January 24, 2025 • 28 mins
On this episode of the Leap To Success Podcast with Mary Gaul, we sit down with Joyce Feustel, a trailblazer in social media tutoring and LinkedIn training for Baby Boomers.
After a 17-year career in sales, Joyce took a leap of faith and transitioned into entrepreneurship, launching her business, Boomers’ Social Media Tutor, in 2013. Now, she empowers business owners, job seekers, and professionals aged 55 and up to harness the power of LinkedIn for business growth and meaningful networking.
Joyce shares her inspiring story of reinvention, the advice that fueled her leap, and the valuable lessons she’s learned along the way. From one-on-one tutoring to group training, Joyce’s services are transforming the way older professionals approach social media. She also dives into the details of her monthly workshop, Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile, where participants receive personalized feedback to elevate their online presence.
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(00:02):
Hello and welcome to today's episode of theLeap to Success podcast.
And about the podcast, it is a conduit by whichwe share women's stories of courage, bravery,
success, and diversity.
Each week, we interview women, entrepreneurs,and leaders that have taken the leap in their
lives and inspire our global listeners to bemore, have more, show up more, and live a life
(00:28):
filled with joy and happiness through believingin you.
So welcome to my guest today.
I'm so delighted to be able to spend some timetalking to my friend and client, and I'm a
client of hers, Joyce Voistel with BoomerSocial Media Tutor.
Welcome Joyce and tell our listeners a littlebit of your story and how you got to where you
(00:50):
are today and what makes you so awesome.
I've been thinking about this for a whilebecause you know you've given me these
questions a few days ago.
I'd like to really start at the beginning ofgrowing up as the oldest of four kids born
between 48 and 55 on a dairy farm in Wisconsinabout 50 miles west of Green Bay.
(01:12):
And my parents were very involved in thecommunity.
That was such a role model for me which I havebeen all my life involved in the community.
My mom was a teacher so were other people onher side of the family.
And my dad along being with a farmer in thewinter as a side hustle as we call it now would
sell seed corn to farmers.
In other words, Jake's seed corn, not so and soseed corn, you're gonna have better seed corn.
(01:36):
And my dad could talk to anybody aboutanything.
So it's a great combination to have thateducator kind of schmoozy blend that turned
into me and thought I might be a teacher.
What else do girls do who were born in 1948?
Yeah.
Went that route briefly, saw I'm not cut outfor that.
(01:58):
I'm too much of a free spirit.
I like variety.
I don't like rules.
This is not a good combo for teaching.
So I found myself sort of drifting through mytwenties, although I was involved with the
league of women voters during that time and forclose to twenty years.
And as a result of that, I was a local electedofficial.
I was on my county board at the age of 30 in1980, which was quite unusual.
(02:22):
Might to have someone of that young and age,especially a woman.
That was one of the many things I've done.
I think that was a leap for sure.
Yes.
You know, moving on, I did other kinds of, youknow, civic type of volunteering, had a brief
writing and editing side hustle when my girlswere in grade school.
(02:44):
Then we came out here to Denver for my husband,had a great job opportunity in 1995 when we
were 46.
So there I am, it's the midlife examining mynavel.
Okay, what's next?
And then on the encouragement of the directorof membership at my local chamber of commerce
here in the Denver area, the West MetroChamber, I took a job offer from her to be a
(03:05):
salesperson for the chamber, a membership rep,which really led me into seventeen years
working in sales, which is a terrificbackground I feel for anybody that has their
own business because you've already been askingpeople to make a buying decision and you
hopefully are comfortable with cold calling orwhatever you need to do.
(03:26):
People saying no, follow-up all those basicsales skill sets.
And then how I got into what I'm doing now wasanother sort of fortuitous moment.
Like the lady asking me to go into sales.
It was 2010 by then I was at my last sales jobwhen my company rolled out social media.
So listeners think about yourself and socialmedia fifteen years ago.
(03:49):
Yeah.
Were you on Facebook?
Probably.
Were you on LinkedIn?
Possibly.
Twitter?
Maybe.
I was on Facebook and LinkedIn, not Twitter.
And the company rolled out its own Twitter,Facebook, LinkedIn.
And we, I was still in sales, like I said, wewere really encouraged to chat up the social
media.
So guess what?
I at age 61, believe it or not was the bestchatter upper, I'll just give that term, of my
(04:15):
whole sales team.
And my 35 year old manager was saying ah, thatI was so good at talking about social media.
So then he asked me or actually he proposed theidea that since I was so good at getting our
clients to engage with our company's socialmedia, hey, and I ever thought, and you ought
to do this, he says, of helping people in mybaby boomer age group to understand social
(04:36):
media like I did back then, which I thought wasa bit of a leap in its own way.
Was a
leap, yeah.
But I did take them seriously.
And so after like five or six months ofnoodling, thought, well, what the heck?
What have I got to lose?
So I came up with the name Boomer Social MediaTutor and I practiced self enforced internship.
(04:57):
We'll get to that a little later in one of thequestions for two and a half years.
And then when I was 64, I retired full timeinto this business.
Nice.
I love it.
I love it.
And thank you for going all the way back,right?
Because sometimes I think we forget that wehave these skills that we've learned from our
infancy, right, our early childhood based onour parents and our family and the people that
(05:20):
we surrounded ourselves with.
And I know you very well, and so I can see thatclearly you have that thread running through
the history of your skills.
I know you're a big proponent of theStrengthsFinder, and we'll talk about that a
little bit later.
But thank you for sharing that.
(05:42):
And I've used Joyce as a, as a, been a clientof Joyce's.
I've referred lots of people to her.
I know that the experience that she gives themin working primarily with LinkedIn, right?
So she does social media, but primarily focusedon LinkedIn.
And I just love your sense of humor.
We got to see that a little bit as you'retelling your story.
But your sense of humor, your directness inlike, let's just get this done, that good
(06:06):
Midwestern, like, let's just take action andmake it happen.
Right?
That's why I love working with Joyce and manyof the people love working with Joyce because
she just really helps us to move forward andget that done.
Alright.
So, how did you, we talked about how youarrived at what you're doing today and again, I
I I appreciate that you listened to when that35 year old manager said, hey, have you ever
(06:28):
thought about doing this?
