How To Have A Peaceful Relationship With Social Media

The following is a transcription of Episode 9 of The Peaceful Entrepreneur Podcast! Click here to listen on all platforms!

AMY: Welcome to the Peaceful Entrepreneur podcast, where together we are finding peace in the process of everyday business ownership by improving one step at a time, how we think and what we do. I'm your host, Amy Stout.

Social media: a gigantic topic within the world of being an online entrepreneur. It can be a great tool, but it can also be a great detriment and lead to the downfall of our mental health if we're not careful.

So today I have my friend Camille on who is a social media manager, and she and I are going to be talking about how to harness the power of social media and use it to our advantage in how to avoid letting it control us. We're gonna be discussing four practical tips that you can begin implementing right away to have a more healthy and peaceful relationship with social media. Hope you enjoy.

Camille, hi, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today.

CAMILLE: Thanks so much for having me, I'm excited to be here.

AMY: Yes, I am pumped to have this conversation. We have known each other now for over a year. And Camille is a testament to Instagram work sometimes because Camille just found, you found Katie first on Instagram, right? Or did you find me?

CAMILLE: I think so. Or I think I found you and then saw you work with Katie. And these two are amazing.

AMY: So sweet. And yeah, like you just found me and messaged us and the rest is history. And we've kind of gone back and forth between us doing some work for you. Now you're gonna start doing some work for me, which I'm excited about.

And like the second that we got on the phone, I was like, we are the same person, like we think the same way. And we have similar skills in business and we're running similar businesses. So I just love the relationship that we've been able to build and the friendship we've been able to build.

So why don't you tell everybody a bit about yourself personally and about your business?

CAMILLE: Yeah, so I'm Camille and I own This Girl's Social. We are a social media management agency We offer social media management to creating entrepreneurs all over the world. And then we also have been helping podcasters to edit and produce their shows.

And really, I just am passionate about and wanting to help other business owners grow on social media without the stress and embracing this crazy world of digital marketing in a very authentic and organic way.

So yeah, and I'm based in Vancouver in Canada with my wonderful family. I'm also a senior in high school, so finishing up in a couple months here and then getting to pursue my business and lots of other dreams, some full time. So I'm super excited.

AMY: I feel like you're kind of teasing like what is to come. I know there's so many things that could happen and really just for one, trusting God's timing and like what will happen. But with so much time, you wonder what you should fill it with. Right?

CAMILLE: That's one of the things that I admire the most about you is just that you started a business so young and I just feel like you are so wise and mature for your age. And so yeah, I just admire the fact that you're doing the thing. Thanks.

AMY: And I thought that this conversation about having a peaceful relationship with social media is a perfect one to have with you because one, you are in your Gen Z. So you're in a generation that is so completely saturated with social media, right? Like you've grown up around it. I remember when there wasn't social media, but you probably don't, right?

CAMILLE: Right. When I was first introduced to social media, I didn't know the first memory I kind of have. I think I actually have a very clear memory. I was like 11 or 12 probably and my mom had social media. She had just downloaded Instagram and I remember looking at her Instagram app and she was trying to explain the Instagram story and I was like, "How do you know if they have a new story or not?" She's like, "Well, there's this little colorful ring around it." I couldn't catch on to seeing that there wasn't a colorful ring and there was one that seems to have a new story. That's my first memory of Instagram.

AMY: That's funny.

CAMILLE: Very clear. And I was like, this does not make sense.

AMY: That's so funny. Because yeah, I think Instagram came out when I was in high school. So that would kind of track with the age. But in addition to you just like being in a generation that intuitively knows a lot and is very good at social media, you additionally have built your business around it. So you know a lot about it.

And also along with that, you are a business owner, you are a woman of faith, and you are striving to glorify God and have peace in your daily life. And a big piece of that is keeping the relationship with social media in control because it can get out of hand very easily.

