February 18, 2020 • 57 mins
Boss friend Ellen Matis joins Emily in this episode to talk about creating boundaries for social media, the impact that local community involvement can have on your life and business, and why it's important to invest in your community and neighbors.
This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks Cloud Accounting and Acuity Scheduling.
Get full show notes for this episode here
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:02):
I'm Emily Thompson and I'm Kathleen Shannon and this is
Being Boss.
Emily (00:12):
In this episode of Being Boss, I'm joined by my boss
friend Ellen Maddis to talkabout trading boundaries to keep
your relationship with socialmedia healthy.
The impact that being involvedin your local community can have
on your life and work and howfocusing on local will not only
serve your business but all thebusinesses around you.
As always, you can find all thetools, books and links we
(00:34):
referenced on the show notes atwww.beingboss.
club.
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Emily (02:41):
For a very long time.
I've seen the disconnect betweentoday's online entrepreneurs who
are really today's smallbusiness owners, what business
looked like before the age ofthe internet and what I hope and
perhaps foresee for businessesin the future.
Before the age of the internet,businesses operated in their
(03:03):
local communities.
They sold local, hired, local,supported local or even if they
were let's say a mail orderbusiness.
They still hired local andtherefore we're supporting
local.
That's how business happened forhundreds of years though maybe
not that mail order part, butthat happened for a long time.
(03:24):
Do it all happened with a focuson local.
It's easy to forget, but make nomistake.
There were booming businessesand economies a well before
social media.
Then you enter today's world ofsmall businesses.
There tends to be two mainkinds, local businesses and
online businesses.
(03:44):
I'm sure there's definitely someoverlap, but those who are doing
both well tend to still berelatively few and far between.
There is no shortage of localbusinesses that are still
refusing to bring theirbusinesses onto the internet or
are at the very least heavilystruggling with it, and there
(04:05):
are plenty of online businesseswho are refusing to prioritize
and nurturing a local communityof clients and customers, either
subconsciously or consciously,but in the future, I anticipate
seeing more of a move to theblended model of doing business
online and off because that'swhere real sustainability and
(04:29):
impact happen.
You tap the larger networkthat's made accessible by the
internet, but bring it home intoyour local community.
In fact, I see magic in the flipof that build a local business
that's supplemented by theaccess that you have to people
around the world.
(04:50):
Why?
Because it's good for the bottomline of your business and the
entire community of businessesin your area.
This concept of a blendedbusiness both online and offline
has been a priority for me fromthe start and perhaps that's
because I did own my firstbusiness back when you'd only
(05:11):
heard of Facebook if you werestill a student at Harvard.
Even as I moved my endeavors andto the online world, I've
maintained my prioritization ofdoing local business, selling at
local markets, working withlocal clients, nurturing my
local community, and that efforthas paid off again and again and
(05:33):
at a much more promising ratethan any online tactic I have
ever tried.
But I also know that I'mprobably offering up some crazy
talk to many of you onlinebusiness folks out there, but I
promise you the impact is real.
And to show you what this canlook like today, I'm joined by
(05:54):
my boss pow, Ellen Madis.
I got to know Ellen when shejoined my mastermind group where
we quickly started referring toher as the most interesting
person in the room.
She seriously has some of thebest stories and an interesting
approach to marketing.
And I've seen it in action.
I've watched her sell outhundreds of tickets to an event
(06:15):
in the matter of hours to alocal event.
I've watched her grow her teamand her business endeavors.
Ellen calls herself a communityconnector through work life and
volunteerism.
She's the owner of a coworkingand community event venue called
studio 1795 and BellefontePennsylvania and the owner of
(06:37):
social media marketing agency,hello social co or the agencies
focus on local approach drivesthe work that they do with their
clients across the nation.
And that last piece thatfocusing on local is aware.
I'm heading with thisconversation today.
(07:02):
Hi Ellen.
I'm so glad you're here.
Ellen (07:04):
Hey, thanks for having me.
Emily (07:06):
Awesome.
Let's get started with thisbecause there are so many things
that I want to dive in on withyou today.
Um, but to get everyone properlyintroduced to you, I would like
for you to begin by telling usabout yourself and how you
landed where you are now.
Ellen (07:23):
Um, so I would say like many bosses before me, um, just
hit a breaking point.
I got hired to work or scheduledto work new year's Eve.
Um, the last year that I workedmy full time job and that
evening I was just livid.
So I got home about two in themorning and I just sat down with
(07:46):
my husband, my boyfriend at thetime, and just was like, we need
to make a change.
And almost immediately westarted researching where we
could start a business with theskills that I had.
Um, so we thought aboutPittsburgh for a long time, um,
but we're a little worriedabout, you know, the competition
because marketing agencies existin big cities.
(08:09):
And we started to look atcentral Pennsylvania because it
didn't look like there wasanything that focused in social
media here.
So by March 1st I opened hellosocial co and um, we moved to
that area.
And also on the same day that Ilaunched the business, I started
my master's degree little, it'sa little bit of craziness all at
(08:30):
once.
And um, yeah, three years later,here we are.
Um, and then also this past yearI realized there was a need in
my central Pennsylvaniacommunity that for a space that
fostered really communityconnection.
So a, I opened this past Januarystudio 1795, which is a
(08:52):
coworking space and a communityevent venue one.
Emily (08:56):
I love a good quitting story.
I love when somebody's like, letme tell you about my last day of
work.
That's always, that's always agood story.
Um, too.
I love that you and your nowhusband then boyfriend sat down
and were so purposeful about youstarting a business.
You saw that there was a problemand needed to be fixed.
(09:17):
A way to fix it was for you totake the skills that you had.
And what were those skills like?
What did you like write themdown on a piece of paper?
What did they
Ellen (09:24):
I um, I dabbled in a lot of different kinds of digital
marketing.
So at that point I was workingfor a full service digital
agency.
Um, and I was, I was really thedoer there.
So we had a sales team and thenI was tasked with making sure
all of those things happen.
So, um, everything from SEO tobuilding websites to social
(09:46):
media management I was doing,um, when we started live social
co I did dabble in all of thosethings but eventually, uh, we
kind of honed in on social mediaalone.
Emily (10:00):
Hmm.
How long have you been doinghello?
Social co.
Ellen (10:02):
It'll be three years in March.
Emily (10:04):
Three years.
Oh, when I love to, I'm going tojust keep counting off all the
things that I want to say aboutwhat you're saying.
Number one, uh, bosses are thedoers.
Of course you are the person atthe agency who is doing all the
things.
That's how it works.
Um, and also going back to whatI was saying about you and your
husband's sitting down and beingso conscious about you see
(10:26):
having a problem and wanting tosolve it.
Let me be an entrepreneur.
Let me start a business and domy thing.
Using the skills I already haveis quite a boss move if I may
say so.
But I also want to talk aboutthat masters.
So you were going back to schoolto get a master's in what and
why?
Ellen (10:45):
That was actually, um, not totally planned.
So, you know, there was a pointwhere I applied for my masters
and I thought that I was goingto be working full time for
someone else for the rest of mylife.
I thought that this master's wasgoing to be really important to
help me level up my career.
And um, I got accepted veryshortly before I decided that I
(11:11):
wasn't going to work thereanymore.
So, um, you know, I stillpursued it and I actually, I
took a lot of breaks in betweenso I'm not graduating until this
year, but um, it's been reallyvaluable to, um, you know, just
have that, that extra knowledgethat comes with it.
So the master's is an integratedmarketing communications and
that's from West Virginiauniversity.
Emily (11:34):
Hmm.
Five.
Congratulations.
Get it done.
It's interesting that do youcontinue doing your masters even
though you weren't going to beusing it in the same way?
And I bring this up because Ioften think about continued
education.
Um, most bosses who are probablylistening this have a degree
(11:54):
that they don't use, probablyhave like higher level degrees
that they're not using.
Um, I'm also in a, in a placewhere I have to start thinking
about my kid going to collegesoon.
So I'm often thinking like, do Iwant to send her to school?
Cause David and I for a longtime were like, we're not going
to make her go to college.
Like are we going to weird thoselike hippie parents.
But now that a little furtherinto it, I so see the value of
(12:17):
getting those higher learningexperiences.
I don't think it's the paper.
I think, I think the diploma,the actual like having it is, it
has some credit for sure.
But the experience of it issomething that you cannot trade
for anything.
I have a degree and I do not useor I don't professionally use,
but I love that I have it.
(12:37):
It took me a long time to cometo terms with it for sure.
Um, but once the student loansare paid off[inaudible] I
decided that I really likedhaving it.
So I love that you continuedcommitting to growing your own
knowledge in the subject matterthat you decided to start a
business in as opposed to justquitting it, doing the work as
(12:59):
an entrepreneur and you know,calling it, calling it with
that.
Ellen (13:03):
Yeah, and I would say that that was a really conscious
decision because going into themaster's program, it was, it was
honestly about the paycheck.
It was me saying, okay, I seethat people in my field get paid
more when they have a master'sdegree.
And when I started working formyself, it became not about the
paycheck because who knows, butmore about what can I use from
(13:28):
this program that can reallyhelp my clients moving forward.
Emily (13:33):
That's why you do it right there.
That's why you learn forpersonal betterment.
Okay, perfect.
This is not a conversation abouthigher level, even though I
could totally go there for sure.
I feel like you'd be, if Iwanted to talk about, um,
regarding that, I want to dive alittle bit more into your
journey and we have a good placewhere we're going with this and
I'm very excited.
Um, so looking back at youdeciding to quit your job,
(13:57):
starting your business,continuing your masters, um, I
have to ask, what is the bestpiece of advice that you
received along that windy pathof yours?
Ellen (14:08):
I cannot pick one piece of advice.
There are two that I love andthe first is very simple.
The first was from my dad when Itold him that I was going to be
doing this.
Um, he's a retired entrepreneurand the thing that he just
drilled into me was always payyourself first.
That has driven many of thedecisions that I make for my
business.
The second one is to not getcaught in the comparison trap.
(14:33):
Um, when I first started thebusiness, I was so worried about
what other people were doing.
Um, you know, especially peoplein the social media and
marketing realm, it reallyhindered my ability to hone in
on what made our agency unique.
And by kind of on followingthose people and not being about
what other social mediaprofessionals professionals are
(14:54):
doing, I'm able to really kindof shine the light on the focus
on local aspect of what myagency does.
Emily (15:03):
Agreed.
100%.
I was thinking of it as likeputting on my blinders or I'm
just going to like put my headin the hall, do my work, you
know, decide how I'm differentand more amazing than everyone
else.
