#001 – Neurodiversity: The Marketing Superpower You Never Knew You Had

Melanie Branch: Hello and welcome to Trailblazers Rising, where we are sharing secrets and stories of triumph from our standout entrepreneurs. Today we are focusing on Jessica Bruno, who I love so much, and I follow on not only TikTok, but also on Instagram cuz she has fantastic things to say. About how to use social media to grow your small business.

So without further ado, we are going to dive right into it. And Jess, I am so thankful that you're here. Are you ready?

Jessica Bruno: I'm more than ready, baby. Awesome.

Melanie Branch: So let's start out, first and foremost, can you spill the beans on your journey of becoming an entrepreneur? We wanna hear all the juicy deets.

Jessica Bruno: I don't even know where to begin.

So I've worked in marketing for the last eight years. I did it employed for the man for loads of different companies big companies in London, and I learned a lot, but, and as I was rising up like the corporate ladder, I ended up getting really sick and I've been sick for 10 years, but my chronic illness just was flaring up so bad and the marketing corporate world is full of events and booze and partying and boys, and I was just, I wasn't very healthy about it, so I decided I need to step away.

Start again. I needed to look, how can I work in marketing? And my partner at the time, he was always saying, oh, you should do it on your own. You should do it on your own. I was like, I have no idea what that even means. Who wants marketing? Like who? What person needs stuff marketed? It's so weird. I didn't even know people wanted it.

And then the pandemic happened. And suddenly all of my friends were starting their own businesses. And my, they'd call me be like, Jess, can you just check this Instagram caption? Can you just check my hashtags? Can you, can you look at my bio? And they'd ask me all these questions and I'll, I was answering, answer them.

My mom rest in peace said you should start charging people for this. And I was like, oh my God, this is marketing.

Melanie Branch: This is it. This is what they've been talking about.

Jessica Bruno: This is it. This is what my boyfriend says I should be doing for people. Cuz like the word in when in my job, job in the corporate world, like there's no such thing as content pillars.

We don't go deep into niches. We, no, like, we don't talk about, we don't use the word copy. It's just do the marketing. There's no, like, there's no none these words around it that on in the small business, online space, you have like expert copywriter, how to define your content pillars, why you really need to niche down.

And I was like, wow. Okay. All right. Hello, hello. Terminology. Hello. And I was, and then I had to kind of learn how to speak the language. I kind of always have come in with this. Anti hule, anti having to post all the time. You can make your, you can do your marketing, how you wanna do it, and still grow kind of mentality.

And that's what I've been scaling for the last two years.

Melanie Branch: I love it. I love it so much. What part of the UK are you in?

Jessica Bruno: I'm in London. In London, tan. Yeah.

Melanie Branch: Now, let me ask you this, since I run in the neuro divergent community, are you aware of the fact that it is a neurodivergent trait for both ADHD and to take on the accent of whoever they're speaking to?

Jessica Bruno: No, but I love that it makes a lot of sense.

Melanie Branch: It's I don't know if it has necessarily to do with bottom up thinking or if it has more to do with our echolalia. I'm, I'm leaning towards echolalia and our affinity for repeating sounds that we really like. But I know us most Americans, when we accent. You all sound like you know exactly what you're talking about all the time. And I feel like us Americans are just like, ah, we're trying. Don't, you know, you know, like we don't have the level of authority that you guys do in your voice. So if I take on your accent, it's only because I'm in love with it now.

Jessica Bruno: I love it. Can I just jump in? I watched a, I saw a TikTok the other day talking about how if words were names, and I think EIA would be a gorgeous name for a little girl. Right? If it didn't mean what it meant.

Melanie Branch: I mean, eia, it's. It makes you want to repeat it, like it makes you do the thing that it's describing echolalia, because it's just so fun.

Mm. It's a good word. Absolutely. It's fun. I say name, I say, name your kid echolalia. I'll call your kid echolalia all day. You'll never get me to stop saying it. Now, if you were to say in all the things that. Have put you through the entrepreneurial ringer because we know it's up and down, it's it's cycles.

It's good, it's bad. What would you say is one lesson that stands out above all of the rest?

Jessica Bruno: Look, there's so many, but for me and for my business, it's that follow accounts don't. They don't have to come into play when it comes to business growth and business profit. Yes, that's what it's really hard to get your head around and oh my God, yesterday I was having a meltdown. I don't have enough followers, but my business is growing really well and I'm scaling, and my clients' businesses are growing really well and they're scaling.