And you took that advice and, as you said, youknow, you thought about it and gave it some
some internship time.
But that's a big leap, especially when you'vebeen a w two, even if you've been commissioned
salesperson, but you've had that job wheresomebody else is kinda giving you this
structure and to you for you to go out and say,I'm going to take this new thing, relatively
(06:51):
new social media in 2010.
Right?
I'm going to take this new thing and go start abusiness, a brand new business with it.
That is a huge leap.
So can you tell us a little bit more about howyou were able to take that leap and what kind
of thought process you put into that?
I know that's not a question
(07:11):
that's No, that's such a great Thinking back tothat time, one of the early things I did was
join Colorado women in social media.
I was a charter member.
Oh, okay.
I happened to have known this woman through, Ithink Toastmasters, and she introduced me to
this lady named Melody who was starting thisgroup and I'll never forget sitting at over
(07:33):
lunch with Melody and really kind of falling inlove with her and thinking, oh, I'd love to
hang out with people like Melody.
Yeah.
So a key for me since I was so new to socialmedia, which is new in itself in the teens, the
20, is to find sisters, to find colleagues, tofind people that I respected, that I compared
(07:57):
to when I was a new mom and I would call up mysister-in-law and say, oh my god, the baby's
doing this, you know, what do I So that kind offeeling of knowing you could trust these
people.
And I took courses at Colorado for universityso that is an adult education center for people
not from the Denver Metro Area and that gave mea foothold in all the different social medias
(08:19):
and digital marketing in general So that was abig help.
And then running a business that was kind oflike just kind of flailing around.
I would say that was the weakest link was thebasics of running a business.
I kind of learned it by doing.
Should have probably gotten you as a businesscoach a lot earlier.
Happy now, so it's okay.
But I joined the Colorado Business, wait,women's, Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce.
(08:47):
So I learned a lot there from the courses, wellthey didn't have speakers I'd say.
Would go to workshops I'd attend.
So I was always hungry and being a lifelonglearner just finding any kind of opportunity I
could have.
This is again on the business end as well asthe social media.
I would read different people's blogs.
I get on like weekly mailing lists and so Ijust soaked up everything I could possibly
(09:09):
find.
I have shelves of books that I read in thatearly era.
Oh yeah, those were some of the things that Idid.
Good, good.
That's encouraging to know, you know, because Ithink sometimes there's a message out there
like, oh, just quit your corporate job andstart a business and you'll be fine.
And it's such a learning process, and it doestake a leap of faith.
(09:32):
And it's not just a leap from here and a leapto success.
There's so many small leaps in between of allof these things we have to learn and the people
we surround.
Right, and there's another related question tothis track we're on now, which is what advice
would I give to somebody who's at that cusp?
Do I quit the W-two job?
See, if you pay attention early on, when I wasthinking about being a social media tutor, it
(09:56):
was three years in total from when I got thesuggestion until I retired and I was 64.
So there is that social security, husband witha pension.
Okay.
So I got some basic income already coming in.
But what I did for that basic two and a halfyears was I would help people with their
Facebook, with their LinkedIn, and I wouldn'tcharge them.
(10:18):
That was myself enforced internship, as I mayhave said earlier.
And that build my confidence.
So you're gonna go out and hold yourself up andI say, me, I'll charge you this.
And like, you better know what you're doing.
Right.
That really helped a lot.
So another way you can get that is throughvolunteering.
Say if you're going into a new field,especially or even if it's a variation of your
(10:41):
existing knowledge base, find ways that you canbe on a board or do something so you really can
immerse yourself even more fully in this fieldthat you're pursuing to have your business in.
Right.
Yes.
I love that.
I love that.
And it is sometimes we forget.
We think it's one or the other, right?
But there are other ways to get that experiencewithout leaving the security of our W two job
(11:06):
if that's where you're at.
If you're thinking about starting a sidehustle, I loved how you said your dad's side
hustle back in the day.
We didn't call it that, but that's what it was.
All these second and third jobs that ourparents had.
But there are lots of ways to gain thatexperience.
And there's, we've got YouTube and we've gotall kinds of ways of knowledge at our
(11:29):
fingertips now, but there also is an experienceof doing it and having those, you know, I love
the self imposed internship available to growyour skills.
And the other thing I want to just build to onthat Women's Chamber of Commerce thing is that
find networking groups where you reallyresonate.
One of my go to groups for many years, which isnow sort of evolved into another group, But at
(11:53):
the time I was involved, it's calledAlternative Business Networking Group.
It didn't even cost anything, you know,chambers of commerce, you're gonna lay down
like $500 maybe.
No.
And there were people, we always had a kind ofa brainstorm session as part of every meeting.
And I got so much business out of thatparticular group because my rates are
reasonable.
(12:13):
It's a very accessible work that I do.
People from the group would use me, they wouldrefer people to me.
Also lean into any other networks you have,like my Toastmasters.
I'll be a member 28 this month.
So I know hundreds of Toastmasters just in theDenver Metro Area.
So that's another thing to think about is whereare my natural networks that I already have.
(12:34):
Yes.
And that's important to know too.
I tell coaches I'm a success coach for peoplewho've gone through a coaching program I'm
involved with.
And I tell people when they're calling and justbeing, you know, are they unsure about should
they do this program or not?
And I always am honest with them and I say, ifyou've been in the corporate world and you've
(12:54):
been given your market, your clients, it's adifferent thing to go out and network and find
your own clients.
So do you have a network or do you have thecapacity or the skill set to go and build your
own network?
There's no shortage of networking groups outthere for business owners, but finding one that
works for you and you have to have the skillset to go and be able to interact with people
(13:16):
and build those relationships and have thatgive and take.
It is important.
I know Colleen used to always talk about yournetwork is your net worth.
So building that network really does help youtake your business to the next level, but you
have to take the leap to go to the meetings.
For some people that are more introverted, theydon't like to do that.
(13:39):
Right?
So And I throw Toastmasters in for this lastpoint you made.
Maybe you're an introvert.
Maybe it's hard for you to stand up and talkfor thirty seconds and give that little
commercial about yourself.