In that way, I am more amazing.
Um, it's really important to dothat and I think we're going to
be talking about this a bitmore, but especially in the
world of social media where, youknow, all of us social media
(15:26):
users are in it enough, but youbeing a social media marketer
are even probably a littledeeper than we are.
I mean, it's literally your jobto compare.
I could see it being easy tofall into the trap of comparing
yourself or what it is thatyou're doing in a way that's not
helpful.
Ellen (15:46):
Yeah, and I, you know, the, I think the biggest thing
for me was that I got so hung upon hello social, not having the,
you know, the most amazingsocial media presence.
And I was comparing myself tothese people that were putting
up 20 Instagram stories a dayand had very consistent content.
But at the end of the day, Ijust realized that I needed to
(16:07):
make a decision about what wasmore important to me, the work
that I was putting out into theworld for hello social, which
yes, is important to me, but Iknow that I need to focus my
time on my clients more thanthat.
So that's what we focus on.
Emily (16:22):
Agreed.
Agreed.
I've started seeing someone'sactivity on social media as a
potential red flag as to whetheror not they're just as bossy as
they say they are.
And there are, this can goeither way.
So don't you dare anyone's inmeaning nasty emails about this.
I've seen it go both ways whereyou can be on social media ton
(16:43):
and be a total boss.
But what I also find quite oftenis if you're on social media a
ton, you're not doing your work.
Um, and this is even aconversation that's come up with
the community you previously orvery recently where a boss in
there, um, decided to pose thequestion of how it is that
everyone is balancing the blendof or the differences between
(17:09):
sitting down and doing the workand whether that be serving your
clients or practicing your craftor whatever it may be.
Balancing that with sharing thework.
Because I think a lot of us havefallen into this trap of
thinking that sharing the workof being on Instagram, creating
and curating that beautifulfeed, doing 20 Instagram stories
a day, showing up for Facebooklives.
(17:29):
All of those things like peoplethink this, that, that that is
doing the work and that's notdoing the work that's sharing
the work.
Um, unless you're in socialmedia marketing or in some
cases, you know, branding andthings like that.
But for the rest of us, for therest of us, we need to spend
more time doing the work thensharing the work.
(17:51):
For sure.
So that actually leads me into acouple of fun little questions
that I have for you aroundsocial media.
Um, because a large part of yourwork is on social media first.
Do you love it or hate it?
Ellen (18:05):
I do.
I truly love it and I've alwaysloved it.
I, you know, I have always beenan early adopter of like every
social media platform that haslaunched ever since.
I'm not on Tiktok, but I watchother people.
Emily (18:21):
You're an early adopter.
Ellen (18:26):
But you know, like as, as a teenager, like I was the girl
that was making my space themesfor other people so that they
could, you know, bling out theirprofile.
But I didn't know what socialmedia marketing was at that
time.
So there's, there's never been atime that I haven't loved it
where I haven't used it.
Um, and I think that if you useit for good, it can be so
(18:49):
effective and so meaningful.
It's when we get on our Facebookfeeds and we start to hate our
neighbors because of theirpolitical views that we start to
go down Hill.
So it's just about, you know,making, curating your social
media feeds to be the contentthat you want to see that you
want to consume personally andprofessionally and conveying
(19:11):
that as well.
Emily (19:13):
Hmm.
It's a good rule of thumb.
I love that.
Okay.
Question number two, do youspend a lot of time on social
media?
Ellen (19:21):
Sometimes?
Um, I do spend too much time onsocial media.
Yeah.
But that's more of like a, apersonal thing that's a, you
know, if I have a day off, maybeI spend a little too much time
scrolling.
Um, I do think that I havereally good boundaries with it
and he, you need to because, um,when you're doing this all day,
(19:41):
it's, it's easy to get suckedinto your feet, your feeds and,
you know, figure out what'shappening around in, in the
world around you.
And, um, you know, thoseboundaries are really important.
I think the, the biggest changeI've made though to not spend
too much time on it is that I'veunfollowed almost all of them.
Emily (20:04):
Ooh, though, cause I have to tell you, I recently went and
unfollowed everyone from myInstagram account to which, and
we've talked about this on theshow before, so I'm going to
give a slight update.
I stopped using my personalInstagram account in I think may
of last year and didn't signinto it for a really long time.
I've recently started creepingagain, but part of creeping is I
(20:25):
went in and unfollowed basicallyeveryone except for, you know,
so my closest friends and acouple of meme accounts.
Um, okay.
I want to hit back on this, um,on this thing you said I'm going
to go around boundaries and youjust sort of gave us one, but
what boundaries do you have inplace?
Um, or sort of mindsets, likeany sort of triggers perhaps
(20:46):
that you, that see when it comesto balancing being on social
with, you know, being active inreal life.
Ellen (20:53):
It's, it's less about the boundaries I would say.
And more about never trying tobe someone on social media that
you're not.
Um, I think that we went througha phase in social media where
people just wanted to have theperfect feeds.
They wanted to have these, youknow, perfect white rooms with
cute white things.
And it's just not realistic.
(21:13):
You know.
And I, I think that, um, thebiggest change I've made in my
life is on social media is justbeing real.
So my personal account hasalways been an extension of my
real life.
It's me out in the woods.
It's me getting muddy with mydogs.
It's, you know, nothing, it'snot a coffee mug for the sake of
(21:33):
a coffee mug being on the feed.
Um, and it's, it's, it'simportant to kind of set the
standard for what your contentis going to be.
And, um, I think the mostimportant thing I do for my work
and for my personal life onsocial media is later gram.
(21:54):
So you will never, ever, everfind me at a conference, like
live posting from a conferenceor live posting from something
that I'm at.
I'm taking a lot of photos butit's when I get back to the
hotel room later that I amputting up an Instagram story
saying that I've been theretoday.
Um, I don't waste the time thatI have in real life to enjoy
(22:16):
something posting on socialmedia.
Emily (22:19):
Oh ma, I'll drop a mic for you right there.
How about that?
Agreed.
Agreed with this I think.
I think that's a beautifulboundary for sure.
To create one where you areengaging in short capturing, I
think, you know, taking photosfor me I'm like capturing where
I am so I'm not getting lost butreally just taking photos is the
real capturing I'm thinkingabout and taking photos and
(22:41):
engaging is what you're atplaces to do.
It's whenever I'm sitting there,I, the summer I went to Greece
and there was a moment we weresitting, you know, in some
ancient ruins and some guys justsitting there like typing away
on it.
Like I saw him taking somephotos and there's typing away
on his phone and I was like,dude, you are surrounded with
the coolest stuff.
And I get maybe his like dreamlife is for sure like
(23:02):
Instagramming from some ancientGreek ruins like in which case
high five buddy.
Um, but it did make me think, Iwonder if there's as much
self-aware newness there, um, asthere is me being aware of him.
Ellen (23:14):
Right.
And you know, did he at thatpoint enjoy the thing he went
there to see because you know,one of the most beautiful things
that I've ever seen in person ishorseshoe curves and I felt like
I went there and so many peoplewere just standing there like
taking selfies on the side ofthe ledge and like their backs
were turned to it so they cantake photos with it.
(23:35):
Did you see it?
Emily (23:37):
I think a lot of people are getting caught up in
capturing and sharing more sothan enjoying, which also
mirrors what we were talkingabout a moment ago with people
with the bosses wondering ifthey're capturing and sharing
more than they're actually doingthe work.
I think there's a common themethere.
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Emily (25:12):
All right, let's dive in to what's happening next because
this is what I have you here forEllen.
You have one of the mostrefreshing yet not novel at all,
ideas around marketing andaround using social media
marketing.
And that means being reallyinvolved in your local community
(25:36):
what like so refreshing but notnovel.
So as we dive into this, I'dlove for you to share a bit more
how it is that you are involvedin your local community and what
impact do you find that havingon your life and especially your
business?
Ellen (25:56):
Hmm.
How am I involved?
That's a big question.
Um, so like I said, I just movedhere three years ago.
Um, and I think that one of thereasons I was attracted to this
community and really justattracted to moving in general
was because I, in the communitythat I was living in before, I
(26:17):
never felt like I could getinvolved.
It was always, you know, thesesame people created events and
they, you know, ran things andyou were the crazy 22 year old
that wanted to do somethingdifferent.
So you weren't invited.
And here I got to this communityin central Pennsylvania and you
know, just like bounce someideas off of people and they
were absolutely, let's do them.
(26:38):
How do we make it happen?
And I love that.
Um, so that's on the personalside.
Um, something that I'm reallypassionate about.
You know, I'm the, I'm now thepresident of the board for our
local economic developmentassociation and I'm just doing a
ton of fun community relatedprojects including my coworking
space.
(27:00):
But on the work side, throughhello social, I've really made,
um, what we call the focus onlocal approach, the entire basis
of our business.
So, um, whenever we are workingwith a client, focus on local
plays into how we do that worksomehow.
So basically focus on local isour little micro movement, I
(27:22):
would say to just get people toengage more with their local
communities using social media.
It's, it's the idea that if anentire community thrives, then
the business with businesseswithin it do as well.
And if we can empower businessowners to use their social media
accounts in a way that getspeople excited, um, then the
(27:45):
entire economics of that townthrives.
Emily (27:49):
I think this is such an important perspective to have on
running a business.
All too often I'll see a bosswho, you know, gets super bent
out of shape, but wheneverInstagram algorithms changed
because they haven't botheredgrowing a business outside of
Instagram or, um, or I oftenhear of bosses who will say that
(28:11):
, um, you know, they don't havea local community cause they
just move there.
So thank you very much forcompletely debunking that excuse
cause you showed up and madeyourself useful, um, and
injected yourself into, into acommunity.
Granted, sounds like it may haveneeded someone like you.
Ellen (28:31):
And so small communities especially are, are the ones
that kind of benefit from theseapproaches more than anything.
Um, I think that, you know, justas there, there's phases for
everything.
And, um, living in a small townwas not for a while.
And I think that people, peopleare finding that they're create,
(28:53):
they're craving that kind ofsmall town connection.
Um, the connections that youhave with your neighbors, the
connections that you have withbusiness owners, there is
nothing I love more than that.
I know the names of everybody onmy block, um, that I can walk
down the street and grab acoffee and they know what I'm
going to order, um, that I canwalk into any store.
(29:15):
And, you know, there's a storeacross the street from my space
here that, um, I walk in thedoor and she's like, Oh, here's
10 items that are in your sizethat I think you're going to
love.
