Final Amanda Russell on Conversations with Erica
Erica Mattison: Welcome to Conversations with Erica. I'm your host executive coach, Erica Mattison.
On this episode, I'm joined by Amanda Russell, founder of Amanda Gets Social. We talk about launching and growing a small business from social media marketing and goal setting to putting yourself out there while working through fear. We also explore reflection, adaptability, using tools like AI with intention, and prioritizing rejuvenating activities that support a thriving life.
Amanda, welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about what you work on and who you work with.
Amanda Russell: I am the owner of Amanda Gets Social, which offers social media strategy and management for CPG brands, product-based brands, as well as busy business owners.
Erica Mattison: What do things look like for you right now?
Amanda Russell: I do management for clients, and that includes creating the social media strategy, content creation. So sometimes my day will look like photo shoots or copywriting analytics, things like that. But I am only one person, so I have a list of clientsI support management wise.I'm looking into ways that I can support business owners in other ways, whether that's through strategy consulting or even maybe courses or downloadable guides. I've really been trying to take time to see what would be impactful for business owners.
Erica Mattison: What is it that you feel like you're really trying to achieve?
Amanda Russell: For my business, I'm trying to achieve a balance of making sure that I'm still getting to be creative when I manage social media and I'm [00:02:00] in it, I love being in that world
Even with platforms changing every day, I don't know what that looks like however many years from now for my career, which is exciting to me. But I also think that I. Want a balance personally and professionally working with clients and then I'm supporting them in other ways
Do other things not be on my screen all the time. I struggle with my screen time. for my clients, I hope they feel the same I hope they don't need to always be immersed in social media and marketing, and have systems and content that just works for them and not have that pressure on them all the time.
Erica Mattison: It's interesting to hear a digital marketing expert talk about the importance of not always being in front of a screen. for you and your clients, you want time away from those screens.
Amanda Russell: Yes, absolutely, because I think you really get sucked [00:03:00] into getting caught up what other people are doing, which can be great.
But you don't realize how much time can be wasted and how much reflection you can have outside, not on your screen to apply to your business or just the feeling of, okay, I have my social strategy, my marketing strategy in place.
I'm doing all the things I need to do, and now I can step away for a second and show up more authentically when I am on my phone.
Erica Mattison: What kinds of things do you enjoy doing when you're not looking at a screen?
Amanda Russell: I love being outside. I moved to New Hampshire. I have chickens. I care for them.
I have a dog, a cat, I have a garden, so I'm usually trying to be outside. I love to read. I really noticed that over the last few years. I stopped reading for enjoyment and felt like I needed to have every business book or I needed to be on my phone working I've been [00:04:00] trying to get a little bit more focused on taking time to read things that I enjoy.
Erica Mattison: I know what you mean about really being able to enjoy time away from the devices and be in your own thoughts, whether that's journaling or reading or gardening.
I also garden and I'd love to hear a little bit about maybe some parallels that you perceive between gardening and growing your business.
Amanda Russell: There are actually a lot that come to mind, I will say the number one is probably consistency and patience when it comes to social media, organic social media in particular.
You have to keep showing up. and you have be patient in the process of knowing that it is not gonna happen overnight.
Erica Mattison: Consistency is so important and that's going to look different for everybody. But [00:05:00] it could be regularly carving out time, even just 15 minutes a day to do some reflecting,
some thought work, maybe some journaling but really stepping away from the minutiae the task lists and the screens sometimes to do that inner work, do that reflecting. And that can help people increase their clarity so that then they can approach not only their work, but also their overall life from a place of real intention.
Amanda Russell: consistency looks different for every business owner from a marketing standpoint a lot of people ask, what does that look like for me on social media? How many times should I be posting?
there isn't a magic number. There is a number that works for you and your audience and your time, and the ways that you can do things consistently over time without completely burning out
Erica Mattison: Can you say [00:06:00] a little bit more about why it's important to be consistent when it comes to social media?