CAMILLE: Yes, for sure. I have such a love-hate relationship with social media. Obviously I love it because I've made so many amazing connections. Some of my best friends for our on social media and now we're on social media. And that's what I help my clients with at the same time. Sometimes I hate it. And I'm like, I, if I didn't have this job, I would probably delete social media.

Like it's sometimes so frustrating, but there is a balance somewhere in there. There is boundaries and there's limits we can set for ourselves. And so trying to keep those in mind and we'll talk about some of those today.

AMY: That's a perfect segue because today I really want to talk about, and you know, the two of us have kind of identified four practical tips and tools that we use that we think would be really helpful for keeping social media in its place and keeping our relationship with it healthy and peaceful.

So let's dive in to how to have a peaceful relationship with social media, starting with my favorite, remembering that it is a tool and it's not anything more than that. So to me, that means social media is a great tool. I mean, we have the ability to connect with so many more people than any other generation ever has, right? I mean, probably our grandparents hearing about social media would just be, or our great grandparents, I feel like hearing about the internet, they would just be baffled.

But with that, it's like, okay, we have access to a lot of people. That also means we have access to a lot of information, either like comments that can come our way that are negative, or we have a lot more access to comparing ourselves to people that we really maybe weren't meant to see and weren't meant to compare ourselves to.

So how do you Camille structure thinking about social media in your mind so you keep it as a tool that you use to market your business and not let it turn into something else?

CAMILLE: Yeah for sure. I think a lot of it was for one not using like a personal Instagram account for a while or social media account in general, keeping it very business related. Like I have a business account following business related people. Now, with that being said, I do have a personal Instagram account. I post on it very infrequently.

And what I do is I try to only follow the few people I really want to follow. So, you know, family and friends that I really want to be able to see anything they would post and share, especially if they're long distance. And then I'm constantly going through who I follow, not only on my personal account, but my business account too. And unfollowing people that just don't serve me anymore or that are just a waste of my time to see.

Or that's something that we shouldn't be afraid to do, is to constantly be going through who we're following. Because our time we spend on social media is very precious. And we don't want to waste that time just mindlessly scrolling.

And like you said, consuming things that we're comparing ourselves to, people were comparing ourselves to, you can even end up comparing your business and how you run your business and the tools you have, et cetera, et cetera. You don't wanna go down that rabbit hole.

So definitely unfollowing. And then thinking about it in a very, just having the mindset of using it for my business.

And so being able to have a schedule, and I'm sure we'll talk about some of these more practical things, but keeping a schedule and then posting on that schedule and then having 30 minutes to decide where I'm going to engage for work, those are working hours and keeping a lot of that, keeping a lot of social media out of my life during like outside of work hours, because that can then help your brain remember, Okay, this is a tool I'm using for my business and not the tool that I'm gonna necessarily use to just scroll and relax.

That being said, we're not perfect. There is definitely, definitely times where I'm gonna be scrolling Instagram and then I call it night just because I want to. That's the ideal goal here. And that's what's helped me in certain times and I really need to crack down and lessen my time on social media and use it more for a business tool. that's kind of the mindset shift to have.

AMY: Yeah, and I think like everyone can kind of make their own choices of like what their limits are and what their purposes are.

CAMILLE: Exactly.

AMY: Because I personally have cut out using Instagram for a personal reason and just use it for business reasons. Whereas TikTok, I use just as a personal like escape. And I only am just now kind of introducing playing with a little TikTok to promote this podcast actually.

But I have chosen to make that distinction and that helps me because it's like, okay, Instagram's the tool to grow my business and TikTok is the tool to help me unwind and stop thinking about all the things.

CAMILLE: Yes, I think what's really important there is to like make it very clear to yourself, what are your, can your boundaries for that? what are your goals and even like write it out, say it out loud, tell it to someone else because I think if we just kind of have that thought in our head, we're not totally gonna put it to action and follow through.

So, you know, write down TikTok I'm using for personal use and this is kind of how much time I wanna spend on there or some rough idea and then Instagram I use for my business and revisit those goals and those intentions often.

AMY: That's good.

CAMILLE: To remind yourself and not kind of falling to the wayside with those.

