Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophie Bowman.
Hi Sophie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Right before my 30th birthday I found myself in a classroom surrounded by violent special needs kids, and made a decision I wanted to create a career that allowed me to travel the world and work from home in my pants and the opportunity to make as much money as I wanted. A few weeks later, I’d put a deposit on a beautiful apartment in Morocco. I figured, ‘Why not start my business from a country where the living expenses are low and I can feed my need for travel at the same time?’ I relocated to the U.S. after 2 years, and have been living between Miami and Fort Lauderdale for 5 years now. I started out by collecting freelance clients before I moved to Marrakech, offering social media, branding, marketing and copywriting services. Over the past 5 years, hustle and referrals saw me become a published contributor to Forbes and Entrepreneur, win multiple awards, become a best-selling author and led me to work on some major campaigns with big boy brands like BALMAIN, and work on social media campaigns or events with multiple celebrities including DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, Jamie Foxx, La la Anthony, Jamie Foxx, Swizz Beatz and many more. My resume reads like career ADHD, but the arsenal of versatile skills and knowledge of different industries I’ve dabbled with is giving me the last laugh. I started building my own Instagram 5 years ago to use as a calling card for new social media clients – it really took off when my first few articles were published on Forbes and Entrepreneur, so my Instagram accidentally became an additional revenue stream. I became a ghostwriter for a self-made billionaire entrepreneur, and handled her blogs and social media channels for 3 years. I think spending time around her and on her incredible Miami estate reignited the fire in my stomach. I wasn’t born to be average, so if I don’t have at least one big win by the end of each week, I feel like I’m failing at life. In 2019 I broke my jaw and almost died in a biking accident. I was on a liquid diet for months, lost weight, got scouted, signed and paid to walk the runways of Miami Swim Week. I like to find opportunity in everything – because there is. I like to push myself out of my comfort zone, so this July I’m competing in Miss Bikini Fitness at Miami Swim Week. To say I’m out of my comfort zone is an understatement. Of course, I filmed my transformation and with my amazing personal trainer, Lisa Dwoskin, and we’re creating a TV show out of it. I win a lot, so it’s humbling competing in something I know I’m likely not to win. Not to be negative, just realistic. This is Miami, and Miami loves plastic. I don’t have any surgery, but after some depressing comments from my Goddaughters about wanting surgery (aged 10 and 12) I wanted to show them that women can be successful and considered attractive without any cosmetic surgery. Nothing against surgery; I think people should do whatever makes them happy, it’s just not for me. I like natural beauty.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I like to go against the grain, meaning I’ve made my life as difficult as possible, but I don’t regret it- even if I did take the long, dangerous road type of scenic route to get to where I am. I spent a fortune relocating from Morocco to Miami, and had to put 4 months down on an apartment to secure my own place without credit here. It cleared me out, and 4 years ago I was still living in a horrible studio in South Beach on a blow up mattress and minimal furniture. I knew no one when I moved here, so ended up hanging out with club promoters. The nightclub scene is fun in Miami, but you rarely meet quality people. It was easy to miss 0uty on parties to build my business while working here for a magazine back in the UK as their international reporter. Top 2 struggles:
1. Being told as I was trying to move into my new apartment in Morocco (without notice) that I had to pay 17877 Dirham (around $2000) or they wouldn’t let me in. My cards had a maximum $250 withdrawal at one time and the ATMs there don’t give out more than 2000 dirham at a time. I was in the street with all my stuff. I had to trust the only neighbor who spoke a little English to watch my stuff and my dog, and went to a new friend’s nearby riad (hotel) in the medina to panic. I had met this amazing woman only once, and she was amazing enough to trust me and give me her business credit card to go withdraw money from different banks all over Morocco. This taught me there is always a solution, no matter how dire the circumstances are.
2. During my rookie freelance years, I didn’t contract social media marketing clients. I happened to lose all of my clients in one day as it was nearing the end of the year and everyone’s budgets were running out. I had bigger, better clients a week later, but who needs that kind of anxiety in their lives? That was the first day I ever popped a bottle of wine alone.
As you know, we’re big fans of ConvertYourFollowers.com. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I was horrified to discover during lockdown that even the biggest brands and influencers have no strategy to convert their social media followers to customers. The thing is, followers already showed love by following you and engaging with your brand story, making them hot leads. So why leave them sitting there watching and waiting, missing out on money? If Instagram went down tomorrow, you lose all the time and effort you put into it and all of your followers. You have to start moving them from social to your email database. This business model won me 3 awards in 2020 for helping business owners thrive instead of just survive COVID.
For businesses that cannot afford a $1000-$3000 monthly package, I’m working on my book now and will be launching ‘How to Convert Your Followers’ soon; electronic and paperback versions.
Most proud moment: When I explained my business model to Shark Tank’s original Shark, Kevin Harrington, on an entrepreneur panel TV show last week along with a case study with BALMAIN (see convertyouyrfollowers.com to see the crazy results) he said, “You have something very unique here, something people need. The % increase in sales you get is something people need to know about.”
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
When COVID hit, I thought, based on the usual recession trends, that digital marketing would be the first budget cut. I was completely wrong. Businesses’ only lifeline was to have an ecommerce presence; do or die. I’ve had to turn down a lot of work over the past year. I should delegate, but I have never been able to find someone like me who is skilled in multiple areas including writing, creative direction, PR, and everything in between. Clubhouse seemed to come out of nowhere almost overnight, so I think in 5-10 years Instagram will go one of two ways; eiter become even bigger, or become obsolete. I’m edging towards the latter. I do think that another platform could pop up and take over the game. Another reason to start converting our followers to customers. Of course, this is all speculation – no one really knows what will happen. I just got the patents for my upcoming swimwear/lingerie and liquor brands. The patented technology will steal the show in swimwear and the type of alcohol we drink. That’s where I’ll be in 5-10 years – designing the latest styles to make women feel good in patented technology enhancewear, and working on unique liquor brand flavors with patented ingredients.
Contact Info:
- Email: sophie@convertyourfollowers.com
- Website: www.convertyourfollowers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophiecbowman/
Image Credits
Micheal Anthony @macphotoimage Lisa Dwoskin @meta.transformation Jevon Kearse @mykearseismygift @SimonettaLein Kevin Harrington @realkevinharrington