Amanda Russell: Yes. I think that is so important because the algorithm does reward you for using the platform, spending more time there, posting. But beyond that I always tell my clients that you don't wanna only be pushing things out and expecting everybody to engage with you and then not
speaking to anybody when you're on social media and the consistency really comes through making sure that you're present when you're on there and you, you never know for your business or your nonprofit or your personal brand, what connections can be built from simple comments or following another account or learning about another nonprofit in the area
your business may want to participate in. It's beyond just posting on social media, and it's really about being intentional, [00:07:00] consistently to build relationships and support other companies or people that are supporting your business seeing where a connection leads, just having conversations.
So I think that is important because it humanizes it. it's easy to think about this being very automated nowadays yes, there are systems in place, but there is a human connection that translates for your business.
Erica Mattison: So when you are advising your clients in terms of how they ought to show up on social media, what kinds of questions or considerations are you taking into account as you are guiding them?
Amanda Russell: The first would be goals. What is your business or brand's goals, because that really dictates the platforms that you wanna focus on.
I think also the conversation has to be had of what does it look like for [00:08:00] who's implementing it? Is it going to be you implementing it? Are you gonna be working with a team? Are you willing to go all out and be on every platform? Then we work into, okay, what is your target based on that? What platforms are we going to focus on?
Are you looking for content from a creative graphic standpoint? Are you willing to be in front of the camera? What does all of that look like? And how can you achieve that? Because that will also dictate the platforms you would wanna be on as well. If you're not open to really being on camera or having a lot of video heavy content, then you're probably not ready for YouTube.
So it's really just figuring all of that out to understand a best plan forward to reach your goals.
So it's really just figuring all of that out to understand a best plan forward to reach your goals.
Erica Mattison: As you said, consistency is key and [00:09:00] so it's not just something that you can do a launch or do some communications campaign and then say, okay, now we're going to just totally disengage for the next nine months.
That's not really how social media is going to serve you, um, and help you advance your goals.
Amanda Russell: consistency doesn't mean every single platform posting a million times a day. It really means the schedule that is set, that is attainable and committing to a couple platforms and really going in all in on those, seeing where your audience is and leaning into that rather than spreading yourself too thin.
Erica Mattison: This theme around spreading yourself too thin and avoiding that is really important when we look at being a business owner. an entrepreneur, as well as. people who are working a nine to five people who are employees. One of the things that I'm really interested in is how that impacts our [00:10:00] wellbeing, our quality of life, as well as the impact that we're able to have, and looking at joy and happiness and fulfillment, and supporting my clients to step back and evaluate how are you using your time and your other resources, your energy, your financial resources and make some strategic decisions do this regularly, really inventory these things and then make intentional decisions. Does any of that resonate with you?
Amanda Russell: Yes, absolutely. I think that has been the journey that I've been in two years into my business where I really had to sit back and realize
it's okay to say no to something when an opportunity comes because it's definitely feels wrong as a business owner to say no to things. I felt like, well then I'm not able to help them. What are they gonna do? [00:11:00] Or, I'm missing out on opportunities that could lead me to more opportunities, but I really am learning to Say no. When it makes sense and focus on understanding that I am doing a great job for my clients now, I don't want them to feel that I'm not supporting them. So I can't take on another client right now, and that's okay. when you're a business owner, you're so excited to have all this time that you're gonna have because you're your own boss and your own schedule, and it doesn't really turn out like that. But I can organize my schedule to have meetings on certain days. I can get organized with really setting down to do my client work and not getting sucked into my own phone personally. There are things that I can do to free up time to make sure that I feel better about balance of getting outside and going to the gym,
things that I enjoyed doing that I really lost sight of, and the first year and a [00:12:00] half of my business, for sure.
Erica Mattison: When you're a new business owner or when you go all in with your business, it seems extremely common to be absolutely absorbed by the business 24 7, trying to figure things out, trying so many different things,
putting yourself out there saying yes to so many opportunities, and then it gets to a point after a certain amount of months or years where it's time to say, okay, pause, let me look at what I have going on and do some recalibration. So it sounds like that's where you are. It's not just one moment in time.