AMY: Yeah, that's so good. And that ties right into, we're kind of already talking around this second point, which is be mindful.

So don't just use social media. Don't like, and I do this, I've done this for forever. Don't just click the app 'cause your thumb goes to the app and it's your muscle memory and it's your brain wanting a dopamine hit. Like don't let it be. And this is me again preaching to myself.

I do this every single day. Don't just click the Instagram out because you want a distraction from your work or you don't want to do this thing. So you want to just like procrastinate for a second. And like, it's so much easier said than done, but.

CAMILLE: Oh, for sure. We say we're gonna open the app for one second and then it's 30 minutes.

AMY: So it's like that I feel like the biggest like, I don't know, be mindful, just encapsulate so much of what we're going to be saying about just keeping social media in check. So I think just the word that comes to mind is intentional in not letting social media happen to you, but let, you know, be in control of how you interact with it.

So like you were saying Camille, like write a list of the goals that you have. Like I have a goal to be on this app for this reason, for this amount of time. When I'm on there, I am going to be doing XYZ.

For example, like I'm going to be seeking out accounts of people who are like me, who I'd like to connect with in a business sense. I am going to be reaching out to potential clients. I am going to be engaging with people's content that I enjoy. Like you can have that, but you can also have, I am not going to. I'm not going to mindlessly scroll. I'm not going to let myself compare.

I'm not going to continue following people who do not build me up when I watch their content and just like set those very specific goals and check in with yourself often to make sure that you're following them.

CAMILLE: Right and part of that checking in is understanding that in different seasons those goals are going to look different and even different days.

So for me personally Monday through Friday, those are kind of working days. So I have a certain set of kind of intentions and goals for using social media. And then on the weekends, kind of Sundays naturally fall to be a lot more off our off of our phones, you were at church in the morning and people just post less than social media. I find on Sundays, I don't know, at least my my audience of people I follow.

But then Saturdays, I find are a lot more in this relaxed day you're gonna maybe spend a little bit more time scrolling. And that's kind of part of just the mindset I have. Like weekend, I'm gonna use this weekend day to do a little bit more scrolling and kind of personal time on social media, but then keeping it Monday to Friday is more of a work mindset.

So it's okay to kind of adjust your goals and your mindset around it for different days, different weeks, different seasons in life. 'Cause also if you have like a big launch going on or something, you're gonna spend a lot more time on social media. engage you with people replying to questions and comments. And that's super important.

But then on a more average week, you're maybe gonna spend a little bit less time and things are gonna be a little bit more automated.

AMY: That's a really good point. And I wanna talk about the benefits of social media because I can get kind of cynical about like my view towards it. You get really negative and be like, you have to have all of these boundaries and limits and you have to make sure it doesn't take over.

And social media makes you compare so much. So I want to make sure that I'm still mentioning what a great tool it is. And later on, another one of the points is talking about how we can use it to our advantage. So I want to say that we're not just going to be bashing social media this whole time.

CAMILLE: No, we’re definitely in favor for it.

AMY: Yes, but we are acknowledging the power that it has to take over our attention, take over our time, take over our mental space. And so with all of that in mind, I think because of that, our first response is, okay, how can we rein this in and how can we control this, right?

So let's continue that conversation. Let's finish that part of the conversation because I feel like once we have it in check, then we can use it for productive purposes. You know?

So let's talk a little bit about how social media, like I've mentioned, can kind of take over and how to recognize when it is starting to get to an unhealthy level and space. So what have you recognized in your life or in your brain that are like some warning signs of like, hey, I need to kind of take a step back, reevaluate my goals, make sure I'm following them. What does that look like for you?

CAMILLE: Mm-hmm. I mean, one of the biggest ones is I often will look at my screen time like the iPhone gives you a screen time report. We have this funny thing. I don't know how we started this, but me and a friend if we go away like to our cabin often for weekends together, or we're just over here, it's the end of a week, we'll say, "Okay, let's compare our screen time." And we're both really embarrassed like, "No, I can't tell this."