Well, if you go to Toastmasters, one of thethings they do there is impromptu speaking.
Now there should not be impromptu speaking foryou, course, but they do help you learn how to
(14:00):
stand up in front of a group for a minute andsay something.
Yeah.
Not flinch.
That's so helpful.
There's a lot of love in Toastmasters.
There's a lot of straight shooters.
There's just so much feedback that you getabout yourself.
Yeah, great.
I love that you've been such a part of thatorganization for so long, and I know you've
(14:21):
given back in many different ways
to the But
it's given you so much in return, right?
Right, right, right.
That's great.
So have you experienced you're human beings, sothe answer is yes.
But experienced self doubt, fear, andresistance since you kind of stepped forward
into your business?
(14:42):
Oh, certainly.
It'll be twelve years, you know, in March, as Imay have said.
Yeah.
But I've done this full time.
And I'll I'll tell you a couple times.
I just felt like, oh, why don't people email meback?
Should I call them?
Or they sound like they're so promising.
And I think for a good five months of 2024,that's how it felt.
(15:03):
I felt so stuck.
I kept trying different things.
And I had a family member with some sort ofhealth issues too, so that didn't help.
And finally I eked out a profit.
I, as I spent some time on December 30.
Yeah.
And I figured I I'm bad about mileage andpaperwork and things.
(15:24):
I finally figured out my mileage and sureenough I had a slim but I had a profit 2024
that was a triumph.
But another time that comes to me is 2023 whenI made a mistake and somebody said that I owed
them money, this company, and I got on thecomputer, the kind where they can go and
(15:48):
manipulate your computer.
Told me I owed all this money and I should goand get this card and send Anyway, so I didn't
give them money but they wiped out my entirehard drive.
My entire hard drive.
So I was pretty much I could do a few thingswith my laptop, I lost about two weeks of work,
paid lots of money and it really hurt my selfesteem.
(16:12):
You know, I'm 76 years old.
So this would be when I was 75 years old or 74maybe then.
And I'm like, I am an older person.
I am a savvy person.
I can see so much now how you can get suckeredin.
Call this number if you think you didn't makethat payment.
So that was a real blow.
It just was and other things have happened butthat was the hardest I think of just my self
(16:37):
esteem.
Yeah and how did you, how do you keep going?
Like what motivates you to say like instead ofhaving that happen?
And some people would be like, okay, I'm 74.
This just happened.
I'm devastated.
I'm just gonna close-up shop and be done.
So what motivates
you do I love what I do.
I'm so happy.
Yeah.
So I mean, I think I just, that's an overridingconcept and Toastmasters always helps.
(17:03):
I'm in a spiritual support group where I cantalk openly about mistakes I've made and just
sort of bend, you know?
I don't talk to my husband.
He's not that interested in my business.
So he's not much help.
Yeah.
But you know, I, I have an accountabilitypartner.
I met her this spring.
I started my business.
That's twelve years.
(17:23):
Can you imagine?
Nice.
I have an accountability partner.
We talk on the phone every couple, three weeks.
She's around the age of my my kids.
She's like mid forties, I think.
And all of those helped.
All of those helped.
And also, I mean, we may talk, mean, that's agood time maybe to bring up real quick my
strengths for, you know, StrengthsFinder, AKACliftonStrengths now.
(17:45):
Right.
So my first, well, they've changed a bit, butright now my number one strength is activator.
So I activated myself.
That's kind of one way to answer.
Okay.
And then my next ones are positivity,communication, winning others over, and finally
connectedness.
Connectedness I consider to be very spiritualas well as kind of schmoozy, so to speak in a
(18:08):
way.
So all of those but especially the positivityand the activator I think they kicked in and
helped me just okay let's get pick yourself upkeep going.
Yeah which is so great because it is easy forus to have those setbacks in our business or
our lives.
Life does happen to all of us.
And so how do we keep moving forward candetermine our level of success.
(18:33):
And just that resistance that we have tosaying, I'm not gonna give up.
I am gonna and and you alluded to this at thebeginning of that last section.
You love what you do.
Right?
And I believe most of the entrepreneurs thatthat we get to work with really do love what
they do.
They're passionate about helping their clientsand serving their clients in whatever way.
(18:54):
I just did a podcast earlier with a 24 year oldbusiness owner who's a tax coach and an
enrolled agent at 24 because she loves numbers.
She loves solving that problem and working withthe government to find a solution.
So when you find what you love to do, whetheryou're 24 or you're 76, That keeps driving us
(19:16):
forward and helping sustain our our, our energyand our passion for what we do on those days
when we don't feel as, you know, as drawn.
Oh, and you know what, Mary?
It occurs to me that you were my business coachby then.
I think we started working together, I believein May of twenty three.
Yes.
So that was, you may recall this period.
(19:38):
Yes.
And I remember I was going to see you thatmonth and I said to you, I I'm not ready.
Yeah.
I can't even talk.
I feel everything is, I don't wanna use anyswear words here, but things were not going
well.
Right?
So then we rescheduled and then you were, Imean, I can't remember the particulars, but
knowing I could talk to you openly, that was ahuge help too.
Yeah.
Yes.
I love that.
So that's one of the reasons why I do what Ido, right, is I get to have these conversations
(20:03):
with women What's really happening behind thescenes in their business, right?
So tell us a little bit.
I want to make sure that we let our listenersknow exactly what you do and how you can help
them with their social media, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Let's see what that's like.
So the way I help people, well, let's useLinkedIn primarily because that's like 90% of
(20:26):
my business comes from there, maybe more.
So I do a couple of different things.
One of them is the one to one tutoring.
That's the bulk of my income stream.
What does that mean?
Let's say you and I were tutoring right now.
So you would pull up your LinkedIn, we'd spendan hour together as you were saying earlier,
making changes in real time and affirming theparts of it that look fabulous.
(20:49):
Again, it's just my opinion is other peoplecould offer you other ideas.
So we get those changes made.
There might be a little bit of homework hereand there.
Then the second hour, we would talk aboutconnections.
Should you accept that person or not?
What's your criteria?
We should all have criteria in terms of who weconnect with on LinkedIn.
And that whole process, whether they'rereaching out to us or how we're reaching out to
(21:12):
them and then how to use filters.