It's a continual process, It's something that has to happen with some regularity where you're taking that step back, And saying, okay, how's this working?
You're not just letting your life happen to you, but you're really doing this intentional work to craft the kind of life that you [00:13:00] want to live.
Amanda Russell: That is definitely something that I'm learning now. It's exciting as a business owner to know that there's just endless opportunity.
There's opportunity to grow in my business. There's opportunity to scale back in my business. In certain seasons, there's opportunity to explore other avenues and work with different industries and explore passions personally. I think it's a really exciting part of entrepreneurship that I didn't really think about before, of the constant reinvention and just
growth that comes from it.
Erica Mattison: I agree wholeheartedly. I'm curious how you go about making these determinations about what to get involved in, what to say yes to, when to say no.
Amanda Russell: That is something I think that I'm still figuring out, but I know when I'm at my limit for social media management.
[00:14:00] And there are times when people come to me that I really love their product. I really love their business, and I really wanna say yes, and I'm trying to figure out how I say not to this, but yes to this, um, and, and still support them in ways that are helpful for them. It's still attainable for me, I think for management, it's, it's simple for me to know when I'm at my limit because like I said, I'm at my limit with how much I can physically create content for
In terms of other opportunitiesI definitely feel sometimes that an opportunity comes and I'm wondering is it that I'm too busy or Am I scared to grow in this way? You know, I've, I've been able to do a lot of going into some chapter meetings for my, uh, networking organization I'm part of, and teach classes or workshops.
that was something that [00:15:00] I really wanted to say no to at first, but I did enjoy it. I'm still trying to figure out what those opportunities look like and sit with, is it really that I don't have the bandwidth? Is it something that I am scared to do? Or is it something that I don't enjoy doing at all and I don't wanna do it at all?
Erica Mattison: I appreciate those criteria you just shared. I appreciate them so much. I'd like to even repeat them. So I heard that one of the, the things that you take into account is bandwidth. Do I feel like my plate is full, or at least is it full for this type of work? Let me see if I remember them all. You talked about, not liking that particular type of work. And so either wanting to avoid it all together or at least minimize how much of your time is going into it. And I would argue also energy, because if it's a task you don't enjoy, it's not just about the amount of minutes or hours that you're spending on it.
It's [00:16:00] also how much energy is that taking out of you? How much is that depleting you to be engaged in that task?
There are a lot of fears out there, whether it's what people might think, am I good enough?
Will I succeed at this? Can I do this? Will it be so uncomfortable? Will I discover things I'm not ready to discover, maybe about myself? So what other kinds of fears can you think of that might come up either for you or for other folks?
Amanda Russell: A fear for me that I have been working through, but I still struggle with is just showing up on camera. It's really hard to feel like, everybody's talking about this already. I don't need to talk about this, or these people know about this more than I do. How am I going to go on an Instagram live and speak about social media strategy, even though I have the skillset to do it. It's scary to put yourself out there especially on [00:17:00] a live, because you can't go back and edit.
You're really just going out there and doing it. And, um, you know, those are things that I think translate a lot for business owners. It's just getting over the fear of feeling like you're you're equipped to do this, and it doesn't have to be perfect. You're putting yourself out there and people appreciate that.
Nobody's looking at it with that same eye that you're looking at it with.
Erica Mattison: There are a lot of fears that come up for folks often when I'm supporting them to build their presence on platforms like LinkedIn because there are these thoughts that you shared Amanda, around I'm not a big enough expert on this topic, or Do I really have the credentials to be speaking about this or
why would people want to read what I have to say? Or, or, or there are lots of thoughts and emotions that prevent them from creating content, writing [00:18:00] articles, and hitting publish
Amanda Russell: You have your own unique skillset, experience, words that people wanna hear.
Erica Mattison: Exactly. So coming from this place of authenticity, thinking about your audience, keeping them in mind and what they might be interested in, what might be valuable to them, but not letting concern about your potential audience make you just freeze and not do anything.