And I love those personalrelationships in a community
like this.
And that's the kinds of thingsthat we use social media to talk
about, um, to leverage that kindof small town life in a way that
(29:39):
not only makes people want tolive in places like this, but
also shop in places like this.
And, um, you know, go out for adrink and places like this and
you know, hopefully buy a housein a place like this someday.
Emily (29:52):
Yeah.
Okay.
My brain is going off with like18 different directions that I
want to take this first andforemost, I want a side tangent,
just a hair, because you'vetalked about something that's
come up in my real life many,many times and that is knowing
all the names of your neighbors.
Can you walk some bosses step bystep through what it means or
(30:12):
how it is that you introduceyourself to your neighbors?
And I asked this questionbecause I literally have people
ask me this all the time becausewe know all of our neighbors
names too.
And everyone's always like,that's insane.
How do you know them all?
And my answer is I have a Lilly,my daughter is the most
outgoing, personable human beingon the planet.
(30:34):
She knows everyone's name andtheir entire backstory, if she
can get it out of you, um, youdon't have a Lilly, how do you
do it?
Ellen (30:42):
I, it's kind of weird cause I never even thought that
I did....
Emily (30:46):
It's something.
Trust me.
Ellen (30:49):
but I, I guess, um, you know what, thinking back to just
the week that we bought ourhouse, um, so the, the day that
we closed on the house, westarted doing renovations on the
house.
Um, our neighbors on the left ofus, they happened to be in the
backyard while we were walkingin.
So we just went outside and wesaid, Hey, you know, we're,
we're going to be moving in in acouple of weeks.
(31:11):
You know, this is what we do,this nice to meet you.
Um, and that was, that was justkind of second nature to us, I
would say.
Um, as for the rest of thestreet, they came to us in many
ways.
Um, I think that you find thingsto bond over with your different
neighbors.
So, you know, the guy across thestreet from us has the cutest
(31:31):
beagle.
Um, you know, we have dogs too,so we went over and pet his dog
one time and we know, Hey Romo,what's up?
So, um, you know, it's, it'sjust about finding the things
that you have in common, whichone of the biggest is the street
that you live on and havingsomething to say to them.
Um, and now that we've madethose connections, you know, I
(31:52):
don't think twice about, youknow, asking my neighbor to
check on our cat if we have togo out of town or watering their
garden for them when they're outof town.
It's just something that happenshere.
Emily (32:04):
Either a small town charm or simply living with or living
as an embodiment of small towncharm.
I don't think you have to livein a small town.
Do talk to your neighbors.
Um, I think it definitely helpsbut not necessary.
Absolutely not.
I love that.
I love that you don't even thinkabout it that you just do
Ellen (32:26):
Same thing.
No matter where you live, youlive, you know, in a high rise
you can find, figure out wholives on your floor.
It's, this applies absolutelyeverywhere.
Emily (32:37):
Yeah.
And I that this is also aperfect example of how you bring
or it is an example of the ethosthat you bring to social media.
This idea of everyone is yourfriend more or less like what
content are you wanting to seeand can you share, um, the sort
of do unto others as you wouldhave them do unto you if it
(33:00):
were, I can't believe I justsaid that out loud, but it works
here.
It totally works here.
Um, and that you've brought thatinto your real life, but you're
also doing that for othercompanies and showing other
companies how to do that andsocial media as well.
Um, so whenever it comes tofocusing on local, this is
(33:21):
something that I've lovedtalking to you about because as
we created when a week redidAlmanac supply co, the idea of
that company is to create andcurate goods to help people live
with the seasons and embracenature.
And I think neither of those twothings can happen unless you are
connecting with where you livebecause both your nature are
(33:45):
both the nature and the seasonsare different depending on where
you physically are.
As such, we have also alwaysmade it imperative to include
Chattanooga very much so in themarketing that we do.
Even as an online company, I'vebeen an online business for a
really long time.
I know how easy it is to talk toeveryone.
(34:05):
Like I can just shout out onInstagram to the whole world
quite easily.
But to focus it in on local wasalways really important to me.
And then whenever you camearound you were like, Oh, I do
this thing called focus onlocal.
I'm like, girl, birds of thesame feather.
So I completely agree that thisfocus on local is very
(34:26):
important.
It's something that I felt veryingrained in me and something
that I thought was going to beimportant when building Almanac.
I didn't want to just be anonline business.
I didn't want it to be a slaveto the Instagram algorithms or
whatever it may be.
I wanted to, you can think if itis like diversifying your
marketing touchpoints also in alot of ways.
Um, but I would love to hearfrom you what focus on local
(34:48):
means practically.
Like you talked about in generalwhat it means, but when it comes
to doing it, how do you focus onlocal and what are the
advantages of doing that?
So
Ellen (35:00):
it's, it's mainly about the content that you write and
it's about the, the way that youengage with other people.
Um, so obviously engagement is ahuge part of, you know, a great
social media presence you can'thave engagement with, or you
can't have great reach withoutgreat engagement.
Um, so you need people to seeyour posts.
(35:21):
And the best way to do that isto actually give them prompts
and, or, or ideas that they areinterested in engaging with.
So, you know, we talk...
I think that as business owners,we think a lot about like the
questions that we can ask otherpeople, you know, where's your
favorite place to grab a coffee?
I accidentally made that a localone because my brain doesn't
(35:44):
even sink.
Non-locally at this point.
I can't think of it like anon-local engagement question on
the spot.
Favorite book.
Yeah, exactly.
So that's a question that tonsof people on your Instagram feed
my end up answering.
Um, we like to just spin thatthough too.
How do you incorporate what'shappening in your community into
(36:05):
that engagement?
So we recently grabbed a coffeeat this place in town, you know,
where's your favorite place tograb a coffee while you're
stopping at our local business?
You can also stop it these otherplaces.
Have you been to one of thembefore?
And then you're creating theseconversations not only about
your business but about othersas well.
(36:27):
And what that does is turn yourcommunity into a destination.
So it's a place that I'm goingto come, I'm going to get a
coffee in the morning, I'm goingto stop by the boutique, I'm
going to walk into thebookstore, I'm going to grab
lunch at a downtown restaurant.
And then at the end of the day,I become a brand ambassador for
this community.
(36:48):
Because I'm going to share withthe world all of these things I
did in this downtown today, soby one business asking one
inspiring question, the entirecommunity has gained traction.
Emily (37:03):
I hope that everyone listening to this, it feels the
power in that like that isthat's big and important and
much more tangible and almostdigestible than this idea of I
want a million followers and tobe the world's greatest
influencer, which so many peopleare.
That's their life goal, which Iget, but imagine if you could
(37:26):
just relatively easily make yourcommunity hot or become a local
celebrity if that's what youwant to do.
A friend of mine who's actuallybeen on the podcast, Shawanda
Mason Moore runs a, we'llinclude links to her episode.
She runs a nonprofit and came totalk to us about running a
(37:46):
nonprofit and being boss.
She also runs a side projectcalled eat, drink frolic where
she, the whole purpose is notthe whole purpose.
It actually has multiple purpose.
A large purpose of it ishighlighting local restaurants
and bars and things.
And she's not only bolsteringthe community with the platform
that she's built for herself.
(38:07):
Um, but I was talking to, Iactually had dinner with the
other day and she's telling mestories about how now she can
walk into restaurants and havepeople, have the waitresses just
bring her some extra cocktailsbecause they recognize her and
want her to try their newcocktail menu or whatever it may
be.
Um, that is so much moretangible and helpful and
important, I think in theselofty goals of whatever it is
(38:29):
that you have in your head thatyou want to do.
Another thing that I really loveabout this is hashtag support
local because how many of youare using that expecting your
local communities to support youwho may not be actually turning
it around and supporting yourlocal community and any and all
(38:49):
the ways so you can, and whetherthat's sharing them on social
media or actually giving themmoney or including them in your
roundups or highlighting them onyour podcast or whatever it may
be.
I think that, um, I think that alot of times we can use things
like shop local support, localwhatever as a way to get us
help.
Well, we should be using it tohelp everyone in our local
(39:11):
communities.
Ellen (39:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
And there's, you know, there's,we could talk all day about like
how to use hashtags in a waythat's going to engage your
target audience rather than yourfellow business owners, because
I..
Emily (39:25):
What's your number one tip?
Ellen (39:26):
Don't use hashtags that engage your fellow business
owners...
Emily (39:30):
Amen t o that.
Ellen (39:36):
Yeah.
Anyway.
Um, but I, so I want to tell alittle story real quick.
We had a kind of awkward momentduring a consultation the other
day.
So me and my team member, Katie,we go into almost all of our
consultations together and awoman said to us, why would I
hire you very matter of factly?
(39:58):
Why would I hire you to managemy social media accounts if your
social media account only has1400 followers?
And I said, 1400 people arebuying my services at my rates.
I'm retiring at 30.
It doesn't matter how manypeople follow you.
It matters how many of thosepeople are actually qualified
(40:21):
buyers that are actually gonnawalk in the door of your
business.
And you know, if you only have500 followers, it doesn't matter
because 500 of those peoplecould actually be buying your
products.
They could be coming into yourboutique, they could be grabbing
a coffee from you every singleday.
And it's those little thingsthat mean way much more to a
(40:44):
local business.
Emily (40:48):
Okay, I have to press pause on this conversation for
just a second for some extrasharing because did you hear
that?
Is the little things thatmatter, not the big follower
numbers.
And do you know who sees thelittle things?
Yes, it can be your customerswho are supporting you from
around the world, but thoselittle things are more easily
seen by those closest to you.
(41:10):
It's your neighbors, it's yourfriends, it's the people that
they refer to you.
It's your local boss.
Pals.
Here's a fact.
At Almanac Supply Co, werecently did a review of our top
customers and here's what wefound.
I hope this blows your mind alittle bit.
With the exception of one, ourtop eight customers is made up
(41:32):
of people that I have emotionalor geographic connections with,
be it that they are local familyor friends.
Those top eight people made up25% of our revenue in 2019 and
they're a mixture of wholesaleaccounts, retail customers and
folks who use this to do clientgifting.
(41:55):
Want to hear a more shockingstat?
Another 50% of our revenue camefrom local events, local popup
shops and local markets.
If you add on top of that, allthe local people who purchased
online, well, I think you'rebeginning to see maybe how
important focusing on local isfor Almanac because that means
(42:18):
that less than 25% of ourrevenue came from just random
folks who stumbled upon us fromthe internet or saw our
Instagram or whatever it may be,and if you need more convincing,
that local can easily win overonline.