I showed a health coach lady just today, becomemy coach, how you can use these filters to
winnow down from thousands of people tohundreds of people to maybe less and to get
search results.
Also LinkedIn can be so pesky, it's soannoying.
You have all these notifications you're gettingby email up in the little bell icon, like
(21:35):
really LinkedIn?
So I help people just to kind of just shavemost of those off, whatever words you want to
use.
You just like ratchet that down.
So your LinkedIn experience is more rewarding.
And also things like generative AI, You bettergo in and change that setting that has a
(21:56):
default.
It is, so change it.
So LinkedIn can start grabbing your content andyou don't even know it.
And for training of the AI people, AI is fine,right?
But not my stuff, which leads nicely intocontent creation.
So then we'll talk about posts, articles, theidea of maybe having a LinkedIn newsletter.
I finally got around to doing that.
(22:17):
So the other thing I do besides the one to onework is, and I do a two session package for
that, is my LinkedIn profile.
Enhance your LinkedIn profile workshops.
They are every month for an hour and a half.
It's a whole lot of fun.
You say, really, LinkedIn is boring.
How could it be fun?
Well, we have up to four people and everybodygives me three sections of their LinkedIn.
(22:41):
They want to have a deep dive done.
So I'm giving them feedback on like a littleaudit and I have it all typed up and ready to
send them so I go over it during the workshopbut after each time I give a little review then
I have the other three people can chime in andgive their 2¢.
So we just systematically go through thesesections and magically in an hour and a half we
(23:03):
get through them.
Never once from June to December have we runover.
So it's always cool when you estimate how thatworks out and the people have met, new people
and maybe they go in with their best buddybecause they think the best buddy wouldn't go,
they didn't drag him with him and it's on Zoomand heck yeah, it's just, I mean you were the
(23:23):
one that helped me mastermind this and it's oneof the best things I've done.
It's so much fun, like I said, and people getsomething out of it and sometimes then that can
lead to an appointment of a new person or it'sa good follow-up to a client I've already had.
So it serves a lot of different purposes.
Nice.
I love it.
I love it.
And as I mentioned before, working with Joyceand gifted her services to my husband when he
(23:44):
was needing to update his profile.
And I know you've worked with college kids,high school kids that need to establish their
first LinkedIn profile and what to put on itfor college applications, all these kind of
things for jobs.
So Joyce is just such a pleasure to work withand she knows her stuff and she's in LinkedIn
all the time.
(24:04):
So why not hire an expert to help you just getit done?
Right.
And I
like to point out is that even though my name,my business name is Boomers as in baby boomer
like me, Boomers Social Media Tutor, and thatis my primary clientele.
I'll say people roughly maybe even late gen it,the older Gen Xers, but you know 55, 60 and up.
(24:25):
Just like you said, I have people of all ages.
So we all need to have our own niche, right?
But I especially like millennials, gosh, I'm inToastmasters with a club full of millennials
and there's so much fun.
Nice.
But I love it.
And I love that you have these simple packages,right?
So a two session package, you're going to getyour profile up to date, and then you're also
(24:45):
going to get great tips on how to use LinkedInto grow your business, to put yourself out
there.
And then the small group is so much fun too.
So if you've been knowing that you need toupdate your LinkedIn profile, but you just
every time you go in there, you're like, Idon't know where to put don't know how to write
it.
I don't know what to say.
I don't know which section to put it in.
(25:07):
Get to one of Joyce's classes or just reach outand call her for a session and you won't regret
it because you'll be able to get it done in thefly rather than learning about it and then
still having to go and do it later.
You just get it done.
I once had a guy say, you know, you could justgo on YouTube and figure that out.
I just don't know guys do that.
Guys will spend the whole afternoon on YouTubeand kind of get it.
(25:28):
You know what women do?
They ask for directions.
They are open to feedback.
They can say, how do I look in this dress?
What do you Anyway, that little didn't go onour podcast.
Yes.
Ask for directions.
But I thought that was so dismissive when hesaid that.
Like, oh, I could just figure it out.
Yes.
But asking for directions, asking for experthelp, and it just helps us get things done more
(25:53):
efficiently, more effectively, and with betterresults in the long run.
So that ends our time today with Joyce, but Iwant to make sure that everyone knows how to
contact you, Joyce.
So what's the best way?
We will put all your contact information in theshow notes on all of the streaming platforms,
but, just so if our people are listening anddriving along listening or something, what's
(26:17):
the best way for them to contact you?
I think the simplest way is to go to mywebsite, especially since you connected me with
a website designer and it
looks
so much the URL isboomers,b0mers,mediatutor,tut0r,likeateacher,likeatutor.com.
(26:39):
So boomers social media tutor tells you aboutall the services, my whole backstory, there's
great links, contact us section.
Yep, that's where they should go.
Okay, Great.
And like I said, we will put all of that in theshow notes.
And you have your workshops once a month, andthey're always on a second Friday or something?
(27:02):
Yes, so the next one coming up will be February14, Valentine's Day.
Give yourself a Valentine's gift.
Oh, that's my
link together for that.
Get your LinkedIn profile up to date.
Yes.
And then we also have a long standing meetupcalled Social Media.
(27:22):
Yes.
What's that called?
Simplify Your Social Media.
Thanks for bringing that up.
You're welcome.
We have a great speaker.
Guess when this is released, it'll be a speakerin February.
That's going to be Lori Osborne talking abouttips on websites.
So it's always on the second Tuesday, and thisis mountain time I'm quoting, 01:30 to 02:30.
(27:43):
And we have a speaker of about twenty minuteswith a five minute Q and A.
You can network around the Zoom room.
There's usually anywhere from 15 to 20 peoplethere.
And it's just a wonderful way to buildcommunity and learn and it's free.
So it's really social media and adjacenttopics.
Yes, but seven years now, believe that's the,isn't that something?
(28:04):
Wonderful.
If something lasts that long.
If you're looking for other ways to just findother entrepreneurs, that's a great way.
Meetup is a great way, great foundation anyway,but look particularly for Simplify Your Social
Media with Joyce Voissel on Meetup and get toone of those.