Yeah. And you don't need to have thousands, millions of followers to start converting at all.

Melanie Branch: Yeah, that's absolutely true. And you know, We work with at the Neuros Spicy Academy, we have creators that have 75,000 followers and they haven't monetized at all. Like, they literally were just like, oh, we're gonna get on TikTok and start talking.

And people liked it and now we're trying to figure out how to make money.

Jessica Bruno: Oh yeah, I've got, I've got. I've got other accounts that I've used for fun and I've gone viral on my own, like my small business account for something so silly. Didn't get me a penny. I've gone, my cat's gone viral. My, my stoma bag's gone viral.

But yeah, nothing has monetized. And it's not saying that it can't. And if you get a video that does well, of course you can monetize it and you can wake up and your emails be popping off and the notifications be coming in that ING notification mm-hmm. Be popping in, making money while you are asleep.

Like that can totally happen, but it's not like a sustainable goal to set yourself.

Melanie Branch: Yeah, not everyone's gonna go viral. That's what I tell every single person, every one of my clients. I say, not every post is meant to go viral. Mm-hmm. That would be unmanageable. If every single one of your videos hit a million views you, and you're the one running this show, what are you gonna do with all that?

How are you gonna have time to do anything else? What are we talking about here? You know? So managing expectations when it comes to social media is very, very important. You're so right now. You've been an entrepreneur for a few years. You've been scaling, growing your business for a few years, and you also deal with, as you mentioned, your stoma bag.

So when it comes to anti hussle culture, Which is something that I'm firmly, I am all about slow living, low demand living as a PDA Autist, please don't tell me what to do. It's not gonna go well for anyone involved. What would you say are some of your tricks of the trade for being successful in the anti-culture mindset or the anti hussle mindset?

Jessica Bruno: Mm. I'm a proper workaholic, so it's difficult for me to switch off. I love work. It's awful. I hate it, but I since, since getting into like jobs, even job jobs, when I'm hired, I'm all about the job. I go all in and I absolutely, the thing is I love marketing so much. Sounds really nerdy, but I absolutely love what I do.

I love working with my clients and so I go all in. But what I do to help me separate stuff is my, I'm gonna whisper her name Alexa, so I don't like set it off. Tells me when to eat lunch. Tells me when to have a break. Always. And you should hear me. They always do. They always do. And I have a strict, I have an hour and a half lunch break every day.

Nice. Yeah, extravagant. Ladies who lunch, like I'm really, I take it in and I have a good lunch. I make sure it's a delicious, even if it's like, even if it has to be McDonald's, I'll get the meal. Yeah, I'll get the lunch. I'll get whatever I need. I try and indulge myself throughout the day, and then I always have a strict cutoff time, 5:00 PM phone goes off, laptop goes off.

If I wanna check my Instagram, I wanna check my TikTok fine, but I know I'll be suffering for it in the morning. I'll be like, Ugh, I feel gross if I'm on it too much. It just makes me feel like rubbish. What else do I do? I don't. I really don't work. Weekends, I used to, but Saturdays and Sundays completely my time, and right now I'm trying to incorporate more.

Fun. So yeah, I've been, I've been really sick for the last two years, which has meant all I could do was work. That's the only thing I found myself actually being able to have any fulfillment on. I couldn't go see my friends. I couldn't really have sex. I couldn't like, do things that made me feel like a woman.

All I could do was run to the toilet and, and sit on my computer. Oh, goodness.

Melanie Branch: I can't even imagine. So I'm very, very fortunate that my chronic illness is not related to anything. Super physical. I do have Ehlers Danlos, which I'm learning to navigate, cuz as you get closer to 40 parts start to break down more.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jessica Bruno: It's hard running. Yeah. Running a business is hard, but running a business with a chronic illness, I've had to, I've had to sacrifice and be okay with my sacrifices. I'm a wonderful coach. My clients adore me. My my friends know I'll be there when they need me, but I might not text them back, and I have to be okay with that.

I might not be quick at. Responding to messages. I might not be the one who books us in to see each other. Cause I'm, I'm a bit of a crappy friend, but they know I'm there when I need them. I've had to sacrifice that and that's taken so long for me to kind of get my head around, not feel guilty about, but that's it.