Over that same year that we blewup our local community with of
(42:41):
customers.
I also put way more effort intobuilding our social media
presence for Almanac and becauseof changes to user habits and
those damn algorithms, we sawless conversions from Instagram
than we did in 2018 the spy, agrowing following and more
posting and despite the factthat our true metrics for
(43:04):
Instagram growth fell flat, liketotally flat, we tripled our
revenue from 2018 to 2019 how?
By showing up at local events,be it networking events or
markets by nurturingrelationships with local bosses,
by focusing on local.
(43:27):
If we had done none of thosethings, we would have not triple
our revenue.
We probably would have kept ourrevenue about the same, maybe
added a little bit if we hadstuck with just online marketing
and all the easy tools that wehave there because we focus more
on local, we tripled ourrevenue.
(43:48):
The payoff on online marketingand engagement is becoming more
and more hit and miss.
The pay off of local marketingand engagement is where I
continue to see favorablereturns on investment.
And this is not true for justphysical products.
I personally have focused onlocal here because I remember
(44:09):
the impact that it had back inmy web design studio days before
I went whole hog into beingboss.
My design studio had a localpresence that still makes me
proud.
We hosted the local industrynights where creative business
friends would come around for adrink and to talk about life and
work as a boss and yes, this wasbefore being boss was a thing.
(44:30):
We design the branding for manylocal businesses.
I can still ride around and seedesign work.
My team and I did on businessesaround town.
We founded a local art crawl forthe area of town that our studio
was in and it's still an annualevent to this day and you see
what that is?
It's not just me building mybusiness, it's me supporting my
(44:54):
local community and it's meadding value to my community and
in a way that I myself get toenjoy every day.
Community Ad (45:06):
Settle in boss, take a deep breath.
Think what question about yourbusiness has been niggling at
you most lately?
Got it.
Wish you had someone to ask.
And the being boss community,you have lots of someones to ask
and it's likely that at leastone of those someones has an
answer for you that will moveyou forward.
(45:28):
In the being boss community,folks are asking questions about
everything from contracts andsocial media management to
keeping up your energy to makeit do.
And if you want to join in, youcan ask your questions to learn
more and join the Being BossCommunity by going to
beingboss.club/community.
Ellen (45:49):
And I think a lot of, a lot of business owners, I don't
want to say this about allbusiness owners, but many, many
business owners that havelocally based business, they
often don't think about thecommunity around them.
Um, and your community reallyneeds to be thriving
economically to be able tosupport your business.
(46:10):
So if every store on your blockis closing and you're the only
one left open, that's verydetrimental to you whether
you're thinking actively aboutit or not.
So by using the focus on localapproach to the way you market
your business and it doesn'teven have to just be through
social media marketing.
(46:30):
If you're thinking more locally,then you're going to ensure the
longevity of your own business
Emily (46:37):
And of your community.
I don't even think gesturebusiness cause I will say
there's a flip side of thiswhere let's say every business
on the block goes out ofbusiness, but you're able to
stay because you've tapped intothe online sphere.
Like that's also a very powerfulthing to keep toasts were bring
out, bring in outside economiesinto yours, like have that sort
of entryway point for, you know,that money from Vancouver or
(47:00):
whatever it may be to make itsway into your local community.
I think.
I think there is something inthere I do not want to by any
means, diminish the awesomenessof that for sure.
But I do think you're completelyright with this idea of of
creating a, creating a local,creating an engaging in a local
(47:21):
community and economy that canmake such, um, much more almost
concentrated impact.
Then getting money fromeverywhere.
There's like there's, there'ssomething really good that comes
back when that comes up when yougo back to fostering local
(47:41):
community and economies.
Yeah, absolutely.
Ellen (47:44):
And you know, every, every little thing that you can
do to help your community as awhole thrive is just going to
help everyone around you.
Emily (47:54):
Agreed.
Um, I would love to hear fromyou any results that you've seen
with customers or clients, yourclients who have begun adopting
this, focusing on localapproach.
What does, what does that dofor, what does that do for a
business?
Ellen (48:12):
I think the, the biggest thing I see, and I mentioned it
a little before is, is usersbecoming Brandon Basadur is for
their favorite businesses andfor the communities that they
like to hang out in, um, becauseof business has made the switch
to actively focus on localpeople are buying into what they
have to say and participating inthat.
(48:33):
And that's when you kind ofspark, um, you know, the idea
behind the micro influencer orthe community influencer, they
don't have to be a big internetsensation, but if there's
someone that makes an impact intheir community, then they're
sharing that with the world foryou.
Emily (48:50):
For sure.
And I will say too, in my ownexperience, whether that be
selling websites back in the dayor selling jewelry way back in
the day or these days, um,gaining podcasts, listeners even
or at Almanac selling candles orcrystals making the sell to
(49:11):
someone in person and your localcommunity is significantly
easier than convincing someonewho lives States away who's
never going to see your face orlike hug you in person, um, or
understand the impact thathappens whenever they buy your
product.
There is so much more ease,relative ease.
(49:35):
Online businesses at all is alsovery easy and it's in this whole
other way, but there is a realease that comes from engaging in
that local community.
Um, when it comes to positioningyourself and selling what it is
that you do, it's much more easyfor me to sit amongst a group of
(49:57):
people, um, in here inChattanooga and tell people what
I do and then get really excitedthat I run a podcast called
being boss that's, you know,talk charts of iTunes, all of
those things like, you betterbet if I'm sitting amongst 12
people who have never heard ofit, 12 people are about to go
listen to a podcast.
If I do the same thing, not inmy community.
(50:18):
Let's say I'm in like, you know,San Francisco sitting around a
table with some people, I mayget five or six out of those 12,
but it's significantly less not,but it's just not as impactful.
Impactful.
I think that's a, that's a goodor relatable.
Actually, I think that's eventhe word I'm looking for.
It's not as relatable.
Um, then someone who lives inyour neighborhood who's doing
(50:41):
something cool and makingsomething awesome and of course
you want to support them becausethey're doing cool things for
your, for your local community.
I love all of this.
I'm thinking like Q high schoolmusical over here.
We're all in this together.
Ellen (50:58):
You know like that's what you think about with your, with
your local businesses becausealthough your businesses are
very different, you all aresharing the same struggles and
the same things are going onaround you.
So yeah, you're definitely waymore relatable to your neighbor
than you are to some randomperson at a conference.
Emily (51:17):
Sure.
And when it comes to actuallyneeding like real support, like
let's say there's like, I don'tknow, a rain storm and you know,
your studio floods or whatever,you're like top follower who
lives a couple States away isprobably not going to be falling
in to help you, you know, getthe water out of your front
room.
Your neighbor's going to be.
Ellen (51:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
Although my studio is on thesecond floor, so if our studio
floods, I'm calling you forhelp.
Emily (51:42):
I'll be there.
Second floor for sure.
I'll come in with my boat, getyou out.
Oh man.
I so appreciate you coming tochat with us about all of these
things.
This has been something I'vebeen wanting to bring to this
space for a really long timebecause as much as we talk about
social media and as as clickbaity as it is and this idea of
(52:05):
like growing these hugefollowings all over the world,
it's very like glamorous andexciting and all of these
things.
But I can even tell you from mypersonal experience, if you
focus on local, and this isboth, you know, online
businesses being boss podcast orphysical like product businesses
(52:26):
like Almanac supply co, wheneveryou are engaging your local
people, there is so much morejuice and energy that comes into
play.
Then if you are reaching toanyone and everyone, regardless
of where they aregeographically, there's magic
both ways.
100%.
I'm not discrediting anyone whodoes not live in Chattanooga.
(52:47):
Trust me.
Um, but it's different.
It's totally different.
And I think if we can bring itback to that local community a
bit more, we can all tap intothat, um, and reenergize
everyone's community.
Like what if, what if everycommunity is as supportive and
(53:08):
um, and jazzed up has all ofthese like little online
communities that we have.
Imagine that for a second.
All right.
All right.
I have a couple more littleshort questions for you.
One is what tip or tactic do youhave that bosses can start right
now to focus on local in theirown social media marketing?
Ellen (53:31):
So I would say to pick five users in your community
using your geolocation functionright now.
Um, so this is, this is mainlyan Instagram thing.
Um, these can be businesses orthese can be people, but make
sure there are people that youdon't regularly communicate
with.
Just see what they had to say.
Um, if it's something that youresonate with, like just being
(53:54):
in the same community, commenton their post and some kind of
meaningful way.
Now you've got five potentialcustomers that might not have
known your business existed andyou just created that little
interwebs connection.
Emily (54:08):
Mmm, I love that.
I will say do this, this like a,a big brand tactic as well.
Um, we have a local hotel chainthat recently reached out to a
whole bunch of local people tohave chats about stuff to see
how they could support this likecircle of support.
Guys.
It's a beautiful thing.
(54:29):
Um, I love that.
And can you tell us whereeveryone can find you around the
internet?
Ellen (54:34):
Yeah, so a super on-brand @hellosocialco, across all of
the internet andhellosocialco.com.
Emily (54:44):
Perfect.
Next question.
What makes you feel most boss?
Ellen (54:51):
I'm just sharing what I know.
Um, there's nothing I love morethan doing private strategy
sessions or getting up duringour focus on local retreats.
Um, I just, people I think thinkthat we love to manage social
media, but in my perfect world,I'm helping other business
(55:12):
owners handle social media ontheir own.
Um, we're sharing our knowledgeso that they can, they can make
an impact in their own way.
Emily (55:22):
Hmm.
You're not lying.
From what I know about you, youare definitely like a, let me
gain all kinds of knowledge,distill it down and share it
with as many people as I cankind of person.
I love that.
Love it.
Awesome.
Thank you so much for coming tohang out with me, Ellen.
I appreciate you sharing all ofthis good stuff.
Ellen (55:42):
Yeah.
Thank you so much for having me.
Outro (55:47):
Thanks for listening and Hey, if you want more resources,
we're talking worksheets, freetrainings in person meetups and
vacations, and more.
Go to our website atwww.beingboss.club.
Do the work.
Be boss.
I'm Emily Thompson and I'm Kathleen Shannon and this is
Being Boss.
Emily (00:12):
In this episode of Being Boss, I'm joined by my boss
friend Ellen Maddis to talkabout trading boundaries to keep
your relationship with socialmedia healthy.
The impact that being involvedin your local community can have
on your life and work and howfocusing on local will not only
serve your business but all thebusinesses around you.