She has a great lineup of speakers.
(28:26):
So okay, with that being said, there's lots ofways find Joyce online, but I highly, highly
encourage you to work with her.
Just check that off your list, get yourLinkedIn profile up to date, and learn how to
use that platform so that you can use it to tomake that leap for success for your own
business this year.
Alright, Joyce, thank you so much for being ourguest today and I can't wait for people to get
(28:50):
to get to work with you.
Thank you.
Hello and welcome to today's episode of theLeap to Success podcast.
And about the podcast, it is a conduit by whichwe share women's stories of courage, bravery,
success, and diversity.
Each week, we interview women, entrepreneurs,and leaders that have taken the leap in their
lives and inspire our global listeners to bemore, have more, show up more, and live a life
(00:28):
filled with joy and happiness through believingin you.
So welcome to my guest today.
I'm so delighted to be able to spend some timetalking to my friend and client, and I'm a
client of hers, Joyce Voistel with BoomerSocial Media Tutor.
Welcome Joyce and tell our listeners a littlebit of your story and how you got to where you
(00:50):
are today and what makes you so awesome.
I've been thinking about this for a whilebecause you know you've given me these
questions a few days ago.
I'd like to really start at the beginning ofgrowing up as the oldest of four kids born
between 48 and 55 on a dairy farm in Wisconsinabout 50 miles west of Green Bay.
(01:12):
And my parents were very involved in thecommunity.
That was such a role model for me which I havebeen all my life involved in the community.
My mom was a teacher so were other people onher side of the family.
And my dad along being with a farmer in thewinter as a side hustle as we call it now would
sell seed corn to farmers.
In other words, Jake's seed corn, not so and soseed corn, you're gonna have better seed corn.
(01:36):
And my dad could talk to anybody aboutanything.
So it's a great combination to have thateducator kind of schmoozy blend that turned
into me and thought I might be a teacher.
What else do girls do who were born in 1948?
Yeah.
Went that route briefly, saw I'm not cut outfor that.
(01:58):
I'm too much of a free spirit.
I like variety.
I don't like rules.
This is not a good combo for teaching.
So I found myself sort of drifting through mytwenties, although I was involved with the
league of women voters during that time and forclose to twenty years.
And as a result of that, I was a local electedofficial.
I was on my county board at the age of 30 in1980, which was quite unusual.
(02:22):
Might to have someone of that young and age,especially a woman.
That was one of the many things I've done.
I think that was a leap for sure.
Yes.
You know, moving on, I did other kinds of, youknow, civic type of volunteering, had a brief
writing and editing side hustle when my girlswere in grade school.
(02:44):
Then we came out here to Denver for my husband,had a great job opportunity in 1995 when we
were 46.
So there I am, it's the midlife examining mynavel.
Okay, what's next?
And then on the encouragement of the directorof membership at my local chamber of commerce
here in the Denver area, the West MetroChamber, I took a job offer from her to be a
(03:05):
salesperson for the chamber, a membership rep,which really led me into seventeen years
working in sales, which is a terrificbackground I feel for anybody that has their
own business because you've already been askingpeople to make a buying decision and you
hopefully are comfortable with cold calling orwhatever you need to do.
(03:26):
People saying no, follow-up all those basicsales skill sets.
And then how I got into what I'm doing now wasanother sort of fortuitous moment.
Like the lady asking me to go into sales.
It was 2010 by then I was at my last sales jobwhen my company rolled out social media.
So listeners think about yourself and socialmedia fifteen years ago.
(03:49):
Yeah.
Were you on Facebook?
Probably.
Were you on LinkedIn?
Possibly.
Twitter?
Maybe.
I was on Facebook and LinkedIn, not Twitter.
And the company rolled out its own Twitter,Facebook, LinkedIn.
And we, I was still in sales, like I said, wewere really encouraged to chat up the social
media.
So guess what?
I at age 61, believe it or not was the bestchatter upper, I'll just give that term, of my
(04:15):
whole sales team.
And my 35 year old manager was saying ah, thatI was so good at talking about social media.
So then he asked me or actually he proposed theidea that since I was so good at getting our
clients to engage with our company's socialmedia, hey, and I ever thought, and you ought
to do this, he says, of helping people in mybaby boomer age group to understand social
(04:36):
media like I did back then, which I thought wasa bit of a leap in its own way.
Was a
leap, yeah.
But I did take them seriously.
And so after like five or six months ofnoodling, thought, well, what the heck?
What have I got to lose?
So I came up with the name Boomer Social MediaTutor and I practiced self enforced internship.
(04:57):
We'll get to that a little later in one of thequestions for two and a half years.
And then when I was 64, I retired full timeinto this business.
Nice.
I love it.
I love it.
And thank you for going all the way back,right?
Because sometimes I think we forget that wehave these skills that we've learned from our
infancy, right, our early childhood based onour parents and our family and the people that
(05:20):
we surrounded ourselves with.
And I know you very well, and so I can see thatclearly you have that thread running through
the history of your skills.
I know you're a big proponent of theStrengthsFinder, and we'll talk about that a
little bit later.
But thank you for sharing that.
(05:42):
And I've used Joyce as a, as a, been a clientof Joyce's.
I've referred lots of people to her.
I know that the experience that she gives themin working primarily with LinkedIn, right?
So she does social media, but primarily focusedon LinkedIn.
And I just love your sense of humor.
We got to see that a little bit as you'retelling your story.
But your sense of humor, your directness inlike, let's just get this done, that good
(06:06):
Midwestern, like, let's just take action andmake it happen.
Right?
That's why I love working with Joyce and manyof the people love working with Joyce because
she just really helps us to move forward andget that done.
Alright.
So, how did you, we talked about how youarrived at what you're doing today and again, I
I I appreciate that you listened to when that35 year old manager said, hey, have you ever
(06:28):
thought about doing this?
And you took that advice and, as you said, youknow, you thought about it and gave it some
some internship time.
But that's a big leap, especially when you'vebeen a w two, even if you've been commissioned
salesperson, but you've had that job wheresomebody else is kinda giving you this
structure and to you for you to go out and say,I'm going to take this new thing, relatively
(06:51):
new social media in 2010.
Right?