And oftentimes they're really, really similar, but it just brings us awareness. And if it's a good week, I'm like, wow, good for me, that was great. I was way lower than you. But it's kind of this battle of like, who's gonna have the best screen time, but seeing that report can often trigger something that okay, this next week, I'm really gonna put some, some things into action.

So visiting that can kind of give me just a bit of an overview of like what apps was on most is social media, one of them. And then the other thing is I often will just mentally feel a little bit more exhausted and don't want to open social media for work because I've been on it too much for my personal time or I am feeling uninspired in the content I'm putting out for work stuff and so how can I kind of change that? And that means spending less time comparing my content to people or it means revisiting my content pillars.

And I'm trying to think, yeah, it's really mentally. you just can feel really drained. And when you feel drained mentally, it's a really good idea to take kind of an overview analysis of what's going on in my life that is causing this. And oftentimes it's our phones. Oftentimes it's social media.

And so, yeah, I think often revisiting and knowing that even a good tool, like you're saying social media is not necessarily a bad thing, even a really great tool or we've put a goal or a intention into place, it just has to be revisited to then become a good tool and a good intention again, because we've kind of slouched a little bit from using that.

Which comes back to the point of just revisiting our goals and our intention. But yeah, how I kinda really, like these actionable steps is like looking at my screen time, how am I doing mentally? Is the content I'm putting out feeling good, inspiring? And also figuring out like, what is my audience thinking about my content? 'Cause that can often be a really good representation of how you're feeling with social media.

AMY: True.

CAMILLE: Not all the time, but like, is my audience responding to my content and we're kind of having this back and forth conversation of feeling inspired and motivated by the content I'm giving. 'Cause if not, maybe I'm just kind of slacking or maybe my mindset of what content I should be putting out has changed because of other people I'm seeing.

And this is also a great conversation to have with your audience, depending on what kind of niche you're in, to like Amy and I will often exchange thoughts on content we're putting out on social media, or I'll send her a post or something before I've published it. And we're just kind of checking up on, oh, how are you feeling about using social media?

One of us is like, yeah, I'm taking a break for a week, or here's the new boundary I put into place. So just having those conversations with people, such as people who are doing a similar job with you and using social media for their job, it can feel like you're less alone too.

AMY: Yeah, you're making a lot of good points here. I'm trying to figure out like what I wanna respond to first. When I was thinking about like my indicators of when social media is starting to take over, I was thinking the same thing you were on along the lines of comparison and like where it takes your mental space because I find if I am spending too much time scrolling, I will start comparing myself and thinking, oh, do I need to be there doing this with their business? Do I need to be doing that? Or I'll see someone posting a lot and maybe compare and feel like I'm lacking because I'm not posting a lot.

Or fill in the blank. But I do start to get fatigued and worn out a lot like what you're talking about. So that's a major indicator for me is if my brain starts getting into that negative space of not feeling confident in my business because I'm starting to compare myself to others.

So I think that is a huge indicator. And then a second thing for me along the lines of what you said too is noticing like I, this is probably bad, but I'm like scared to look at my screen time. I'm often I'm like, I don't know if I want to look at this, but looking at what someone else can help to especially someone who know, scroll social media a lot. I have a really nice excuse. I'm like, well, this is also my job, but that's a bad excuse to use sometimes.

But like one thing that I do is I start to become aware when I'm clicking the Instagram at multiple times a day. And I start to get annoyed with myself. I'm like, why am I, why am I going to this? Like I need to break this habit. So that's another indicator is like noticing when I'm just clicking it to like distract myself or procrastinate or like, I don't know, do something.

And I think you're making a really good point that a solution that can kind of help us to check in and recognize when things are becoming unhealthy is like having a buddy to talk to about it, to check in with and be like, "Hey, how are you feeling about this?" Or like, "Hey, what's your screen time?" Like, we have a whole other episode on this podcast just about community and accountability and how important that is as a business owner. So I love that you tied that concept in.

