suck, you know? And, um, I think, I think that's not the case. I think in this digital age, It gives you an edge to be a human, and it gives you an edge to be standing like face to face with somebody.
At the very least, they can't just ignore you. They have to say yes or no. And usually if they say no, they're gonna feel obliged to either give detailed reasons why, which can help you. Or, you know, refer you to somebody else, offer you something else as a consolation. So in any case, I feel like you're just better off investing in these things.
And I had the ability that year, 2020, since everything went remote, I could do this remotely and meet with people over the computer. As opposed to having to go in person to New York and invest in that trip. So I took advantage, I paid for the extra registration for the pitch slam, which was an add on to the conference fee.
Because you have the conference, you have the sessions about writing. But the pitch slam is a dedicated hour. Where you go in and then you're assigned to a number of agents that are interested in representing your genre and during that time you pitch them your book. And then they'll tell you, okay, yes, this sounds good.
Send me a proposal because you have, um, initially the query letter, which is one page. That is something that you would be sending via email if you were, you know, blind pitching people so they can get a one page idea of your book. If they're interested, uh, which you've just now done in person, you've like pitched them your one page thing, they'll ask you for a proposal if it's non fiction.
If it's fiction, they'll ask you for the full So if you're writing, yeah, so if you're writing that fantasy novel, usually you'll have to have finished the novel before you submit it. If you're writing a non fiction book, a self help book, whatever the case may be, a business book, you just have to have your book proposal, which is the outline, uh, and a marketing plan, and like two or three sample chapters.
And so once you have that, they asked me for a proposals. I took the time to work with a coach, both on my query letter and the proposal. And then I later submitted, submitted that to the agents who asked for it. And from that, I got an offer of representation. And then a few months later, a book deal.
Jared: It's a cool story.
Oh my. Okay. Um, well, you're very purposeful about everything you do. I love that. Uh, so that dovetails perfectly. TEDx. You've spoken three times at TEDx. I imagine getting the first, the first time getting that spot and then performing well must have helped get you further TEDx time, uh, uh, speaking sessions.
But talk about that. I mean, I'm sure there's a story behind how you were able to land a speaking spot on TEDx and just the process that went into that.
Jen: Yeah. So I knew that I wanted TEDx to be on my resume because I wanted. People to take me seriously as a speaker. I was transitioning from law. So I had public speaking experience, but not in this realm.
And I wanted to give myself something to work with. Um, so I knew that that was a goal. And immediately when I quit my job in April, I started looking for ways to apply to this. So I had a master list of like all the different TEDx talks that are. Going to be happening. And then, you know, when are they opening applications?
Where do you apply? And I just went down the list. I also rented the book from the library, the TEDx talks book by Chris Anderson, I believe is his name, but, uh, inventor of Ted. Uh, and so he takes you through everything, like how to make your pitch. What's how to be on the stage. So I read that book while I was submitting that to dip my ideas to different, um, Ted organizations, TEDx independently organized.
And so eventually, uh, a few of them were interested. We went through like the application process with one and we had an interview and then they invited me to be a speaker. And then I had a couple of months to prepare. Uh, so I worked on, you know, writing out cause Ted is supposed to be, you know, 15 minutes or less, ideally 10 minutes or less, but it's supposed to be something that you would, Ideally have memorized.
I will say not very many other speakers did. I think it's a very nerve wracking environment. Um, but ideally, you would have it memorized so that you can. It's not as important on the replay, but so that you can look at the audience versus looking down at the prompter. Um, And then that that is something that you should be aware of.
It's like where you're applying and the quality of their recording is going to be important for you and your ability to use this later. Um, so that's something that you should take into account because they're independently organized. So everybody has different resources. And I was very lucky where my first TEDx talk was at Penn State and at Burke's campus.
And they had All the equipment they needed, really high tech microphones, a really savvy team. And they made that a beautiful, uh, you know, video quality presentation. So that was excellent. Um, and it was not, it was not like. It was not easy. I definitely like lost feeling and I think four of my 10 toes before I went out, so I'm not going to say like, you know, everything just goes without a hitch, but I think you need to be aware that the most important thing in the Ted talk is the recording and usually, because that's, what's going to live on way more than this hour that you're here, that not even hour, 10 minutes that you're here.
Um, and so if you mess up. In the moment, they can always fix it on the recording later or have you go back on stage later and like fix that, take that clip again or whatever the case may be. So you really, you have to keep that in mind and try to not get into your own head because it is such a big thing.