Amanda Russell: The freeze is so relatable,. It's definitely the number one problem that a lot of business owners I've worked with, have faced.
Erica Mattison: Speaking of which, I'd love to hear a little bit more about what kinds of people and businesses and organizations you support through your business.
Amanda Russell: So from a management standpoint, I typically work with a lot of CPG, which means product-based businesses, whether they are grocery store [00:19:00] items, food products, or something like a baby lounger company, which is a product that I work for.
those types of businesses aren't really reliant as much on the business owner having to be in front of the camera. It's really about the product and cultivating that brand experience and pulling in content from influencers, photo shoots, lifestyle, things like that.
I don't typically work with a lot of service-based business owners because I think they really need to be willing to show up individually and or at a place, maybe like a hair salon.
I'm not in the salon every day to get the content to be there to post those last minute things, and it really makes sense for that team to kind of own it with a proper strategy. And that's where I really like to be able to support other business owners and teams to maybe come in for the day and say, Hey, this is how I can help.
Erica Mattison: Could you say just [00:20:00] a little bit about how you support your clients to use ai?
Amanda Russell: I love helping business owners not be afraid of AI to use it in certain ways that make sense. I will say I was a little hesitant at first, thinking that this was gonna be the end all be all for social media management. Oh, Chat GPT is here, we're good. I think that now people have really gotten into it and understood this is an amazing tool that really helps me be efficient in so many ways. But also we still need to be authentic on social media and marketing, and we need to find ways that these things can work together where we can get more efficient and not have as much legwork on things that don't need to take up our time.
but having the human element. I can definitely tell when brands post without making any changes to a caption from Chat [00:21:00] GPT, and I think other people can notice more and more as well. So I think that there are great ways to use it for social and marketing, setting up a unique profile on Chat G PT, telling it all about your brand, school it on your brand, tell it about your target, the tone of voice you would like to have. And definitely use it to help you support copywriting or coming up with ideas for a photo shoot
But at the same time, you know the trends, you know your brand and you know what feels like you, so you should be using it as either a first draft, where then you tweak it and make it your own. Or, you really get the nuts and bolts and you need help getting it polished, but then looking at it again just to make sure that it doesn't look completely copy and pasted.
Would you agree with that, Erica? I'm curious your thoughts on that.
Erica Mattison: Definitely. So using it as a [00:22:00] tool can save a lot of time But it is so important for me to look at it as an iterative process, really going back and forth with the AI platform to develop the idea, the message, the content. And I'm going back and forth with it,
and so I still might put an hour into writing a blog post or an issue of my LinkedIn newsletter. It's not that it's just taking me five or 10 minutes I develop an idea I have a concept of a theme or a topic that I want to write about. I'll start there and I'll give a prompt about that to the platform, , It still does take time and energy and thoughts and creativity but it's a process that I honestly really enjoy and I know a lot of other people who do as well.
Amanda Russell: Yes, absolutely. I've loved being able to experiment with it and use it as another tool in the [00:23:00] toolbox for sure.
Erica Mattison: I'd love to hear more about how you tend to connect with your clients.
I'm sure it's a range of ways, referrals and your social media content, but could you say a little bit about that for folks thinking about starting their own business, but one of the things that's holding them back is this thought of, oh my goodness, I have no idea how I would get clients.
Amanda Russell: Yes, absolutely. Definitely referrals, but also I have had a lot of success with Women's Business League. It's a networking group that I'm a part of. There's a lot of support and encouragement to think about somebody else in the chapter or across all of the chapters Especially if you're thinking about starting a business, it really offered in the beginning a lot of support for me to meet with other business owners . You never know who you connect with that has a need for something that you offer. And that really for social [00:24:00] media management, has led into a lot of kind of snowball referrals for me. I do get leads from social media as well, linkedIn primarily, uh, but Instagram as well.
Showing up in Facebook networking groups and in-person networking groups, if that's something that you would enjoy. That's been a lot of the success for me so far .
Erica Mattison: How much is going to in-person events part of your life right now?