CAMILLE: Yeah, for sure. Accountability is going to be a game changer in so many areas, but in the area of like our phone usage and social media to have someone to check in with. So, and then that kind of leads us to like our third point, right? In reverse if you want and you have more to add, but like, yeah, no, this is perfect.

Yeah, so setting limits is a really great way to manage your screen time. What I've personally done is, and I've heard for months and months people doing this with their spouse and they'll get their spouse to set a password on their screen time on some apps.

So I did this with one of my sisters and I just said, "Here, put a password on TikTok and Instagram." I think it's like 40 minutes each per day. And then just have someone, if you have someone in your house that you can get to unlock your apps, then that is a great way to be super aware of like, "Oh, my 40 minutes is up. I shouldn't be going on anymore." Or "Here, can you unlock this? I need to do XYZ." Something I'll also do is I'll be like, "Okay, I'm not going to get my screen time unlocked until I do XYZ." where I was really inconsistent with, this is a little bit more of personal usage, but I was really inconsistent with moving my body and working out and going on walks.

So for this week, I was like, I'm not gonna have any extra screen time until I've done some kind of movement. And it could be a similar thing with work. I'm not going to go and go onto social media. And even if you, 'cause you could enjoy engaging with your audience, and that could be a fun task for work. So, okay, I'm not gonna do that until I've published a blog post for my client or whatever.

And so having those limits that you actually cannot unlock or that you maybe you do know the password or it's just going to remind you, hey, you've sent 40 minutes on this app, can kind of just bring an awareness to how long you've already been on there for. So that's one way, a super tangible way, I've been able to manage my screen time and not just have it unlocked all the time to be able to constantly go on and it become less of a tool just you need for work.

AMY: Yeah, that's so good. Just to continue on the settings you can put on your phone, I also have, and this is kind of already what you're talking about, but I have downtime on my social media apps. So they like gray out and you have to do that unlock thing to get into them.

So I have my downtime not only after a certain time limit, but I also have it turning on at 5pm and not turning off until 9am the next day. And I also have it turning on over the entire weekend. So the app just like isn't even really available to me or isn't as readily available to me. I have to kind of think before I open it. I'm putting that extra barrier between it and me.

And another thing that I've done even to help during the day when I do have the apps unlocked is to turn off push notifications completely.

CAMILLE: For sure. I do not have any social media notifications.

AMY: Yeah, oh my gosh. I mean, I already get distracted enough.

CAMILLE: Who needs to know like every like that we have when we're not even on the app?

AMY: Yeah, and it's just like you remain, kind of like I said earlier, you don't let social media happen to you. You take control of it and you decide when you're looking at it. And if you have the push notifications on, it's determining when you look at it because it's yelling at you whenever it wants to.

So that has been huge and I feel like when I didn't have all those limits, 'cause there was a time when I just didn't have limits and I had all the push notifications on and I just didn't have limits on my own self, I literally couldn't, like my brain stopped being able to function well, because I just had so much clutter in there and there was just so much swirling around all the time.

And so I think another limit that I wanted to mention is like taking an intentional break for an extended period of time. Like we've already mentioned, there was a time in college before I even had my business that I took three or six, like a long few months off of social media completely because I wanted to break the neural pathways that had formed like my dependency on it.

Like I just wanted to take that time and I have done some form or another of that multiple times since then of just like, hey, I recognize that this isn't good for my mental health right now, I'm gonna take an intentional break, step away, do some soul searching and come back when I feel like I'm in a healthy place to do so.

CAMILLE: 100%, yeah, I don't know if you've heard of the rotation of that you take one month off a year and then one week off a month and one day off a week off of social media.

AMY: That's good.

CAMILLE: Yeah, so like often people, okay, I'm gonna take January off fully and then I'll take one week off each month and then one day off each week. And adjust that, whoever kind of fits your lifestyle. But that's a great way to take a break completely.