I'll be there at family functions, but I won't. Yeah, like I'm, I'm really hard to get a hold of on the phone. If you call me before 5:00 PM like I probably won't answer you, but that's it. I have to be okay with that. Something's gotta give, you know,

Melanie Branch: you know the, I just saw TikTok about this. I read an article that the immediacy that we have really been like, ugh, I guess.

Just expected to operate under. Right. So we all have cell phones. We, you know, I have conversations, go multiple conversations going with the same people. Right. I'm, you know, I'm texting, I'm sending dms on my TikTok to my business partner while we're texting and while we're talking to each other on our virtual campus.

Right. It's like four conversa. And the immediacy that is expected is irrational. Yeah. Completely. Text people right back cuz time is money, honey. And if you're not paying the bills, don't expect me to jump As soon as you say how high. Yeah. You know? Now how do you manage your time? Is it all your Alexa?

Because I'll tell you what, time blindness was not something that I was super aware of. Up until this past year, year and a half. And time blindness also goes hand in hand with dyscalculia, which is something that I have, which is like dyslexia, but for numbers. But it's also for space and time. So like when you're in the car and your g p s says in a quarter mile, I'm like, I don't, I don't, I don't know what that means.

Can you talk to me in football fields? That's the only thing I can like imagine in my brain. So when, how do you know that? It's like, how do you know to switch off?

Jessica Bruno: I, I, it's like in my body clock now. I feel it when it gets, so it's five o'clock here in England now, so I made sure I like be between four and five this hour.

I did nothing so I could prepare for this, so I could have energy for it. And you'll, you won't be happy. But I've got a Coke. Zero sauces.

Melanie Branch: I'll be happy. I drink soda all day. Don't, I Won't yell. Sodas. Cans. There are dopamine in there. Hell yeah.

Jessica Bruno: I got a Coke zero, but my body tells you now, but it's because the the robot that talks to me, We'll say, Hey, 10 minutes and in 10 minutes your day is gonna finish.

And, and I'm like, okay, cool. But now, like when it gets to 4:00 PM I'm like, Ooh, winding down. I can't be bothered anymore. Like I just don't have the energy to do it. But it took a lot of training because they, yeah, when when I, in the beginning I was working like 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM Cuz why not? Because I can, I know I'm awful.

It was so, I loved it. I loved it, loved it. But I was going insane.

Melanie Branch: Yeah, I can't, you know, I work with a lot of people, but, and I say, okay, so what is self-care to you? How, how do you feel about your self-care practice? They're like, no, it's great. It's really good. I have, and I say, okay, well then how do you transition from work mode?

Especially we work from home work mode to chill out mode and. I can't tell if I had a nickel for every time somebody says, oh, I just work until I can't anymore, and then I go pass out, and I'm like, okay, so that's not a transition. That's not what we're looking for here. We even have members of the neuro Spicy Academy, they're always like, oh, well, you know, I hit the wall last night at 9:00 PM so I gave up, but I'll be back tomorrow morning.

It's like, I don't want you to hit the wall anymore. I want you to say, Hey guys, I'm ready to, you know, like I tell every time I'm on campus, I'm getting ready to leave. I'm like, all right, I love you all equally and for different reasons, but this has gotta come off. Yeah, yeah. This has gotta come off.

That's good. So then let me ask you this. When it comes to neurodivergence and chronic illness and running a business and having to really. You know, we have to ask for the sale a lot of the time, right? You have to have meetings with potential clients and really work for that. What do you do about your rejection sensitivity?

Jessica Bruno: Oh, that's a tough, eh, I've got a really good sales call and I hate to say that. But like, why, why do you hate to say that?

Melanie Branch: I know you need after this. What are the, what are your tricks?

Jessica Bruno: I have about, I think like a 90, 80 to 90% conversion rate from a sales call. So that keeps, that keeps my job me and pumping.

But I've learned. So I, this is how it all, it's all how I look at the sale. Before, when I felt like I was selling to someone, I was selling to them, I was like, ah, I feel awful that you're gonna give me money. I'm so, I'm so sorry that you have to, I, I have to charge you for me helping you do something. Ah, I felt awful about it, but now, I'm so empowered with my sale and my service and I'm like, I just keep talking about it even if no one's buying.