Amanda Russell: I would say that it's quarterly for me at this point. I'm somebody who is a little more introverted, I like strategically picking out events that I could maybe go to Boston for or anywhere for that make sense for me, that I think I would get meaningful connections.
Also, I am part of a virtual networking group, that is a little more frequent, but it's not astime intensive.
Erica Mattison: I'd like to go back in [00:25:00] time
when you think about how you got to this moment, what kinds of key moments can you identify?
Amanda Russell: I went into college for journalism and was the editor of my high school newspaper. I thought that's what I wanted to do, I enjoyed that, but I started to learn more about social media from an internship. It wasn't really a thing yet to do management. It was, Hey, our client heard about Instagram.
Should we be over there? Should you help with that? I loved that it was an opportunity to be a lot more creative than the newspaper writing, the journalism that I was doing and ended up liking it a lot more. through that internship, it turned into a job and turned into another job and able to move up because I've had this experience that has grown alongside me.
I would say that would be a turning point, getting that internship and considering [00:26:00] the swap from journalism to social media. I worked in agencies for about four to five years before going out on my own. I thought I would go in-house and not work agency anymore, work for one brand. there was a turning point for me finding another creator, Latasha James. she has built an incredible social media business that she's now pivoted to help other business owners and stumbling across her content and taking a moment to think, well, why can't I try to do this? Why can't I try this on my own? I have the experience and now I think I'm ready to try being an entrepreneur.
Erica Mattison: So that internship was a pivotal moment for you, was that when you started getting more experience with social media?
Amanda Russell: Yes, because the internship focused on making sure that I was managing social media. that was something that I didn't plan. Because I [00:27:00] was in that marketing department, it lined up and I started to do it and really enjoyed it.
Erica Mattison: When you say managing social media, can you explain it just a little bit more?
Amanda Russell: Absolutely. So that means being responsible for posting, interacting, engaging, fully owning the social media channels for a business or brand. making sure they don't have to worry about what's being posted monthly, daily
Erica Mattison: So you really need to have your finger on the pulse of the brand that they want to be putting out into the world if you are going to be in that kind of role.
Amanda Russell: Absolutely.
Emphasis on devoting time to specific brands to make sure you're switching hats when focusing on these brands because They have different goals, their own voice, and you need to focus on that.
Erica Mattison: I also wanna talk about the role of analytics and using data to inform what you put out there. What do you do more of? What do you do less [00:28:00] of?
Amanda Russell: From a data standpoint, I love making sure business owners set goals at the beginning of the year for their platforms. It's important to look at what happens in a year for your social media platforms.
we can all get caught up in going through the motions and not seeinghow much you've grown in the last year, the last month, it may not be crazy numbers but it's important If you're devoting efforts to creating content it's important to set goals. With social media, if starting out, learn your baseline.
how you're growing what content is resonating metrics on each platform There are free tools out there.
Meta Business Suite, which is the hub for Facebook and Instagram, they offer free analytics . That will show you what was your reach, what was the top performing content. What was the highest impression? It's not something that you necessarily need to look at 24 7, but you should [00:29:00] look at it at least quarterly to know what content did the best, how much did I, how many followers did I gain?
if we're looking at quarterly goals, someone may say, I would like to increase my followers on Instagram by 20%. take a look at, how many followers do I have right now? How many followers would be a 20% increase?
get a little specific with it so that you can understand that, because I think the percentages sometimes don't really feel as impactful. Another example may be I would like to have a Instagram reel that gets over a thousand views. Or it doesn't have to be numbers based.
I would like to optimize my Instagram profile with keywords. make sure that my LinkedIn about section has all of my up-to-date [00:30:00] information. I think that there are qualitative and quantitative. Goals to set to feel at the end of the quarter that you've taken strides put intention behind your strategy have a clear goal for the future.
Erica Mattison: What would be your reaction if somebody said I don't really care so much about increasing my followers by this amount or percentage, or my engagements I wanna develop goals that are really connected to what it is I'm trying to do here
as a business or brand, what would you say to that?