As always, you can find all thetools, books and links we
(00:34):
referenced on the show notes atwww.beingboss.
club.
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Emily (02:41):
For a very long time.
I've seen the disconnect betweentoday's online entrepreneurs who
are really today's smallbusiness owners, what business
looked like before the age ofthe internet and what I hope and
perhaps foresee for businessesin the future.
Before the age of the internet,businesses operated in their
(03:03):
local communities.
They sold local, hired, local,supported local or even if they
were let's say a mail orderbusiness.
They still hired local andtherefore we're supporting
local.
That's how business happened forhundreds of years though maybe
not that mail order part, butthat happened for a long time.
(03:24):
Do it all happened with a focuson local.
It's easy to forget, but make nomistake.
There were booming businessesand economies a well before
social media.
Then you enter today's world ofsmall businesses.
There tends to be two mainkinds, local businesses and
online businesses.
(03:44):
I'm sure there's definitely someoverlap, but those who are doing
both well tend to still berelatively few and far between.
There is no shortage of localbusinesses that are still
refusing to bring theirbusinesses onto the internet or
are at the very least heavilystruggling with it, and there
(04:05):
are plenty of online businesseswho are refusing to prioritize
and nurturing a local communityof clients and customers, either
subconsciously or consciously,but in the future, I anticipate
seeing more of a move to theblended model of doing business
online and off because that'swhere real sustainability and
(04:29):
impact happen.
You tap the larger networkthat's made accessible by the
internet, but bring it home intoyour local community.
In fact, I see magic in the flipof that build a local business
that's supplemented by theaccess that you have to people
around the world.
(04:50):
Why?
Because it's good for the bottomline of your business and the
entire community of businessesin your area.
This concept of a blendedbusiness both online and offline
has been a priority for me fromthe start and perhaps that's
because I did own my firstbusiness back when you'd only
(05:11):
heard of Facebook if you werestill a student at Harvard.
Even as I moved my endeavors andto the online world, I've
maintained my prioritization ofdoing local business, selling at
local markets, working withlocal clients, nurturing my
local community, and that efforthas paid off again and again and
(05:33):
at a much more promising ratethan any online tactic I have
ever tried.
But I also know that I'mprobably offering up some crazy
talk to many of you onlinebusiness folks out there, but I
promise you the impact is real.
And to show you what this canlook like today, I'm joined by
(05:54):
my boss pow, Ellen Madis.
I got to know Ellen when shejoined my mastermind group where
we quickly started referring toher as the most interesting
person in the room.
She seriously has some of thebest stories and an interesting
approach to marketing.
And I've seen it in action.
I've watched her sell outhundreds of tickets to an event
(06:15):
in the matter of hours to alocal event.
I've watched her grow her teamand her business endeavors.
Ellen calls herself a communityconnector through work life and
volunteerism.
She's the owner of a coworkingand community event venue called
studio 1795 and BellefontePennsylvania and the owner of
(06:37):
social media marketing agency,hello social co or the agencies
focus on local approach drivesthe work that they do with their
clients across the nation.
And that last piece thatfocusing on local is aware.
I'm heading with thisconversation today.
(07:02):
Hi Ellen.
I'm so glad you're here.
Ellen (07:04):
Hey, thanks for having me.
Emily (07:06):
Awesome.
Let's get started with thisbecause there are so many things
that I want to dive in on withyou today.
Um, but to get everyone properlyintroduced to you, I would like
for you to begin by telling usabout yourself and how you
landed where you are now.
Ellen (07:23):
Um, so I would say like many bosses before me, um, just
hit a breaking point.
I got hired to work or scheduledto work new year's Eve.
Um, the last year that I workedmy full time job and that
evening I was just livid.
So I got home about two in themorning and I just sat down with
(07:46):
my husband, my boyfriend at thetime, and just was like, we need
to make a change.
And almost immediately westarted researching where we
could start a business with theskills that I had.
Um, so we thought aboutPittsburgh for a long time, um,
but we're a little worriedabout, you know, the competition
because marketing agencies existin big cities.
(08:09):
And we started to look atcentral Pennsylvania because it
didn't look like there wasanything that focused in social
media here.
So by March 1st I opened hellosocial co and um, we moved to
that area.
And also on the same day that Ilaunched the business, I started
my master's degree little, it'sa little bit of craziness all at
(08:30):
once.
And um, yeah, three years later,here we are.
Um, and then also this past yearI realized there was a need in
my central Pennsylvaniacommunity that for a space that
fostered really communityconnection.
So a, I opened this past Januarystudio 1795, which is a
(08:52):
coworking space and a communityevent venue one.
Emily (08:56):
I love a good quitting story.
I love when somebody's like, letme tell you about my last day of
work.
That's always, that's always agood story.
Um, too.
I love that you and your nowhusband then boyfriend sat down
and were so purposeful about youstarting a business.
You saw that there was a problemand needed to be fixed.
(09:17):
A way to fix it was for you totake the skills that you had.
And what were those skills like?
What did you like write themdown on a piece of paper?
What did they
Ellen (09:24):
I um, I dabbled in a lot of different kinds of digital
marketing.
So at that point I was workingfor a full service digital
agency.
Um, and I was, I was really thedoer there.
So we had a sales team and thenI was tasked with making sure
all of those things happen.
So, um, everything from SEO tobuilding websites to social
(09:46):
media management I was doing,um, when we started live social
co I did dabble in all of thosethings but eventually, uh, we
kind of honed in on social mediaalone.
Emily (10:00):
Hmm.
How long have you been doinghello?
Social co.
Ellen (10:02):
It'll be three years in March.
Emily (10:04):
Three years.
Oh, when I love to, I'm going tojust keep counting off all the
things that I want to say aboutwhat you're saying.
Number one, uh, bosses are thedoers.
Of course you are the person atthe agency who is doing all the
things.
That's how it works.
Um, and also going back to whatI was saying about you and your
husband's sitting down and beingso conscious about you see
(10:26):
having a problem and wanting tosolve it.
Let me be an entrepreneur.
Let me start a business and domy thing.
Using the skills I already haveis quite a boss move if I may
say so.
But I also want to talk aboutthat masters.
So you were going back to schoolto get a master's in what and
why?
Ellen (10:45):
That was actually, um, not totally planned.
So, you know, there was a pointwhere I applied for my masters
and I thought that I was goingto be working full time for
someone else for the rest of mylife.
I thought that this master's wasgoing to be really important to
help me level up my career.
And um, I got accepted veryshortly before I decided that I
(11:11):
wasn't going to work thereanymore.
So, um, you know, I stillpursued it and I actually, I
took a lot of breaks in betweenso I'm not graduating until this
year, but um, it's been reallyvaluable to, um, you know, just
have that, that extra knowledgethat comes with it.
So the master's is an integratedmarketing communications and
that's from West Virginiauniversity.
Emily (11:34):
Hmm.
Five.
Congratulations.
Get it done.
It's interesting that do youcontinue doing your masters even
though you weren't going to beusing it in the same way?
And I bring this up because Ioften think about continued
education.
Um, most bosses who are probablylistening this have a degree
(11:54):
that they don't use, probablyhave like higher level degrees
that they're not using.
Um, I'm also in a, in a placewhere I have to start thinking
about my kid going to collegesoon.
So I'm often thinking like, do Iwant to send her to school?
Cause David and I for a longtime were like, we're not going
to make her go to college.
Like are we going to weird thoselike hippie parents.
But now that a little furtherinto it, I so see the value of
(12:17):
getting those higher learningexperiences.
I don't think it's the paper.
I think, I think the diploma,the actual like having it is, it
has some credit for sure.
But the experience of it issomething that you cannot trade
for anything.
I have a degree and I do not useor I don't professionally use,
but I love that I have it.
(12:37):
It took me a long time to cometo terms with it for sure.
Um, but once the student loansare paid off[inaudible] I
decided that I really likedhaving it.
So I love that you continuedcommitting to growing your own
knowledge in the subject matterthat you decided to start a
business in as opposed to justquitting it, doing the work as
(12:59):
an entrepreneur and you know,calling it, calling it with
that.
Ellen (13:03):
Yeah, and I would say that that was a really conscious
decision because going into themaster's program, it was, it was
honestly about the paycheck.
It was me saying, okay, I seethat people in my field get paid
more when they have a master'sdegree.
And when I started working formyself, it became not about the
paycheck because who knows, butmore about what can I use from
(13:28):
this program that can reallyhelp my clients moving forward.
Emily (13:33):
That's why you do it right there.
That's why you learn forpersonal betterment.
Okay, perfect.
This is not a conversation abouthigher level, even though I
could totally go there for sure.
I feel like you'd be, if Iwanted to talk about, um,
regarding that, I want to dive alittle bit more into your
journey and we have a good placewhere we're going with this and
I'm very excited.
Um, so looking back at youdeciding to quit your job,
(13:57):
starting your business,continuing your masters, um, I
have to ask, what is the bestpiece of advice that you
received along that windy pathof yours?
Ellen (14:08):
I cannot pick one piece of advice.
There are two that I love andthe first is very simple.
The first was from my dad when Itold him that I was going to be
doing this.
Um, he's a retired entrepreneurand the thing that he just
drilled into me was always payyourself first.
That has driven many of thedecisions that I make for my
business.
The second one is to not getcaught in the comparison trap.
(14:33):
Um, when I first started thebusiness, I was so worried about
what other people were doing.
Um, you know, especially peoplein the social media and
marketing realm, it reallyhindered my ability to hone in
on what made our agency unique.
And by kind of on followingthose people and not being about
what other social mediaprofessionals professionals are
(14:54):
doing, I'm able to really kindof shine the light on the focus
on local aspect of what myagency does.
Emily (15:03):
Agreed.
100%.
I was thinking of it as likeputting on my blinders or I'm
just going to like put my headin the hall, do my work, you
know, decide how I'm differentand more amazing than everyone
else.
In that way, I am more amazing.
Um, it's really important to dothat and I think we're going to
be talking about this a bitmore, but especially in the
world of social media where, youknow, all of us social media
(15:26):
users are in it enough, but youbeing a social media marketer
are even probably a littledeeper than we are.
I mean, it's literally your jobto compare.
I could see it being easy tofall into the trap of comparing
yourself or what it is thatyou're doing in a way that's not
helpful.
Ellen (15:46):
Yeah, and I, you know, the, I think the biggest thing
for me was that I got so hung upon hello social, not having the,
you know, the most amazingsocial media presence.