I'm going to take this new thing and go start abusiness, a brand new business with it.
That is a huge leap.
So can you tell us a little bit more about howyou were able to take that leap and what kind
of thought process you put into that?
I know that's not a question
(07:11):
that's No, that's such a great Thinking back tothat time, one of the early things I did was
join Colorado women in social media.
I was a charter member.
Oh, okay.
I happened to have known this woman through, Ithink Toastmasters, and she introduced me to
this lady named Melody who was starting thisgroup and I'll never forget sitting at over
(07:33):
lunch with Melody and really kind of falling inlove with her and thinking, oh, I'd love to
hang out with people like Melody.
Yeah.
So a key for me since I was so new to socialmedia, which is new in itself in the teens, the
20, is to find sisters, to find colleagues, tofind people that I respected, that I compared
(07:57):
to when I was a new mom and I would call up mysister-in-law and say, oh my god, the baby's
doing this, you know, what do I So that kind offeeling of knowing you could trust these
people.
And I took courses at Colorado for universityso that is an adult education center for people
not from the Denver Metro Area and that gave mea foothold in all the different social medias
(08:19):
and digital marketing in general So that was abig help.
And then running a business that was kind oflike just kind of flailing around.
I would say that was the weakest link was thebasics of running a business.
I kind of learned it by doing.
Should have probably gotten you as a businesscoach a lot earlier.
Happy now, so it's okay.
But I joined the Colorado Business, wait,women's, Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce.
(08:47):
So I learned a lot there from the courses, wellthey didn't have speakers I'd say.
Would go to workshops I'd attend.
So I was always hungry and being a lifelonglearner just finding any kind of opportunity I
could have.
This is again on the business end as well asthe social media.
I would read different people's blogs.
I get on like weekly mailing lists and so Ijust soaked up everything I could possibly
(09:09):
find.
I have shelves of books that I read in thatearly era.
Oh yeah, those were some of the things that Idid.
Good, good.
That's encouraging to know, you know, because Ithink sometimes there's a message out there
like, oh, just quit your corporate job andstart a business and you'll be fine.
And it's such a learning process, and it doestake a leap of faith.
(09:32):
And it's not just a leap from here and a leapto success.
There's so many small leaps in between of allof these things we have to learn and the people
we surround.
Right, and there's another related question tothis track we're on now, which is what advice
would I give to somebody who's at that cusp?
Do I quit the W-two job?
See, if you pay attention early on, when I wasthinking about being a social media tutor, it
(09:56):
was three years in total from when I got thesuggestion until I retired and I was 64.
So there is that social security, husband witha pension.
Okay.
So I got some basic income already coming in.
But what I did for that basic two and a halfyears was I would help people with their
Facebook, with their LinkedIn, and I wouldn'tcharge them.
(10:18):
That was myself enforced internship, as I mayhave said earlier.
And that build my confidence.
So you're gonna go out and hold yourself up andI say, me, I'll charge you this.
And like, you better know what you're doing.
Right.
That really helped a lot.
So another way you can get that is throughvolunteering.
Say if you're going into a new field,especially or even if it's a variation of your
(10:41):
existing knowledge base, find ways that you canbe on a board or do something so you really can
immerse yourself even more fully in this fieldthat you're pursuing to have your business in.
Right.
Yes.
I love that.
I love that.
And it is sometimes we forget.
We think it's one or the other, right?
But there are other ways to get that experiencewithout leaving the security of our W two job
(11:06):
if that's where you're at.
If you're thinking about starting a sidehustle, I loved how you said your dad's side
hustle back in the day.
We didn't call it that, but that's what it was.
All these second and third jobs that ourparents had.
But there are lots of ways to gain thatexperience.
And there's, we've got YouTube and we've gotall kinds of ways of knowledge at our
(11:29):
fingertips now, but there also is an experienceof doing it and having those, you know, I love
the self imposed internship available to growyour skills.
And the other thing I want to just build to onthat Women's Chamber of Commerce thing is that
find networking groups where you reallyresonate.
One of my go to groups for many years, which isnow sort of evolved into another group, But at
(11:53):
the time I was involved, it's calledAlternative Business Networking Group.
It didn't even cost anything, you know,chambers of commerce, you're gonna lay down
like $500 maybe.
No.
And there were people, we always had a kind ofa brainstorm session as part of every meeting.
And I got so much business out of thatparticular group because my rates are
reasonable.
(12:13):
It's a very accessible work that I do.
People from the group would use me, they wouldrefer people to me.
Also lean into any other networks you have,like my Toastmasters.
I'll be a member 28 this month.
So I know hundreds of Toastmasters just in theDenver Metro Area.
So that's another thing to think about is whereare my natural networks that I already have.
(12:34):
Yes.
And that's important to know too.
I tell coaches I'm a success coach for peoplewho've gone through a coaching program I'm
involved with.
And I tell people when they're calling and justbeing, you know, are they unsure about should
they do this program or not?
And I always am honest with them and I say, ifyou've been in the corporate world and you've
(12:54):
been given your market, your clients, it's adifferent thing to go out and network and find
your own clients.
So do you have a network or do you have thecapacity or the skill set to go and build your
own network?
There's no shortage of networking groups outthere for business owners, but finding one that
works for you and you have to have the skillset to go and be able to interact with people
(13:16):
and build those relationships and have thatgive and take.
It is important.
I know Colleen used to always talk about yournetwork is your net worth.
So building that network really does help youtake your business to the next level, but you
have to take the leap to go to the meetings.
For some people that are more introverted, theydon't like to do that.
(13:39):
Right?
So And I throw Toastmasters in for this lastpoint you made.
Maybe you're an introvert.
Maybe it's hard for you to stand up and talkfor thirty seconds and give that little
commercial about yourself.
Well, if you go to Toastmasters, one of thethings they do there is impromptu speaking.
Now there should not be impromptu speaking foryou, course, but they do help you learn how to
(14:00):
stand up in front of a group for a minute andsay something.
Yeah.
Not flinch.
That's so helpful.
There's a lot of love in Toastmasters.
There's a lot of straight shooters.
There's just so much feedback that you getabout yourself.
Yeah, great.