And then yeah, definitely utilize all of the features that the iPhones have. And if you don't have an iPhone, there's tons of apps that you can download to do that as well. And they're all tons of free ones to definitely utilize those. And then outside of using digital limits, like you were mentioning, taking breaks. Even if that means just breaks throughout the day, like, okay, for one hour, I'm going to have my lunch break with no electronics and no social media.

AMY: Yes, or I'm not going to get on social media at all until my lunch break, you know, like something like that too. Yeah, so good.

And just to circle back to what you said before, like write them down, make them tangible. Don't just have them in your head, like tell them to somebody so that they can keep you accountable. That is going to be such a game changer. Are there any other limits that you have before we move on to our final and a little bit more fun point?

CAMILLE: No, I think that covers them really well, but like you were saying about telling them to someone, me and my accountability partner at the beginning of the week will kind of share like, okay, what are you thinking for this week? And we'll include a whole like the whole gamble and things, but one of them is usually, okay, I want to spend less time on social media.

So for this week, you know, I'm not gonna go on social media until lunch break, like you said, or I'm not gonna add more time until I've gone on a walk or you know, whatever it is, making that really clear to someone else is super helpful.

AMY: Totally. I love that. Okay, let's talk about this last topic, which I think is gonna be more fun. And the last thing that we wanna talk about today that is going to encourage a peaceful relationship with social media, which is to be strategic. So a lot of what we're talking about is already kind of a strategy to deal with social media, but I think I'm talking more strategic in terms of what you're using social media for and how you can harness the power of it for good. So something that you do for your business is, I mean, the first order of business, very easy first thought, which is create a strategy for your posting on social media.

Have a system in place so that you know what you're going to post because if you don't, you are going to be, you're going to induce stress in yourself because you're like, "I feel like I should post, but I don't know what to post and I see these people doing this and I'm not." So what is a strategy that you would recommend as just like a baseline general social strategy?

CAMILLE: Yeah, usually when I like first I'm starting to work with a client and work, if they're not already super established and what they're wanting to do, I usually recommend Content Pillars. They're a wonderful tool and something you can use to really get clear on the different categories you're wanting to post.

So say you're gonna choose four and for me, That would be I'm sharing practical social media tips and advice, something similar to what we're talking about today. I'm sharing, like, promoting my business and my services. I am sharing my lifestyle of as a social media manager, giving them a peek inside of how I work with my clients and who I am.

And then kind of forth who I am, a bit more personal life and really making it personal for my audience. So those four to six, whatever content pillars you have are totally going to be related to your business and your lifestyle.

And so then from there, you can-- the next step is create a schedule. OK, I want to post three times a week. So then we're going to rotate through these content pillars and post three times a week. And then you can get a scheduling tool. And then you can choose what time you're going to post. And then you can decide if you have a team who is posting on Instagram. and then who is going to engage on Instagram and you want to break it down so that you know who is doing what, when, when and how you're going to be on social media.

Then that from there, because especially when you're running a business on social media, from there you can create your boundaries and your limits around what feels necessary for your business and its benefit and growth.

AMY: Absolutely. And I think something to keep in mind when you're building your content strategy, like you're talking about is what feels doable and what feels manageable and what feels peaceful because you don't want to bite off more than you can chew and stress yourself out by trying to like do all of the things.

So if you need to start with one post a week, do it, you know. Keep it simple. Take small steps, build rhythms, because if you start small, get used to that one thing, then you can like add another post after a while And you can add another post after that.

CAMILLE: It's kind of that idea of like habit stacking that people will do in their personal life. It's the same thing with posting on social media. You're gonna start with one, get that consistently going, start with two. And then businesses that are more established that have the funds to hire someone, like you might wanna hire a social media manager to be able to help you consistently stay posting.

And then you can kind of take a step back from the actual apps of social media and just create the content. But all while, yes, creating a very peaceful relationship with social media, keeping your limits and your personal, you know, mental health and your time in mind, while creating a very actionable strategy.