Amanda Russell: I would say the goal would be to focus on increasing visits to your profile, LinkedIn page or website. It's tough with social media to always rely on sales conversions.
But if your focus is to havepeople engaged with you, develop meaningful relationships, then maybe [00:31:00] it is, I'm going to send Instagram direct messages to 50 people in my industry.
I'm going to follow all of the accounts that another nonprofit follows that aligns with my business goals.
I'm going to monitor how many people are visiting the profile or visiting my website from social media. So I think that there are other metrics to look at, to see what eyes are getting on your social media efforts.
Erica Mattison: As you look ahead, what do you see for, for your life, for your business, maybe even for the industry or the space?
Amanda Russell: In terms of social media and all of the different platforms, I think the thing that stays is people crave community and authenticity, core platforms don't go away. I don't see Instagram going away anytime soon. If anything, people are using it [00:32:00] more. there is this need for online community. I think I'll always be working to some capacity from a social media standpoint, but I do think there's gonna be evolutions of that.
There's gonna be different content, different platforms. new generations, so it'll be really interesting to see that unfold. I think that for the future for my business, I am really looking forward to focusing in. On my business specifically to work on my key messaging, my social media strategy.
I have been doing a lot of reflecting of the content I wanna make that isn't so instant news updates, and more about the deeper strategy or takeaways from certain areas of social media.
That's where my next few months are focused for my business how can I support business owners through my [00:33:00] social media strategy.
Erica Mattison: it's easy to. Get lost in your client's digital marketing needs, and forget about your own
That's a struggle on a regular basis for somebody in your position.
Amanda Russell: Absolutely. And then the burnout of I don't really wanna be on my social media, it's all balancing act and it's all about prioritizing, so I'm working on that for my business.
Erica Mattison: Words of wisdom that you would share f or folks who are maybe thinking about starting their own business or doing some freelancing on the side, but there might be some fears or concerns holding them back.
Maybe they're not clear on what they have to offer or how they would market what they have to offer or what makes them different from the other people out there, or the other brands or businesses . Maybe they're concerned that they're not going to be able to make enough money in their business,
leaving their nine to five, any kinds of insights you'd share with [00:34:00] them?
Amanda Russell: My advice would be tosit down with where you're at, I don't wanna just say anybody can leave their full-time job. There are financial obligationsto consider before you just say, okay, I'll just start my own business.
You know, sometimes it does take a little bit of freelance and building up relationships or just putting yourself out there before you feel like you could comfortably leave to fully have your own business. But either way, something I constantly have to learn is just getting started.
Getting started In a way that makes sense for you. If you're not ready to leave your full-time job maybe start by jotting down what you want your business to look like, going to networking events, speaking to other business owners.
Put it out there because you don't know what opportunities are there and they start to pick up. They, it may seem slow at [00:35:00] certain times. And then the exciting part about entrepreneurship is you just never know what connection you made. Two years ago is gonna circle back to you in a different way.
So I would say to not be afraid to start in a way that makes sense for you I feel I can't do anything until it's perfect. this is a reminder for me and advice for others to get started somehow, because you're probably ready.
If you're thinking about it. You're probably ready
Erica Mattison: You can start incrementally, small and figure things out as you go. Things will reveal themselves over time. there are people who've come to me seeking my support, who maybe I've known for years, and then they saw one of my posts or articles on LinkedIn, for instance, and it really spoke to them. That prompted them to reach out.
they were looking for a certain type of support andthought there could be valuable work together. It can be hard to predict when and where the next client or [00:36:00] collaborator is going to come from. I wanna thank you so much for the work we've done together.
I've enjoyed our collaborations. it's really helped my business grow as I continue to evolve I appreciate you taking the time to have this conversation today.
Amanda Russell: Thank you so much. I had a great time.​
Erica Mattison: You've been listening to Conversations with Erica. I'm your host, Erica Mattison. If this episode inspired you to explore career or leadership growth, visit ericamattison.com and let's get started.