Cause there's someone out there that needs to hear what I'm saying. There's someone out there that I know will benefit and there's the, someone is my perfect target client that I've written out and I've got beautiful client avatars and everything. I know they're there and I know they're watching and I'm like, I need to give these people as much of an opportunity as possible to be able to work with me.

No matter how, what my engagement is, no matter how many people like it or don't like it, and I keep doing that in that sales period, and that mentality, that mindset switch has really helped with rejection because instead of, yeah. Instead of being like, you just find, ah, sorry, no, I can't afford it. That's not on me.

That's on them. Ah, no, sorry. S talked to my partner before I invest. That's not on me. That's on them. And hmm. Should we talk about that relationship a little bit? Why'd you talk? Do you know what I mean? Like, is everything okay? What other ex like reasons? It's just not the right time. Great. I'll put you on the wait list.

It's never really, it's never really a a no, especially just, and you're never really cold selling and you are not, we're not the creepy people in the request dms on Instagram. We are, we are, we are small business people who have a real offer, a real service that can actually benefit someone. So you just, that's what I remind myself.

Yeah. That helps with rejection.

Melanie Branch: Yeah. I always remind people too, I'm like, you're not, you're not asking people to give you money for nothing. Yeah. You have worked very hard. You've amassed this skill, these abilities to help other people. As long as you are targeting the right people, you're good to go now.

Yeah. My focus has been for many years on imposter syndrome. And self-doubt because of course I chose to come to earth this time around and help the people that have the most rejection, sensitivity, and imposter syndrome and self-doubt and also suffer from ultra independence and refuse to even acknowledge the fact that they may need help and that help may be the thing that gets them to over the finish line or to the next milestone or whatever it is.

So when it comes to self-doubt, How do you fight those feelings and stay confident in your vision?

Jessica Bruno: I call myself out a lot. So I, I publicly name and shame my ego monster and my self-doubt. And I usually put it on my Instagram story. And I've been doing it for a really long time, like since I started my business and I got a little kick out of it cuz two years ago people are like, oh wow, you're so like authentic.

It's so refreshing to hear someone talk about this. I was like, all right. I'll talk about it some more and my ego monster pops up like around this time, so it's like a week before my period. Like she is like, ha, she comes into play like, yes, like yesterday I was just having complete meltdown about how many followers I have.

It's ridiculous. I don't care about that stuff. But she was in, she was like, Hey, Jess, d how many followers she has, like, she was telling me all this stuff and so. The way I fight her is like I name and shame her. I put her on my Instagram story. I'm not fishing for compliments. I'm not, I don't need people to be like, oh, they're there.

I'm just saying it. So like, if you feel like this too, like I got you girl. Don't worry. That's what I do.

Melanie Branch: Yeah. That brings me to my next question, and I love you for this. So we know that it takes a village to raise a business. Oh yeah. Oh, we know. Oh my gosh. It takes a village and we know that the only way to find any sort of success In, you know, the service industry and the digital online coaching space.

So what would you say is the most crucial aspect of community building as a creator and an entrepreneur and a Yeah.

Jessica Bruno: Networking. Networking, networking. Engaging. So, Content plays a big part in it. Collaboration plays a bigger part in it. Mm-hmm. You wanna content gets your content, gets your business seen by the people that are currently in your community, and if you're just starting out or you have a smaller community, you need to.

Look at the other side, which is collaborating. Strategic collaborations or Yeah, strategic collaborations and, and strategic networking. So plug yourself in to other people's communities that perhaps have your target audience and do collaborations, and you're not going in there with the idea to steal of their followers.

Just have a lovely conversation about something. If you are collaborating with someone, you've always got something in common. Yeah, I have a lovely conversation with them. The other side is plugging into communities where your tribe and where your people are hanging out. And they don't all have to be your target audience.

They don't have to be the perfect avatar, but you need, there are so many places online, paid unpaid Instagram pages, TikTok comments like you can find communities everywhere. But it, and it can feel really draining trying to engage to robotically engage people, rage, engage, like set a time of 15 minutes and comment on as many people as I can.

That's not how you do it. Even if you had one meaningful conversation with someone a day, it makes a huge difference in your business. So yes, focus on the content, get that messaging right. That is really important. In fact, that's everything that I do. That's my whole business. But, The other side of that, especially when I work with one-to-one clients, is the plugging in the networking, the collaboration.