You are with such other accomplished speakers. You know, the spotlight is on you. You have this red carpet, you have these big letters behind you. It's a very, it can be a very intimidating moment for a lot of people. That's why I think so many people use the prompter as a crutch. Um, but I think just remembering that the important thing is the video.
and how that lives on. So then I applied for my second talk, which was also at a university, this time at Case Western University. And there I did have a little bit of a video malfunction problem in playing a video, which really is not recommended. I did it for the purpose of like wanting to prove, you What I was saying, but ideally Ted should just be you speaking with like that's why you don't have full slides behind you And if you do it's like one word, uh, because the idea is you not the thing So but I wanted the video to prove a point, uh in that and I definitely had some tech issues and that's why I say like on stage you have to remember like the most important thing is like Not that you're fumbling with this right now, but that like, none of this is going to be in the final video.
Uh, and then the third one was actually fully remote, uh, and that was during the pandemic. There was another opportunity to speak and I wanted to talk about remote work. This was at a time when people weren't working remotely and I had seen how I'd been able to make this transition. So I thought I could really encourage people to find different ways to make online income.
Uh, and so those are my three talks. The first one was The power of flying solo. The second one was why can't we be friends, be friends, how to, uh, you know, get past differences that you have with other people. Uh, and then the third one was anyone can work remotely, remote work freedom.
Jared: Love all the tips.
Love all the tips. I have a secret, like, uh, desire someday to give a TED talk. I don't know, we'll see if I can get around to it. Or whatever you can say. Oh yeah.
Jen: I would say the biggest thing when pitching for people is that TED is so, it's, it's intimidating in the moment, but in the application process, it's actually very friendly because they do not care about your background, your bio.
That's not the important thing at all. That's why you have TED speakers that are teenagers. That's why you have, I'm like, it does not matter that you are the most accomplished CEO. If anything, if you lead your pitch with that being like, here's all my accomplishments and that's why I should be a TEDx speaker.
You will not hear from them. You should be leading with your idea because the whole thing behind Ted is that you are sharing an idea that when people leave there, they, you will plant a seed in their head that will make them think about something differently. That needs to be the crux of your pitch with your bio being, you know, what bolsters that up afterwards.
But it's the idea that you're pitching, not you, the speaker.
Jared: Yeah. So really anybody listening. Provided they have a good idea. It could be someone who applies. You don't have to wait until you, you know, sold three companies or whatever the case may be. Um,
Jen: exactly.
Jared: So this is kind of all building to where I want to kind of lead into for the final part of the interview here.
So we've talked about your success with TEDx, doing it multiple times. We've talked about six books, some self published, some traditionally published. We've talked about your success on, um, on video platforms, all these things. I just, what I want to now do is talk about how this all actually applies to your brand and how it's contributed to your brand and where all these things we've been talking about play into your brand, how your business makes money today.
And I just want to give people, cause it's a lot, right? Like each of these things on their own publishing books. Going on and speaking on large platforms, um, uh, creating viral video content. Like it's a lot of work and I just want to kind of start to bring it back to how it's influencing your business and how it's helped your business grow from a monetization standpoint and what you do on a day to day basis.
Jen: Yeah, so my business is Jen on the Jet Plane LLC, and it has all of these different aspects to it. So the book royalties, the revenues from brand, uh, partnerships, the revenues from speaking engagements, any kind of blog revenues from ads on the website, any kind of affiliate revenues from links that I'm sharing, uh, any kind of digital product or coaching revenue that I have from people that I, that want to go maybe one on one with me for any of these topics.
Uh, and so all of that comes together under the umbrella of Jet on a Jet Plane, which was actually the, my own imprint for the self published books as well. So everything's under that Jet on a Jet Plane umbrella, with the idea being that my, what I'm selling is my travel expertise. I'm selling my ability to travel the world as a solo traveler in a way that, Very few people can like, you know, I've had moments where I've been dropped in the middle of a foreign country with a rental car, like with police or like all kinds of like crazy stuff that are happening and you're just like, you know, some people might crumble under this situation, you know, and I feel like this is where I thrive because I, I'm well versed in this and I've had so many things happen all over the world that I'm very good at navigating these places.
And so that is the value that I provide and I provide that to my readers. And as. Uh, media person as a brand as somebody who wants to work with me, I provide you access to those readers, but also my expertise and my partnership recommending you right? Like some of these different brands and destinations that I've worked with this past year.
I did the media tour and I was asked a lot of questions on TV about what are things I recommend places I'd like to go, you know, things I like to use. And so I keep that Rolodex in my mind of past partners to be able to continue to mention them. So I monetize and I get my value both from them. The one thing that I know that is very unique to me that I can do, which is navigate the world as a solo female traveler all over the world.
Uh, and how I can share that with people, which is my skill with, uh, which is storytelling. And that's what I had as a lawyer. That's what made me a compelling lawyer and a trial advocate. That's what makes me now a compelling writer. Uh, a video present. You know, whatever the medium is of the moment that I need to adapt to, if I need to go and, you know, we're writing now sub stack instead of blogs, if we're making holograms in the future, instead of short form videos, if we're like, I really don't care what it is, but I will still be there in that platform, sharing that core expertise.
of travel through something that I know how to do, which is storytelling and resonating with people and hopefully ideally inspiring people and showing people that things are possible for them as well.