And I was comparing myself tothese people that were putting
up 20 Instagram stories a dayand had very consistent content.
But at the end of the day, Ijust realized that I needed to
(16:07):
make a decision about what wasmore important to me, the work
that I was putting out into theworld for hello social, which
yes, is important to me, but Iknow that I need to focus my
time on my clients more thanthat.
So that's what we focus on.
Emily (16:22):
Agreed.
Agreed.
I've started seeing someone'sactivity on social media as a
potential red flag as to whetheror not they're just as bossy as
they say they are.
And there are, this can goeither way.
So don't you dare anyone's inmeaning nasty emails about this.
I've seen it go both ways whereyou can be on social media ton
(16:43):
and be a total boss.
But what I also find quite oftenis if you're on social media a
ton, you're not doing your work.
Um, and this is even aconversation that's come up with
the community you previously orvery recently where a boss in
there, um, decided to pose thequestion of how it is that
everyone is balancing the blendof or the differences between
(17:09):
sitting down and doing the workand whether that be serving your
clients or practicing your craftor whatever it may be.
Balancing that with sharing thework.
Because I think a lot of us havefallen into this trap of
thinking that sharing the workof being on Instagram, creating
and curating that beautifulfeed, doing 20 Instagram stories
a day, showing up for Facebooklives.
(17:29):
All of those things like peoplethink this, that, that that is
doing the work and that's notdoing the work that's sharing
the work.
Um, unless you're in socialmedia marketing or in some
cases, you know, branding andthings like that.
But for the rest of us, for therest of us, we need to spend
more time doing the work thensharing the work.
(17:51):
For sure.
So that actually leads me into acouple of fun little questions
that I have for you aroundsocial media.
Um, because a large part of yourwork is on social media first.
Do you love it or hate it?
Ellen (18:05):
I do.
I truly love it and I've alwaysloved it.
I, you know, I have always beenan early adopter of like every
social media platform that haslaunched ever since.
I'm not on Tiktok, but I watchother people.
Emily (18:21):
You're an early adopter.
Ellen (18:26):
But you know, like as, as a teenager, like I was the girl
that was making my space themesfor other people so that they
could, you know, bling out theirprofile.
But I didn't know what socialmedia marketing was at that
time.
So there's, there's never been atime that I haven't loved it
where I haven't used it.
Um, and I think that if you useit for good, it can be so
(18:49):
effective and so meaningful.
It's when we get on our Facebookfeeds and we start to hate our
neighbors because of theirpolitical views that we start to
go down Hill.
So it's just about, you know,making, curating your social
media feeds to be the contentthat you want to see that you
want to consume personally andprofessionally and conveying
(19:11):
that as well.
Emily (19:13):
Hmm.
It's a good rule of thumb.
I love that.
Okay.
Question number two, do youspend a lot of time on social
media?
Ellen (19:21):
Sometimes?
Um, I do spend too much time onsocial media.
Yeah.
But that's more of like a, apersonal thing that's a, you
know, if I have a day off, maybeI spend a little too much time
scrolling.
Um, I do think that I havereally good boundaries with it
and he, you need to because, um,when you're doing this all day,
(19:41):
it's, it's easy to get suckedinto your feet, your feeds and,
you know, figure out what'shappening around in, in the
world around you.
And, um, you know, thoseboundaries are really important.
I think the, the biggest changeI've made though to not spend
too much time on it is that I'veunfollowed almost all of them.
Emily (20:04):
Ooh, though, cause I have to tell you, I recently went and
unfollowed everyone from myInstagram account to which, and
we've talked about this on theshow before, so I'm going to
give a slight update.
I stopped using my personalInstagram account in I think may
of last year and didn't signinto it for a really long time.
I've recently started creepingagain, but part of creeping is I
(20:25):
went in and unfollowed basicallyeveryone except for, you know,
so my closest friends and acouple of meme accounts.
Um, okay.
I want to hit back on this, um,on this thing you said I'm going
to go around boundaries and youjust sort of gave us one, but
what boundaries do you have inplace?
Um, or sort of mindsets, likeany sort of triggers perhaps
(20:46):
that you, that see when it comesto balancing being on social
with, you know, being active inreal life.
Ellen (20:53):
It's, it's less about the boundaries I would say.
And more about never trying tobe someone on social media that
you're not.
Um, I think that we went througha phase in social media where
people just wanted to have theperfect feeds.
They wanted to have these, youknow, perfect white rooms with
cute white things.
And it's just not realistic.
(21:13):
You know.
And I, I think that, um, thebiggest change I've made in my
life is on social media is justbeing real.
So my personal account hasalways been an extension of my
real life.
It's me out in the woods.
It's me getting muddy with mydogs.
It's, you know, nothing, it'snot a coffee mug for the sake of
(21:33):
a coffee mug being on the feed.
Um, and it's, it's, it'simportant to kind of set the
standard for what your contentis going to be.
And, um, I think the mostimportant thing I do for my work
and for my personal life onsocial media is later gram.
(21:54):
So you will never, ever, everfind me at a conference, like
live posting from a conferenceor live posting from something
that I'm at.
I'm taking a lot of photos butit's when I get back to the
hotel room later that I amputting up an Instagram story
saying that I've been theretoday.
Um, I don't waste the time thatI have in real life to enjoy
(22:16):
something posting on socialmedia.
Emily (22:19):
Oh ma, I'll drop a mic for you right there.
How about that?
Agreed.
Agreed with this I think.
I think that's a beautifulboundary for sure.
To create one where you areengaging in short capturing, I
think, you know, taking photosfor me I'm like capturing where
I am so I'm not getting lost butreally just taking photos is the
real capturing I'm thinkingabout and taking photos and
(22:41):
engaging is what you're atplaces to do.
It's whenever I'm sitting there,I, the summer I went to Greece
and there was a moment we weresitting, you know, in some
ancient ruins and some guys justsitting there like typing away
on it.
Like I saw him taking somephotos and there's typing away
on his phone and I was like,dude, you are surrounded with
the coolest stuff.
And I get maybe his like dreamlife is for sure like
(23:02):
Instagramming from some ancientGreek ruins like in which case
high five buddy.
Um, but it did make me think, Iwonder if there's as much
self-aware newness there, um, asthere is me being aware of him.
Ellen (23:14):
Right.
And you know, did he at thatpoint enjoy the thing he went
there to see because you know,one of the most beautiful things
that I've ever seen in person ishorseshoe curves and I felt like
I went there and so many peoplewere just standing there like
taking selfies on the side ofthe ledge and like their backs
were turned to it so they cantake photos with it.
(23:35):
Did you see it?
Emily (23:37):
I think a lot of people are getting caught up in
capturing and sharing more sothan enjoying, which also
mirrors what we were talkingabout a moment ago with people
with the bosses wondering ifthey're capturing and sharing
more than they're actually doingthe work.
I think there's a common themethere.
Acuity ad (23:56):
Want to hear a little truth about me because of the
work that I do, buildingbusinesses and masterminding
with creatives to help thembuild businesses.
I'm a systems snob.
If it's not easy to do businesswith you, I won't do business
with you.
If I have to fax my order to youbecause that still exists, I
will find someone else.
(24:17):
If Facebook is the only way Ican contact you, I'm not buying
what you're selling and myexperience a business worth my
business takes time to make surethat they make it easy to do
business.
My favorite tool for doingbusiness in a way that's easy
for me and my clients, acuityscheduling acuity, it makes it
easy for me to schedulemeetings, send followups and
(24:39):
gather information when it comesto coaching and masterminding,
interviewing guests here onbeing boss, chatting with our
brand partners and more acuityscheduling, the scheduling
assistant that works 24 sevenbehind the scenes to fill your
calendar so that you don't haveto and make it easy for folks to
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For a limited time only you canget 45 days of acuity scheduling
(25:02):
absolutely free, no credit cardrequired by going to
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Emily (25:12):
All right, let's dive in to what's happening next because
this is what I have you here forEllen.
You have one of the mostrefreshing yet not novel at all,
ideas around marketing andaround using social media
marketing.
And that means being reallyinvolved in your local community
(25:36):
what like so refreshing but notnovel.
So as we dive into this, I'dlove for you to share a bit more
how it is that you are involvedin your local community and what
impact do you find that havingon your life and especially your
business?
Ellen (25:56):
Hmm.
How am I involved?
That's a big question.
Um, so like I said, I just movedhere three years ago.
Um, and I think that one of thereasons I was attracted to this
community and really justattracted to moving in general
was because I, in the communitythat I was living in before, I
(26:17):
never felt like I could getinvolved.
It was always, you know, thesesame people created events and
they, you know, ran things andyou were the crazy 22 year old
that wanted to do somethingdifferent.
So you weren't invited.
And here I got to this communityin central Pennsylvania and you
know, just like bounce someideas off of people and they
were absolutely, let's do them.
(26:38):
How do we make it happen?
And I love that.
Um, so that's on the personalside.
Um, something that I'm reallypassionate about.
You know, I'm the, I'm now thepresident of the board for our
local economic developmentassociation and I'm just doing a
ton of fun community relatedprojects including my coworking
space.
(27:00):
But on the work side, throughhello social, I've really made,
um, what we call the focus onlocal approach, the entire basis
of our business.
So, um, whenever we are workingwith a client, focus on local
plays into how we do that worksomehow.
So basically focus on local isour little micro movement, I
(27:22):
would say to just get people toengage more with their local
communities using social media.
It's, it's the idea that if anentire community thrives, then
the business with businesseswithin it do as well.
And if we can empower businessowners to use their social media
accounts in a way that getspeople excited, um, then the
(27:45):
entire economics of that townthrives.
Emily (27:49):
I think this is such an important perspective to have on
running a business.
All too often I'll see a bosswho, you know, gets super bent
out of shape, but wheneverInstagram algorithms changed
because they haven't botheredgrowing a business outside of
Instagram or, um, or I oftenhear of bosses who will say that
(28:11):
, um, you know, they don't havea local community cause they
just move there.
So thank you very much forcompletely debunking that excuse
cause you showed up and madeyourself useful, um, and
injected yourself into, into acommunity.
Granted, sounds like it may haveneeded someone like you.
Ellen (28:31):
And so small communities especially are, are the ones
that kind of benefit from theseapproaches more than anything.
Um, I think that, you know, justas there, there's phases for
everything.
And, um, living in a small townwas not for a while.
And I think that people, peopleare finding that they're create,
(28:53):
they're craving that kind ofsmall town connection.