That's really, really important.

Melanie Branch: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I just knew I was gonna love this interview. I just, just let me, I'm gonna continue to fan girl and try and find my spot in my questions, so just leave me to it. I'll be right back now. Okay. So, so we know obviously that running a business can be stressful.

I'm I, we'll just take the candy out. We know that running a business is stressful at times.

Jessica Bruno: We know, oh my God, my business made me lose my large intestine.

What a line.

Melanie Branch: My business made me lose my large intestine. Wow.

Jessica Bruno: I've lost, I've lost a whole organ due to business stress. So insane. And like I was very ill, but my illness is linked to stress, but like, I feel fine now.

Melanie Branch: Sorry. Sometimes my, my system gets really, what the fuck do I do? No, it's not that. No, I, I like, listen, I love nothing more than learning. I will tell you, if you meet another person that researches or learns more than me, I, I would pay you $500 because I just don't think it exists now sometimes. Cause I have a fully unmasked individual.

I, I, I don't have a poker face. People say good things. I go, wow. I wanna hold onto that and I wanna keep it in my brain somewhere so I can come back to it later. But that really resonated with me. And that's So listen,

how intense, like what a message Yeah. For people to understand what

Jessica Bruno: enough kids too people understand because you could lose an organ. A, it's true. A whole organ. Yeah. The whole thing.

Melanie Branch: I just, well, I was gonna ask you about self-care, but now I'm like, oh,

Jessica Bruno: self, self-care is a really weird place for me because I've always been sick and I've always been tired.

And so self-care, it's, it's not a bath, I tell you that. It's not, it's not going for a walk. It's not making sure my eyebrows are cute, like self-care for me has always been therapy. It's always been talk therapy. Always digging deep. I hate. I really hate journaling, but whenever I do, it's so good for me.

And I think I hate it because I learn so much about myself and I, I, the reason I get so stressed because I, I bite my tongue all the time and I don't say what I want and say what I mean. And we all push stuff down, especially when we are running a business. It's like you don't wanna upset anyone and you wanna be perfect all the time.

That shit stresses you out. And so ever since I've had, ever since, since, since after the surgery things just mellowed out for me. Loads. Like I let go of loads of clients. I just say, oh, I haven't got capacity to anymore. I've, I don't, I I have, I'm, I'm all the way in coaching. I don't do, I can't. I've only got one done for you client.

That's it. That's my capacity. And life. Life is so much better. I don't work on Fridays at all, so I have a three day weekend that really helps. And I just, self-care is not feeling guilty about all the things I can't do. Yeah. Like, sorry, didn't text you back. Sorry I didn't answer your phone like I used to feel awful about that.

I get so guilt ridden about being an awful friend and an awful granddaughter and an awful this, but build an empire. Yeah. It's hard. I, I, I could only do so much. So learning to let go and I think turning 30, I'm 31. My thirties have changed a lot for me. Yeah. And. Yeah, I dunno. Self-care is just talk, talk therapy and like real, real shit.

It's not, I love getting my day hours done. I love having barss. I love going for walks, I love all of that outside stuff, but it's the inside stuff that makes such a big difference.

Melanie Branch: Yeah, I always tell people, nobody on this planet is responsible for taking care of you. That is your responsibility to come to this earth and figure it out and take care of yourself and put your needs first. And all the research that I have been doing, combining whatever sort of scientific research is out there, mostly on children. Cuz I guess they believe that neurodivergence in adults is not something to be studied. I don't, I don't get it.

But again, I don't make the rules. And then I'm doing a lot of research behind the scenes. With business owners that are neuro divergent. And literally what I'm finding, and this is my hypothesis, so of course I'm proving it true. ADHD is not the problem. Autism's not the problem. Dyslexia is not the problem.

OCD is not the problem. Ler, sandlos is not the problem. Fibromyalgia, rheumatoid, none of those are the problem. The problem is masking and not having accommodations. The problem is treating yourself like, okay, oh, fix my A D H D and then it won't be like this anymore, and then I can just go be normal and I can go work 80 hours a week and I can do this.