I love that you've been such a part of thatorganization for so long, and I know you've
(14:21):
given back in many different ways
to the But
it's given you so much in return, right?
Right, right, right.
That's great.
So have you experienced you're human beings, sothe answer is yes.
But experienced self doubt, fear, andresistance since you kind of stepped forward
into your business?
(14:42):
Oh, certainly.
It'll be twelve years, you know, in March, as Imay have said.
Yeah.
But I've done this full time.
And I'll I'll tell you a couple times.
I just felt like, oh, why don't people email meback?
Should I call them?
Or they sound like they're so promising.
And I think for a good five months of 2024,that's how it felt.
(15:03):
I felt so stuck.
I kept trying different things.
And I had a family member with some sort ofhealth issues too, so that didn't help.
And finally I eked out a profit.
I, as I spent some time on December 30.
Yeah.
And I figured I I'm bad about mileage andpaperwork and things.
(15:24):
I finally figured out my mileage and sureenough I had a slim but I had a profit 2024
that was a triumph.
But another time that comes to me is 2023 whenI made a mistake and somebody said that I owed
them money, this company, and I got on thecomputer, the kind where they can go and
(15:48):
manipulate your computer.
Told me I owed all this money and I should goand get this card and send Anyway, so I didn't
give them money but they wiped out my entirehard drive.
My entire hard drive.
So I was pretty much I could do a few thingswith my laptop, I lost about two weeks of work,
paid lots of money and it really hurt my selfesteem.
(16:12):
You know, I'm 76 years old.
So this would be when I was 75 years old or 74maybe then.
And I'm like, I am an older person.
I am a savvy person.
I can see so much now how you can get suckeredin.
Call this number if you think you didn't makethat payment.
So that was a real blow.
It just was and other things have happened butthat was the hardest I think of just my self
(16:37):
esteem.
Yeah and how did you, how do you keep going?
Like what motivates you to say like instead ofhaving that happen?
And some people would be like, okay, I'm 74.
This just happened.
I'm devastated.
I'm just gonna close-up shop and be done.
So what motivates
you do I love what I do.
I'm so happy.
Yeah.
So I mean, I think I just, that's an overridingconcept and Toastmasters always helps.
(17:03):
I'm in a spiritual support group where I cantalk openly about mistakes I've made and just
sort of bend, you know?
I don't talk to my husband.
He's not that interested in my business.
So he's not much help.
Yeah.
But you know, I, I have an accountabilitypartner.
I met her this spring.
I started my business.
That's twelve years.
(17:23):
Can you imagine?
Nice.
I have an accountability partner.
We talk on the phone every couple, three weeks.
She's around the age of my my kids.
She's like mid forties, I think.
And all of those helped.
All of those helped.
And also, I mean, we may talk, mean, that's agood time maybe to bring up real quick my
strengths for, you know, StrengthsFinder, AKACliftonStrengths now.
(17:45):
Right.
So my first, well, they've changed a bit, butright now my number one strength is activator.
So I activated myself.
That's kind of one way to answer.
Okay.
And then my next ones are positivity,communication, winning others over, and finally
connectedness.
Connectedness I consider to be very spiritualas well as kind of schmoozy, so to speak in a
(18:08):
way.
So all of those but especially the positivityand the activator I think they kicked in and
helped me just okay let's get pick yourself upkeep going.
Yeah which is so great because it is easy forus to have those setbacks in our business or
our lives.
Life does happen to all of us.
And so how do we keep moving forward candetermine our level of success.
(18:33):
And just that resistance that we have tosaying, I'm not gonna give up.
I am gonna and and you alluded to this at thebeginning of that last section.
You love what you do.
Right?
And I believe most of the entrepreneurs thatthat we get to work with really do love what
they do.
They're passionate about helping their clientsand serving their clients in whatever way.
(18:54):
I just did a podcast earlier with a 24 year oldbusiness owner who's a tax coach and an
enrolled agent at 24 because she loves numbers.
She loves solving that problem and working withthe government to find a solution.
So when you find what you love to do, whetheryou're 24 or you're 76, That keeps driving us
(19:16):
forward and helping sustain our our, our energyand our passion for what we do on those days
when we don't feel as, you know, as drawn.
Oh, and you know what, Mary?
It occurs to me that you were my business coachby then.
I think we started working together, I believein May of twenty three.
Yes.
So that was, you may recall this period.
(19:38):
Yes.
And I remember I was going to see you thatmonth and I said to you, I I'm not ready.
Yeah.
I can't even talk.
I feel everything is, I don't wanna use anyswear words here, but things were not going
well.
Right?
So then we rescheduled and then you were, Imean, I can't remember the particulars, but
knowing I could talk to you openly, that was ahuge help too.
Yeah.
Yes.
I love that.
So that's one of the reasons why I do what Ido, right, is I get to have these conversations
(20:03):
with women What's really happening behind thescenes in their business, right?
So tell us a little bit.
I want to make sure that we let our listenersknow exactly what you do and how you can help
them with their social media, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Let's see what that's like.
So the way I help people, well, let's useLinkedIn primarily because that's like 90% of
(20:26):
my business comes from there, maybe more.
So I do a couple of different things.
One of them is the one to one tutoring.
That's the bulk of my income stream.
What does that mean?
Let's say you and I were tutoring right now.
So you would pull up your LinkedIn, we'd spendan hour together as you were saying earlier,
making changes in real time and affirming theparts of it that look fabulous.
(20:49):
Again, it's just my opinion is other peoplecould offer you other ideas.
So we get those changes made.
There might be a little bit of homework hereand there.
Then the second hour, we would talk aboutconnections.
Should you accept that person or not?
What's your criteria?
We should all have criteria in terms of who weconnect with on LinkedIn.
And that whole process, whether they'rereaching out to us or how we're reaching out to
(21:12):
them and then how to use filters.
I showed a health coach lady just today, becomemy coach, how you can use these filters to
winnow down from thousands of people tohundreds of people to maybe less and to get
search results.
Also LinkedIn can be so pesky, it's soannoying.
You have all these notifications you're gettingby email up in the little bell icon, like
(21:35):
really LinkedIn?
So I help people just to kind of just shavemost of those off, whatever words you want to
use.