Um, the connections that youhave with your neighbors, the
connections that you have withbusiness owners, there is
nothing I love more than that.
I know the names of everybody onmy block, um, that I can walk
down the street and grab acoffee and they know what I'm
going to order, um, that I canwalk into any store.
(29:15):
And, you know, there's a storeacross the street from my space
here that, um, I walk in thedoor and she's like, Oh, here's
10 items that are in your sizethat I think you're going to
love.
And I love those personalrelationships in a community
like this.
And that's the kinds of thingsthat we use social media to talk
about, um, to leverage that kindof small town life in a way that
(29:39):
not only makes people want tolive in places like this, but
also shop in places like this.
And, um, you know, go out for adrink and places like this and
you know, hopefully buy a housein a place like this someday.
Emily (29:52):
Yeah.
Okay.
My brain is going off with like18 different directions that I
want to take this first andforemost, I want a side tangent,
just a hair, because you'vetalked about something that's
come up in my real life many,many times and that is knowing
all the names of your neighbors.
Can you walk some bosses step bystep through what it means or
(30:12):
how it is that you introduceyourself to your neighbors?
And I asked this questionbecause I literally have people
ask me this all the time becausewe know all of our neighbors
names too.
And everyone's always like,that's insane.
How do you know them all?
And my answer is I have a Lilly,my daughter is the most
outgoing, personable human beingon the planet.
(30:34):
She knows everyone's name andtheir entire backstory, if she
can get it out of you, um, youdon't have a Lilly, how do you
do it?
Ellen (30:42):
I, it's kind of weird cause I never even thought that
I did....
Emily (30:46):
It's something.
Trust me.
Ellen (30:49):
but I, I guess, um, you know what, thinking back to just
the week that we bought ourhouse, um, so the, the day that
we closed on the house, westarted doing renovations on the
house.
Um, our neighbors on the left ofus, they happened to be in the
backyard while we were walkingin.
So we just went outside and wesaid, Hey, you know, we're,
we're going to be moving in in acouple of weeks.
(31:11):
You know, this is what we do,this nice to meet you.
Um, and that was, that was justkind of second nature to us, I
would say.
Um, as for the rest of thestreet, they came to us in many
ways.
Um, I think that you find thingsto bond over with your different
neighbors.
So, you know, the guy across thestreet from us has the cutest
(31:31):
beagle.
Um, you know, we have dogs too,so we went over and pet his dog
one time and we know, Hey Romo,what's up?
So, um, you know, it's, it'sjust about finding the things
that you have in common, whichone of the biggest is the street
that you live on and havingsomething to say to them.
Um, and now that we've madethose connections, you know, I
(31:52):
don't think twice about, youknow, asking my neighbor to
check on our cat if we have togo out of town or watering their
garden for them when they're outof town.
It's just something that happenshere.
Emily (32:04):
Either a small town charm or simply living with or living
as an embodiment of small towncharm.
I don't think you have to livein a small town.
Do talk to your neighbors.
Um, I think it definitely helpsbut not necessary.
Absolutely not.
I love that.
I love that you don't even thinkabout it that you just do
Ellen (32:26):
Same thing.
No matter where you live, youlive, you know, in a high rise
you can find, figure out wholives on your floor.
It's, this applies absolutelyeverywhere.
Emily (32:37):
Yeah.
And I that this is also aperfect example of how you bring
or it is an example of the ethosthat you bring to social media.
This idea of everyone is yourfriend more or less like what
content are you wanting to seeand can you share, um, the sort
of do unto others as you wouldhave them do unto you if it
(33:00):
were, I can't believe I justsaid that out loud, but it works
here.
It totally works here.
Um, and that you've brought thatinto your real life, but you're
also doing that for othercompanies and showing other
companies how to do that andsocial media as well.
Um, so whenever it comes tofocusing on local, this is
(33:21):
something that I've lovedtalking to you about because as
we created when a week redidAlmanac supply co, the idea of
that company is to create andcurate goods to help people live
with the seasons and embracenature.
And I think neither of those twothings can happen unless you are
connecting with where you livebecause both your nature are
(33:45):
both the nature and the seasonsare different depending on where
you physically are.
As such, we have also alwaysmade it imperative to include
Chattanooga very much so in themarketing that we do.
Even as an online company, I'vebeen an online business for a
really long time.
I know how easy it is to talk toeveryone.
(34:05):
Like I can just shout out onInstagram to the whole world
quite easily.
But to focus it in on local wasalways really important to me.
And then whenever you camearound you were like, Oh, I do
this thing called focus onlocal.
I'm like, girl, birds of thesame feather.
So I completely agree that thisfocus on local is very
(34:26):
important.
It's something that I felt veryingrained in me and something
that I thought was going to beimportant when building Almanac.
I didn't want to just be anonline business.
I didn't want it to be a slaveto the Instagram algorithms or
whatever it may be.
I wanted to, you can think if itis like diversifying your
marketing touchpoints also in alot of ways.
Um, but I would love to hearfrom you what focus on local
(34:48):
means practically.
Like you talked about in generalwhat it means, but when it comes
to doing it, how do you focus onlocal and what are the
advantages of doing that?
So
Ellen (35:00):
it's, it's mainly about the content that you write and
it's about the, the way that youengage with other people.
Um, so obviously engagement is ahuge part of, you know, a great
social media presence you can'thave engagement with, or you
can't have great reach withoutgreat engagement.
Um, so you need people to seeyour posts.
(35:21):
And the best way to do that isto actually give them prompts
and, or, or ideas that they areinterested in engaging with.
So, you know, we talk...
I think that as business owners,we think a lot about like the
questions that we can ask otherpeople, you know, where's your
favorite place to grab a coffee?
I accidentally made that a localone because my brain doesn't
(35:44):
even sink.
Non-locally at this point.
I can't think of it like anon-local engagement question on
the spot.
Favorite book.
Yeah, exactly.
So that's a question that tonsof people on your Instagram feed
my end up answering.
Um, we like to just spin thatthough too.
How do you incorporate what'shappening in your community into
(36:05):
that engagement?
So we recently grabbed a coffeeat this place in town, you know,
where's your favorite place tograb a coffee while you're
stopping at our local business?
You can also stop it these otherplaces.
Have you been to one of thembefore?
And then you're creating theseconversations not only about
your business but about othersas well.
(36:27):
And what that does is turn yourcommunity into a destination.
So it's a place that I'm goingto come, I'm going to get a
coffee in the morning, I'm goingto stop by the boutique, I'm
going to walk into thebookstore, I'm going to grab
lunch at a downtown restaurant.
And then at the end of the day,I become a brand ambassador for
this community.
(36:48):
Because I'm going to share withthe world all of these things I
did in this downtown today, soby one business asking one
inspiring question, the entirecommunity has gained traction.
Emily (37:03):
I hope that everyone listening to this, it feels the
power in that like that isthat's big and important and
much more tangible and almostdigestible than this idea of I
want a million followers and tobe the world's greatest
influencer, which so many peopleare.
That's their life goal, which Iget, but imagine if you could
(37:26):
just relatively easily make yourcommunity hot or become a local
celebrity if that's what youwant to do.
A friend of mine who's actuallybeen on the podcast, Shawanda
Mason Moore runs a, we'llinclude links to her episode.
She runs a nonprofit and came totalk to us about running a
(37:46):
nonprofit and being boss.
She also runs a side projectcalled eat, drink frolic where
she, the whole purpose is notthe whole purpose.
It actually has multiple purpose.
A large purpose of it ishighlighting local restaurants
and bars and things.
And she's not only bolsteringthe community with the platform
that she's built for herself.
(38:07):
Um, but I was talking to, Iactually had dinner with the
other day and she's telling mestories about how now she can
walk into restaurants and havepeople, have the waitresses just
bring her some extra cocktailsbecause they recognize her and
want her to try their newcocktail menu or whatever it may
be.
Um, that is so much moretangible and helpful and
important, I think in theselofty goals of whatever it is
(38:29):
that you have in your head thatyou want to do.
Another thing that I really loveabout this is hashtag support
local because how many of youare using that expecting your
local communities to support youwho may not be actually turning
it around and supporting yourlocal community and any and all
(38:49):
the ways so you can, and whetherthat's sharing them on social
media or actually giving themmoney or including them in your
roundups or highlighting them onyour podcast or whatever it may
be.
I think that, um, I think that alot of times we can use things
like shop local support, localwhatever as a way to get us
help.
Well, we should be using it tohelp everyone in our local
(39:11):
communities.
Ellen (39:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
And there's, you know, there's,we could talk all day about like
how to use hashtags in a waythat's going to engage your
target audience rather than yourfellow business owners, because
I..
Emily (39:25):
What's your number one tip?
Ellen (39:26):
Don't use hashtags that engage your fellow business
owners...
Emily (39:30):
Amen t o that.
Ellen (39:36):
Yeah.
Anyway.
Um, but I, so I want to tell alittle story real quick.
We had a kind of awkward momentduring a consultation the other
day.
So me and my team member, Katie,we go into almost all of our
consultations together and awoman said to us, why would I
hire you very matter of factly?
(39:58):
Why would I hire you to managemy social media accounts if your
social media account only has1400 followers?
And I said, 1400 people arebuying my services at my rates.
I'm retiring at 30.
It doesn't matter how manypeople follow you.
It matters how many of thosepeople are actually qualified
(40:21):
buyers that are actually gonnawalk in the door of your
business.
And you know, if you only have500 followers, it doesn't matter
because 500 of those peoplecould actually be buying your
products.
They could be coming into yourboutique, they could be grabbing
a coffee from you every singleday.
And it's those little thingsthat mean way much more to a
(40:44):
local business.
Emily (40:48):
Okay, I have to press pause on this conversation for
just a second for some extrasharing because did you hear
that?
Is the little things thatmatter, not the big follower
numbers.
And do you know who sees thelittle things?
Yes, it can be your customerswho are supporting you from
around the world, but thoselittle things are more easily
seen by those closest to you.
(41:10):
It's your neighbors, it's yourfriends, it's the people that
they refer to you.
It's your local boss.
Pals.
Here's a fact.
At Almanac Supply Co, werecently did a review of our top
customers and here's what wefound.
I hope this blows your mind alittle bit.
With the exception of one, ourtop eight customers is made up
(41:32):
of people that I have emotionalor geographic connections with,
be it that they are local familyor friends.
Those top eight people made up25% of our revenue in 2019 and
they're a mixture of wholesaleaccounts, retail customers and
folks who use this to do clientgifting.