Bitch. I used to work at a very busy restaurant. Very busy restaurant for five and a half years, and a very busy mall. Okay. Yeah. And had a very big menu, but I won't say what it was. I worked there for five and a half years. I can't even go to Target and Walmart in the same day now. Mm-hmm. If my kids need new shoes, they know they gotta tell me five days in advance so that I can get myself ready to go to the mall.

Like, these are just things, these are accommodations that I need. These are, and it's like I always say, you don't tell a person in a wheelchair, get better, so you don't need that wheelchair anymore. Mm-hmm. We don't say unbreak. Whatever it is you got going on, figure it out and then we won't have this accommodation anymore.

It's the same way for our brain and the way that our nervous system works. Yeah. So enlightening, but you already know this. You lost a whole organ to figure this out. I wish I would've gotten to a few years ago. Maybe we could have avoided that.

Jessica Bruno: I mean, I dunno, maybe I'm, I'm, I'm happy. I'm so happy where I am.

I wouldn't change a thing. Yeah. If I had to go back, I'd do it again.

Melanie Branch: Yeah, you said advocate too for our community. Listen, listen. I had two C-sections. I, there's some good stuff they can hook you up to. I get it. Don't think I don't. So, I'm gonna have one more. Smart, smart question, and then we'll go to the lightning round, which is the more fun ADHD stuff.

Okay. All right. So yeah, yeah. Excuse me. You're not one to settle for the status quo, which is why you're here on the Trailblazers Rising Podcast. How do you stay ahead of the curve and keep your business pushing boundaries and breaking barriers?

How do I stay ahead of the curve? Love. I don't know. Cause I be using all the things you talk about on Instagram.

Jessica Bruno: I love, I love just like being disruptive and I love, I love staying. In touch with what the gurus are saying and just like busting it. So like when they're like, you have to niche down. I'm like, nah, just start.

You don't need to niche. It's in the beginning. You're fine. We can, that can come out later like, oh, here's how I made six figures this month. I'm like, babe, let's just get you a client one.

Melanie Branch: Nothing for nothing. Let's just get you one.

Jessica Bruno: It's fine. When they're, when people are saying like, the aesthetics of a grid or duh, duh, I just come in and that's what I love doing.

I, I love staying on top of what the gurus are talking about. Like, do you remember on Instagram when everyone's like, the save button is the new holy grail of engagement of make sure you're getting saved. I'm like, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. Like as long as it's getting some something. That's fine. Even if it gets nothing, it still has eyes and people will remember you.

As long as your, as long as your messaging is fine. Don't worry about the engagement. It's cool. It's cool. It's cool. It's cool. Cool. Yeah, that's absolutely, see, that's how I stay on top of it. Just see what people are saying. Like, have you seen on TikTok at the moment, there's so many people who are saying, I just got off the phone with Instagram and they've said you have to do two stories in the morning, two stories in the afternoon, and two stories in the evening.

Yeah. Like what? What? They don't, no, you don't. You really don't. I, and I, I hide, but they don't,

Melanie Branch: and what I don't understand either, like post.

 Okay. Hi, freaking internet. Internet. Anyways. Okay, what were we saying? It's recording again. I have no idea being a disruptor. Being a disruptor Oh, is really, is. I love disruptors more than I love anybody else. I literally, when I'm scrolling Instagram and looking for your posts, because really there's not a lot that goes on on Instagram that I value, unfortunately.

But I love seeing what you, I love seeing your posts cuz you're always like, Hey girl, top three ways to grow your Instagram. Number one, do what you want.

Jessica Bruno: Literally

Melanie Branch: be yourself. No way. And the thing about posting times is like, I have a lot of followers in Australia, in the uk, that's a different time than where I'm at.

Mm-hmm.

Jessica Bruno: It doesn't make a difference's always. It doesn't make a difference. It's all in the content. Like even, even this is controversial, but if the content is really good, And you've just downloaded from TikTok and you've re-uploaded it on Instagram and it's got the TikTok logo, it will still, probably still do really well if the content is that good.

I, every day I see a viral VI TikTok video on an Instagram with a TikTok logo. Yeah, like there's no rules. I don't think Instagram has that much of a hold on its algorithm anymore. Like yeah, they can set some rules and yeah, there are days, there was like a period when reach was low for everyone and there's, there's glitches that can happen, but they, they can't control the value of your content.

That's, you have that and it doesn't need to go viral. It just needs to impact a few people.