You just like ratchet that down.
So your LinkedIn experience is more rewarding.
And also things like generative AI, You bettergo in and change that setting that has a
(21:56):
default.
It is, so change it.
So LinkedIn can start grabbing your content andyou don't even know it.
And for training of the AI people, AI is fine,right?
But not my stuff, which leads nicely intocontent creation.
So then we'll talk about posts, articles, theidea of maybe having a LinkedIn newsletter.
I finally got around to doing that.
(22:17):
So the other thing I do besides the one to onework is, and I do a two session package for
that, is my LinkedIn profile.
Enhance your LinkedIn profile workshops.
They are every month for an hour and a half.
It's a whole lot of fun.
You say, really, LinkedIn is boring.
How could it be fun?
Well, we have up to four people and everybodygives me three sections of their LinkedIn.
(22:41):
They want to have a deep dive done.
So I'm giving them feedback on like a littleaudit and I have it all typed up and ready to
send them so I go over it during the workshopbut after each time I give a little review then
I have the other three people can chime in andgive their 2¢.
So we just systematically go through thesesections and magically in an hour and a half we
(23:03):
get through them.
Never once from June to December have we runover.
So it's always cool when you estimate how thatworks out and the people have met, new people
and maybe they go in with their best buddybecause they think the best buddy wouldn't go,
they didn't drag him with him and it's on Zoomand heck yeah, it's just, I mean you were the
(23:23):
one that helped me mastermind this and it's oneof the best things I've done.
It's so much fun, like I said, and people getsomething out of it and sometimes then that can
lead to an appointment of a new person or it'sa good follow-up to a client I've already had.
So it serves a lot of different purposes.
Nice.
I love it.
I love it.
And as I mentioned before, working with Joyceand gifted her services to my husband when he
(23:44):
was needing to update his profile.
And I know you've worked with college kids,high school kids that need to establish their
first LinkedIn profile and what to put on itfor college applications, all these kind of
things for jobs.
So Joyce is just such a pleasure to work withand she knows her stuff and she's in LinkedIn
all the time.
(24:04):
So why not hire an expert to help you just getit done?
Right.
And I
like to point out is that even though my name,my business name is Boomers as in baby boomer
like me, Boomers Social Media Tutor, and thatis my primary clientele.
I'll say people roughly maybe even late gen it,the older Gen Xers, but you know 55, 60 and up.
(24:25):
Just like you said, I have people of all ages.
So we all need to have our own niche, right?
But I especially like millennials, gosh, I'm inToastmasters with a club full of millennials
and there's so much fun.
Nice.
But I love it.
And I love that you have these simple packages,right?
So a two session package, you're going to getyour profile up to date, and then you're also
(24:45):
going to get great tips on how to use LinkedInto grow your business, to put yourself out
there.
And then the small group is so much fun too.
So if you've been knowing that you need toupdate your LinkedIn profile, but you just
every time you go in there, you're like, Idon't know where to put don't know how to write
it.
I don't know what to say.
I don't know which section to put it in.
(25:07):
Get to one of Joyce's classes or just reach outand call her for a session and you won't regret
it because you'll be able to get it done in thefly rather than learning about it and then
still having to go and do it later.
You just get it done.
I once had a guy say, you know, you could justgo on YouTube and figure that out.
I just don't know guys do that.
Guys will spend the whole afternoon on YouTubeand kind of get it.
(25:28):
You know what women do?
They ask for directions.
They are open to feedback.
They can say, how do I look in this dress?
What do you Anyway, that little didn't go onour podcast.
Yes.
Ask for directions.
But I thought that was so dismissive when hesaid that.
Like, oh, I could just figure it out.
Yes.
But asking for directions, asking for experthelp, and it just helps us get things done more
(25:53):
efficiently, more effectively, and with betterresults in the long run.
So that ends our time today with Joyce, but Iwant to make sure that everyone knows how to
contact you, Joyce.
So what's the best way?
We will put all your contact information in theshow notes on all of the streaming platforms,
but, just so if our people are listening anddriving along listening or something, what's
(26:17):
the best way for them to contact you?
I think the simplest way is to go to mywebsite, especially since you connected me with
a website designer and it
looks
so much the URL isboomers,b0mers,mediatutor,tut0r,likeateacher,likeatutor.com.
(26:39):
So boomers social media tutor tells you aboutall the services, my whole backstory, there's
great links, contact us section.
Yep, that's where they should go.
Okay, Great.
And like I said, we will put all of that in theshow notes.
And you have your workshops once a month, andthey're always on a second Friday or something?
(27:02):
Yes, so the next one coming up will be February14, Valentine's Day.
Give yourself a Valentine's gift.
Oh, that's my
link together for that.
Get your LinkedIn profile up to date.
Yes.
And then we also have a long standing meetupcalled Social Media.
(27:22):
Yes.
What's that called?
Simplify Your Social Media.
Thanks for bringing that up.
You're welcome.
We have a great speaker.
Guess when this is released, it'll be a speakerin February.
That's going to be Lori Osborne talking abouttips on websites.
So it's always on the second Tuesday, and thisis mountain time I'm quoting, 01:30 to 02:30.
(27:43):
And we have a speaker of about twenty minuteswith a five minute Q and A.
You can network around the Zoom room.
There's usually anywhere from 15 to 20 peoplethere.
And it's just a wonderful way to buildcommunity and learn and it's free.
So it's really social media and adjacenttopics.
Yes, but seven years now, believe that's the,isn't that something?
(28:04):
Wonderful.
If something lasts that long.
If you're looking for other ways to just findother entrepreneurs, that's a great way.
Meetup is a great way, great foundation anyway,but look particularly for Simplify Your Social
Media with Joyce Voissel on Meetup and get toone of those.
She has a great lineup of speakers.
(28:26):
So okay, with that being said, there's lots ofways find Joyce online, but I highly, highly
encourage you to work with her.
Just check that off your list, get yourLinkedIn profile up to date, and learn how to
use that platform so that you can use it to tomake that leap for success for your own
business this year.
Alright, Joyce, thank you so much for being ourguest today and I can't wait for people to get
(28:50):
to get to work with you.
Thank you.
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