(41:55):
Want to hear a more shockingstat?
Another 50% of our revenue camefrom local events, local popup
shops and local markets.
If you add on top of that, allthe local people who purchased
online, well, I think you'rebeginning to see maybe how
important focusing on local isfor Almanac because that means
(42:18):
that less than 25% of ourrevenue came from just random
folks who stumbled upon us fromthe internet or saw our
Instagram or whatever it may be,and if you need more convincing,
that local can easily win overonline.
Over that same year that we blewup our local community with of
(42:41):
customers.
I also put way more effort intobuilding our social media
presence for Almanac and becauseof changes to user habits and
those damn algorithms, we sawless conversions from Instagram
than we did in 2018 the spy, agrowing following and more
posting and despite the factthat our true metrics for
(43:04):
Instagram growth fell flat, liketotally flat, we tripled our
revenue from 2018 to 2019 how?
By showing up at local events,be it networking events or
markets by nurturingrelationships with local bosses,
by focusing on local.
(43:27):
If we had done none of thosethings, we would have not triple
our revenue.
We probably would have kept ourrevenue about the same, maybe
added a little bit if we hadstuck with just online marketing
and all the easy tools that wehave there because we focus more
on local, we tripled ourrevenue.
(43:48):
The payoff on online marketingand engagement is becoming more
and more hit and miss.
The pay off of local marketingand engagement is where I
continue to see favorablereturns on investment.
And this is not true for justphysical products.
I personally have focused onlocal here because I remember
(44:09):
the impact that it had back inmy web design studio days before
I went whole hog into beingboss.
My design studio had a localpresence that still makes me
proud.
We hosted the local industrynights where creative business
friends would come around for adrink and to talk about life and
work as a boss and yes, this wasbefore being boss was a thing.
(44:30):
We design the branding for manylocal businesses.
I can still ride around and seedesign work.
My team and I did on businessesaround town.
We founded a local art crawl forthe area of town that our studio
was in and it's still an annualevent to this day and you see
what that is?
It's not just me building mybusiness, it's me supporting my
(44:54):
local community and it's meadding value to my community and
in a way that I myself get toenjoy every day.
Community Ad (45:06):
Settle in boss, take a deep breath.
Think what question about yourbusiness has been niggling at
you most lately?
Got it.
Wish you had someone to ask.
And the being boss community,you have lots of someones to ask
and it's likely that at leastone of those someones has an
answer for you that will moveyou forward.
(45:28):
In the being boss community,folks are asking questions about
everything from contracts andsocial media management to
keeping up your energy to makeit do.
And if you want to join in, youcan ask your questions to learn
more and join the Being BossCommunity by going to
beingboss.club/community.
Ellen (45:49):
And I think a lot of, a lot of business owners, I don't
want to say this about allbusiness owners, but many, many
business owners that havelocally based business, they
often don't think about thecommunity around them.
Um, and your community reallyneeds to be thriving
economically to be able tosupport your business.
(46:10):
So if every store on your blockis closing and you're the only
one left open, that's verydetrimental to you whether
you're thinking actively aboutit or not.
So by using the focus on localapproach to the way you market
your business and it doesn'teven have to just be through
social media marketing.
(46:30):
If you're thinking more locally,then you're going to ensure the
longevity of your own business
Emily (46:37):
And of your community.
I don't even think gesturebusiness cause I will say
there's a flip side of thiswhere let's say every business
on the block goes out ofbusiness, but you're able to
stay because you've tapped intothe online sphere.
Like that's also a very powerfulthing to keep toasts were bring
out, bring in outside economiesinto yours, like have that sort
of entryway point for, you know,that money from Vancouver or
(47:00):
whatever it may be to make itsway into your local community.
I think.
I think there is something inthere I do not want to by any
means, diminish the awesomenessof that for sure.
But I do think you're completelyright with this idea of of
creating a, creating a local,creating an engaging in a local
(47:21):
community and economy that canmake such, um, much more almost
concentrated impact.
Then getting money fromeverywhere.
There's like there's, there'ssomething really good that comes
back when that comes up when yougo back to fostering local
(47:41):
community and economies.
Yeah, absolutely.
Ellen (47:44):
And you know, every, every little thing that you can
do to help your community as awhole thrive is just going to
help everyone around you.
Emily (47:54):
Agreed.
Um, I would love to hear fromyou any results that you've seen
with customers or clients, yourclients who have begun adopting
this, focusing on localapproach.
What does, what does that dofor, what does that do for a
business?
Ellen (48:12):
I think the, the biggest thing I see, and I mentioned it
a little before is, is usersbecoming Brandon Basadur is for
their favorite businesses andfor the communities that they
like to hang out in, um, becauseof business has made the switch
to actively focus on localpeople are buying into what they
have to say and participating inthat.
(48:33):
And that's when you kind ofspark, um, you know, the idea
behind the micro influencer orthe community influencer, they
don't have to be a big internetsensation, but if there's
someone that makes an impact intheir community, then they're
sharing that with the world foryou.
Emily (48:50):
For sure.
And I will say too, in my ownexperience, whether that be
selling websites back in the dayor selling jewelry way back in
the day or these days, um,gaining podcasts, listeners even
or at Almanac selling candles orcrystals making the sell to
(49:11):
someone in person and your localcommunity is significantly
easier than convincing someonewho lives States away who's
never going to see your face orlike hug you in person, um, or
understand the impact thathappens whenever they buy your
product.
There is so much more ease,relative ease.
(49:35):
Online businesses at all is alsovery easy and it's in this whole
other way, but there is a realease that comes from engaging in
that local community.
Um, when it comes to positioningyourself and selling what it is
that you do, it's much more easyfor me to sit amongst a group of
(49:57):
people, um, in here inChattanooga and tell people what
I do and then get really excitedthat I run a podcast called
being boss that's, you know,talk charts of iTunes, all of
those things like, you betterbet if I'm sitting amongst 12
people who have never heard ofit, 12 people are about to go
listen to a podcast.
If I do the same thing, not inmy community.
(50:18):
Let's say I'm in like, you know,San Francisco sitting around a
table with some people, I mayget five or six out of those 12,
but it's significantly less not,but it's just not as impactful.
Impactful.
I think that's a, that's a goodor relatable.
Actually, I think that's eventhe word I'm looking for.
It's not as relatable.
Um, then someone who lives inyour neighborhood who's doing
(50:41):
something cool and makingsomething awesome and of course
you want to support them becausethey're doing cool things for
your, for your local community.
I love all of this.
I'm thinking like Q high schoolmusical over here.
We're all in this together.
Ellen (50:58):
You know like that's what you think about with your, with
your local businesses becausealthough your businesses are
very different, you all aresharing the same struggles and
the same things are going onaround you.
So yeah, you're definitely waymore relatable to your neighbor
than you are to some randomperson at a conference.
Emily (51:17):
Sure.
And when it comes to actuallyneeding like real support, like
let's say there's like, I don'tknow, a rain storm and you know,
your studio floods or whatever,you're like top follower who
lives a couple States away isprobably not going to be falling
in to help you, you know, getthe water out of your front
room.
Your neighbor's going to be.
Ellen (51:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
Although my studio is on thesecond floor, so if our studio
floods, I'm calling you forhelp.
Emily (51:42):
I'll be there.
Second floor for sure.
I'll come in with my boat, getyou out.
Oh man.
I so appreciate you coming tochat with us about all of these
things.
This has been something I'vebeen wanting to bring to this
space for a really long timebecause as much as we talk about
social media and as as clickbaity as it is and this idea of
(52:05):
like growing these hugefollowings all over the world,
it's very like glamorous andexciting and all of these
things.
But I can even tell you from mypersonal experience, if you
focus on local, and this isboth, you know, online
businesses being boss podcast orphysical like product businesses
(52:26):
like Almanac supply co, wheneveryou are engaging your local
people, there is so much morejuice and energy that comes into
play.
Then if you are reaching toanyone and everyone, regardless
of where they aregeographically, there's magic
both ways.
100%.
I'm not discrediting anyone whodoes not live in Chattanooga.
(52:47):
Trust me.
Um, but it's different.
It's totally different.
And I think if we can bring itback to that local community a
bit more, we can all tap intothat, um, and reenergize
everyone's community.
Like what if, what if everycommunity is as supportive and
(53:08):
um, and jazzed up has all ofthese like little online
communities that we have.
Imagine that for a second.
All right.
All right.
I have a couple more littleshort questions for you.
One is what tip or tactic do youhave that bosses can start right
now to focus on local in theirown social media marketing?
Ellen (53:31):
So I would say to pick five users in your community
using your geolocation functionright now.
Um, so this is, this is mainlyan Instagram thing.
Um, these can be businesses orthese can be people, but make
sure there are people that youdon't regularly communicate
with.
Just see what they had to say.
Um, if it's something that youresonate with, like just being
(53:54):
in the same community, commenton their post and some kind of
meaningful way.
Now you've got five potentialcustomers that might not have
known your business existed andyou just created that little
interwebs connection.
Emily (54:08):
Mmm, I love that.
I will say do this, this like a,a big brand tactic as well.
Um, we have a local hotel chainthat recently reached out to a
whole bunch of local people tohave chats about stuff to see
how they could support this likecircle of support.
Guys.
It's a beautiful thing.
(54:29):
Um, I love that.
And can you tell us whereeveryone can find you around the
internet?
Ellen (54:34):
Yeah, so a super on-brand @hellosocialco, across all of
the internet andhellosocialco.com.
Emily (54:44):
Perfect.
Next question.
What makes you feel most boss?
Ellen (54:51):
I'm just sharing what I know.
Um, there's nothing I love morethan doing private strategy
sessions or getting up duringour focus on local retreats.
Um, I just, people I think thinkthat we love to manage social
media, but in my perfect world,I'm helping other business
(55:12):
owners handle social media ontheir own.
Um, we're sharing our knowledgeso that they can, they can make
an impact in their own way.
Emily (55:22):
Hmm.
You're not lying.
From what I know about you, youare definitely like a, let me
gain all kinds of knowledge,distill it down and share it
with as many people as I cankind of person.
I love that.
Love it.
Awesome.
Thank you so much for coming tohang out with me, Ellen.
I appreciate you sharing all ofthis good stuff.
Ellen (55:42):
Yeah.
Thank you so much for having me.
Outro (55:47):
Thanks for listening and Hey, if you want more resources,
we're talking worksheets, freetrainings in person meetups and
vacations, and more.
Go to our website atwww.beingboss.club.
Do the work.
Be boss.
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