Melanie Branch: Absolutely. I will say too, I've noticed on TikTok. Views go down around an update. So if they've updated the app for about a week to 10 days, everyone's views go down because everybody has to update their app.

Jessica Bruno: There you go.

Melanie Branch: Because their, their app isn't working properly, so they're not getting, like, I've literally put out a video before and then been like, why is this not getting any views? And then I've gone to my play storm and like, oh, I gotta update my app and as soon as I update my app, I release the video.

It does well. I'm like, see guys. This is something I feel like we could work on a little bit. I feel like if I am seeing this pattern more, other people are seeing it, but yeah, that's fine. I'm not the one running the show here. I'm simply trying to burn it all down and make new rules. I mean, bend the rules.

Anyways, so

Jessica Bruno: I'm, I'm gonna make new rule. I wanna say something before we get into this crazy round. I've got one thing to say because I was thinking about you this morning. And I put my pink shirt on for you. Thank you. And I was, I remember the video, the disruptive video that you did that got me in was your video and it probably, you're like, Jess, that's not even disruptive, but it's the one you did about makeup wipes.

That one hooked me in and I think about it like, You, you are in my brain. I think about it every day. Like every night when I feel bad about taking my makeup makeup up. I'm like, yeah, but it's cool because Melanie says it's, it's stuff like that, you know?

Melanie Branch: I mean, here's the thing. You got a goal every day.

We have goals, right? So every day I know I gotta feed myself every day. I know I gotta take care of these four leggeds every day. I know I gotta take care of my kids every day. I gotta make sure that my husband's doing okay every day. I gotta make sure I'm doing okay. That's it. Those are the only things I gotta do.

How I'm going to do that looks different. Hmm. But if I know that I feel bad or when I lay down without my armor on, then I'm gonna take the armor off and it doesn't have to be an eight step skin care routine. Yes. Am I gonna be 37 this month? Would I benefit from doing all of the stuff every night? Yeah, absolutely.

However, am I doing hell of a lot better than I was a few years ago based on the fact that now I'm at least taking my makeup off every day? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Whatever it is that can get it done. Cuz again, there's nobody here on this planet that's supposed to take care of you other than you. Mm-hmm.

Like that's your own responsibility. And the nice thing is when you focus all of your energy on yourself and taking care of yourself, you no longer can focus any of your energy on taking care of other people. It's called human savior syndrome and it's something that I had and that I'm healing from and I help my clients heal from.

But we're not responsible for anybody else's thoughts, opinions, behaviors, or actions. Yeah, not at all. And if this is what I told my kids and I told my husband when I started on this whole healing, whatever journey you wanna call it, I said, listen, I am happy to help you. And I'm here to help you, but it's not my responsibility to know that you need help.

It's your responsibility to come to me and say, mom, I need your help, or wife, I need your help or a friend. I need your help. And then I say, oh, you know what? Since I've been taking care of myself, I have energy left over for you and I can now help you. But when I was living my life trying to be like, what does everybody need?

I couldn't help anybody. Yeah. All right. Lightning round. These are the fun questions. Are you ready? I'm ready. First and foremost, what's your favorite social media platform? Instagram, for sure. I knew you were gonna say it. You're very good on Instagram. Keep it up. What's the most recent rabbit hole you've gone down and tell us all about your learnings and your findings.

Jessica Bruno: Jasper, the Barbie doll.

Melanie Branch: Say Hi, Jasper, the Barbie. Do what have you found out about Jasper? Cause I'm confused.

Jessica Bruno: Learnt so much. I absolute favorite. Favorite page on TikTok. It's giving me life every single day, and it's just taught me like you can have so much fun and still get a great message out. Like it's all about body positivity and being yourself and raising awareness, and it's like a whole. Bunch of people have come together over Jasper.

So yeah, Jasper's taught me a lot recently. I'm making a video.

Melanie Branch: I'm making a video. I love, I saw a video too where they connected Miley Cyrus in Thea interview in her voice, and I'm just like, I can't, I hear now. I do love Jasper. I do love Jasper. It's funny, I love as a person who smoked cigarettes for a very long time and thought that my voice was gonna be gone forever.

When I hear that voice, I'm like, See, we know better, so we do better. All right, there you go. What is your emotional support show that you liked to watch? It can be a movie or a TV show.