Jared: There's been a theme throughout the interview about adapting, pivoting, adjusting, going where, uh, going where, you know, the world is going and just not, not staying locked down in one particular type of content creation.
Or approach, you know, maybe as we, as we start to bring this to a wrap, like, where are you seeing opportunity going forward? Where are you seeing change happen? Where are you starting to put time into maybe in an area where you haven't historically put time in?
Jen: Yeah, absolutely. Uh, and I, the lawyer in me is cringing every time I say yeah, because it's a filler word.
So I just know that my public speaking. Spoken by a speaker in me has been cringing and I want to catch myself. It's not necessary. Um, but I actually have been putting time right now where the money is. So threads has a threads bonus and they've been paying for posting on there. And I've gotten pretty good reach on there.
I've had some things go viral, millions of views, board panda made an article about a post that went crazy. So. I think that that's good for now, as long as I'm getting income from there. And, and I think it's a good alternative to Twitter, like the text based platform while still allowing me to share a mix of video and photos that I haven't been able to share through Facebook that limits me to just photos or video one or the other.
Um, and so I think it's a great way for me to just, like I said, pluck from my album, share it and actually get a lot of impact and traffic through there. I've, I've actually seen some good blog posts that get good traction, you know, things like that. So as long as they're paying me for the bonus, I am interested.
In threads, uh, and then I would probably also start doing more long form YouTube. So I have been growing my YouTube channel with shorts, just reposting my content, and it's been growing steadily, but it's really hard to reach monetization on YouTube through shorts, like the, it's like 90 million or something views that you need, compared to like 4, 000.
Watch hours on long form content. So I'm going to be probably diving into the long form content, uh, as hoping to have another way to monetize. I will still be rebranding my blog and, and working on blogging, but I will say I have never returned to blogging with as much strength as I did pre. March 2020 because I was just so traumatized.
I saw my earnings go from over 100 a day to 3 a day. And that just devastated me because I did, I was going to go all in on that. And I think that was the point where I was like, Ooh, all in is really dangerous. Uh, so let me try something else. And even as I've seen people, you know, now I see, you know, the ups and downs.
And so I think that's the lesson is that unfortunately, this is a. where there's a lot of innovation. There's a lot of change. There's a new platforms all the time, and it is super frustrating to build something, you know, to over a quarter of a million followers on one platform. And then all of a sudden think that that's going to be gone in an instant.
Um, and so I think that's why there has to be a level of detachment and just like, okay. My value is here. It's inside of me, regardless, and I'm choosing where to share it, but the value is what I know. It's what I have to share. It's not that particular platform. It's not that particular group that I've amassed there.
And so I think you have to do that as somebody that's online, as a creator, because you're going to see those dips. And if you don't do that, you're going to take the dips personally. You're going to be like, Oh my goodness, this post flop. I have nothing of value to share. I am really bad at this, and that's not the case.
Like, these things just happen, and so you cannot internalize it. You have to understand that you, as a creator, you, as an expert in your field, are just finding different ways to reach people because the attention naturally moves. Uh, and so you just have to go to where the attention is at the moment. It's just, it is what it is.
And if you want something more stable, I don't recommend this life.
Yup. The wild, wild world of online publishing and content creation and script. That is the script we live in right now. Uh, yeah, that could be the headline.
Jared: Um, this is flown by, where can people follow along with you and your journey and what you have going?
I've got to imagine there's a ton of places people could go, but like, where would you direct people if they wanted to stay in touch?
Jen: Sure. You can find me on all social media platforms at Jen on a jet plane. My website is Jen on a jet plane. com like leaving on a jet plane, Jen on a jet plane. And my book, 12 trips in 12 months is available wherever books are sold.
Jared: We'll put a link, uh, I think I have the Amazon link for that book, so we'll put a link that, there's no notes there. Um, man, Jen, thank you so much, uh, very inspiring, and you've left me with so many things to think about, I wouldn't even know where to start right now, but luckily I have a lot of notes. So, um, thank you for coming on and sharing so much, I appreciate it.
I appreciate you sharing the ups and the downs as well. It sounds like you've had a lot of ups, but it definitely sounds like you've had a couple of downs. I think that's going to really be a story. A lot of people are going to kind of sympathize with you as they listen. So thanks again. And until we talk next time.
Jen: Thank you, Jared.
Want to learn step-by-step how I built my Niche Site Empire up to a full-time income?
Yes! I Love to Learn
Learn How I Built My Niche Site Empire to a Full-time Income
- How to Pick the Right Keywords at the START, and avoid the losers
- How to Scale and Outsource 90% of the Work, Allowing Your Empire to GROW Without You
- How to Build a Site That Gets REAL TRAFFIC FROM GOOGLE (every. single. day.)
- Subscribe to the Niche Pursuits Newsletter delivered with value 3X per week
My top recommendations