Jessica Bruno: I watch people play the Sims four on YouTube.

Melanie Branch: Okay. All right. Gen Z, I feel you. I see.

Jessica Bruno: See you. I'm, I know that's what I do, but when at nighttime. I watch people play either Stary Valley or the Sims four because I, I have both those games and I love those games, but I can't play them. Or my TV show at night is Bob's Burgers.

I love Bob's Burgers.

Melanie Branch: I wanna get into that show so bad, but I just haven't been able to yet. I'm gonna, I keep trying. I keep trying, but mine is parks and Rec love or to really work through some stuff and manifest at the same time. I like shows that clearly have. Artist, and

the reason I love Parks and Rec is that every single character represents one aspect of a positive mindset. Hmm. So, you know, you have Chris, obviously he's, everything is nice, everything is great, everything is wonderful. And then, you know, you have Ron who is actually really open-minded and uplifting as long as he can have his own stuff too, which I feel like if everybody understood, you can be open-minded and still protect the way you wanna live your life.

Like you don't have to, oh yeah. You can say, you can live your life the way you wanna live, and I can live my life the way I wanna live, and we can all be cohesive and deal with that, right? Mm-hmm. But I also really like Silicon Valley. Veep and succession because there are so many autistic coded characters in there, and a D H G coded people, and Audi, h g, and like you can just see it written all over 'em and I'm like, oh God, I can help you on mask here.

And oh, we can do this. And, oh, so I really, really like this too. All right. I think I know the answer to this, and I warned you about this question ahead of time. Have you consumed any water today?

Jessica Bruno: You dunno the answer to this. When you lose your large bowel, you are not allowed to drink water anymore. Ha.

Because your large bowel does all the consuming of water. Yeah. So if you don't have one, it goes straight through to your sewer bag and you get a really like watery leaky bag. So instead, I have rehydration drink and yes, I have. I've had my rehydration drink and I'm having a Coke Zero. But I can't have plain water.

I have to have water. I have to squash or tea or like sport drinks. No more water for this girl for the rest of my life. Mental was that hard to get used to? No. I hate water.

Melanie Branch: Oh, I love water. Oh my God. I can't lose my big, I gotta be nice in my big colon. Huh?

Jessica Bruno: Like, I always struggled drinking water, so now I drink with loads.

Now I drink loads of like favored water. I'm so hydrated all the time. It's wonderful. But yeah, it's your large intestine that is, it absorbs. It absorb, yeah, because that absorbs it. But without it, your small one doesn't. It was just like, woo,

Melanie Branch: I just love that I've learned something now today, and I can just go home now.

All right, the last, last lightning round question. What is your current dopamine snack? What is the food that you cannot get enough of, but you know, eventually you're gonna get sick of every morning?

Jessica Bruno: For the last month, I've had oats, so simple maple porridge with yogurt. So it's just three packs of oats.

So simple. Put in the bowl, outro plain yogurt, mix it up. If I'm feeling spicy, I'll add a banana, but n usually not that. That's my breakfast. And then I have boiled eggs and toast for lunch every day. Same thing for the last like month. I'm, I'm still there, so we'll see.

Melanie Branch: Good, good for you. Be sure to let me know when it changes cuz that's a hard day when, when the snack doesn't taste like dopamine anymore.

I hate those days. Oh my gosh. Those ones are hard. All right, so I'm gonna leave you with, you're a trailblazer on your own right? What message do you have to send to other neuro divergent entrepreneurs out in this big bed world?

Jessica Bruno: You don't have to have a thousand million bajillion followers to grow your small business. You just need to get your messaging right. And don't be scared to network. Yes, that's

Melanie Branch: it. Yeah.

And then how can my community find out more about you and your current? How can they work with you?

Jessica Bruno: Right now you can join my membership.

So I created something called the content club. It's one pound a day and you, it's a complete marketing resource. It's done for you templates. So every month you get a complete social media strategy and you get trend report with reels trends and TikTok trends. There's blog templates, email marketing templates.

There's a book club. There's, so take what you want. There's co-working spaces. Everyone has a different experience when they come in. If you're struggling doing your marketing on your own and you can't afford to invest in support, the content club's there to help you.

Melanie Branch: I love it. Yeah. Thank you so very much for being here and I will continue to stalk you online.

Jessica Bruno: Please do.