AMY: Yeah, and you have to protect yourself against shaming yourself for not being that big established person. 'Cause I definitely have fallen into that of like seeing literally Jenna Kutcher, who is like rock star entrepreneur, has a million followers on Instagram and does all of the things. I have to catch myself and say, hey, she's been at this for a while. She's been building this up for a while. Like you're not doing anything wrong. You're doing what you can right now and you can't immediately have all of the things overnight. So just keep chipping away at it and you'll get to where you're meant to be.

CAMILLE: Yeah, all these people started at zero. They all started by themselves, just one person, probably in a little bedroom, in a little office, whatever it was, and they were figuring it all out. And many, many years later, they have a team of people and they have super scheduled routines and they're good at it. They know what they're doing, but we all start. We all start somewhere.

And like you said, growth does not happen overnight. I think that's one thing that on social media, We come across and see and we think this person just achieved this overnight. Like sure, once in a while someone's gonna go viral and their business is gonna kind of blow up overnight. But that's not reality, like that doesn't really happen.

And so it takes time and it takes growth. And yes, you have to go through many 24 hour days, weeks and weeks and months and months and years and years to grow and build up to something bigger and established. But there's so much potential and so much we can do in these slower and smaller times in our businesses.

AMY: That's so good. That's so important to keep in mind. Another way that I think that we can be strategic is by what platforms we choose to post on. 'Cause I think all the platforms are unique and can be beneficial for different types of businesses. So for our kinds of small business, online business manager or social media manager, things, Instagram could be helpful because there's a lot of people on Instagram and we'd be able to, we're able to kind of connect with them, follow them, see each other's stuff and kind of build a community.

Whereas TikTok is more of an app where you can get reach faster, but you're not necessarily creating that same kind of community. it's more a tool for exposure.

And same with Pinterest, it's more of an exposure tool. However, you're gonna be going to a different kind of audience with a different kind of content on Pinterest than you are on TikTok. So I think another way to be strategic is to take a step back and understand the value that each platform brings and what it could do for you, and then figuring out which one is the best fit for what you're trying to do in your business.

So for me, that's why I am experimenting with TikTok because I want to see if I can get a further reach for the podcast by doing something like that because I believe that I might be able to get a further reach there than I do on Instagram. Though I am still going to be on Instagram because I do want to create a community and a place for people to like go and comment and like find other people who listen to the podcast. So it's like, I'm using them both, but I'm using them for very unique reasons.

CAMILLE: Yes, yeah, that's a huge part of, even with my clients, when I'm trying to establish what platforms are we gonna need to use? Because not every platform is for everyone. You basically, you have to figure out, are you trying to sell a t-shirt? Are you trying to sell a course? Are you trying to create in a community because you're kind of an influencer community? I know we all hate that word, but I'm just gonna use it. Are you trying to take people to your podcast? Are you trying to get people to read your blog? Because that's all different platforms then you have to choose your goal and then choose your platform because Instagram is where you're gonna grow that community.

TikTok is where you're gonna find that reach.

Pinterest is where you're gonna take people to your blog.

And it's all these different tools that are used for different things. 'Cause if you're trying to grow a community and you're in this influencer community and you're trying to share all of your fashion finds, sure Pinterest is okay, but it's not nearly as good as Instagram will be if you're really engaging with people.

AMY: Right, absolutely. Yeah, so we just, we have to, I feel like this is the main point of this whole podcast is take control of social media and use it for what is gonna be best for you and use it in a way that resonates with you. Like I'm starting a podcast 'cause it resonates with me to talk on a podcast more than it does to sit and make a YouTube video or sit and write a blog post.

Like my natural output is talking, is having conversations, is explaining things verbally. So I personally chose for this to be my output because of that. So just hear that you don't have to be on every platform. You can pick what you wanna be on or how it serves you and how it fits with your personality.

And again, with this same thing, start small, start with one thing, like I started with just Instagram, and now I'm adding, and then I added email. And now I'm adding podcast and TikTok. It's like, it's step by step, and you can build it up. And if you need to like cut something out 'cause it's not working, you can do that too.

I tried Etsy, it's not really working for me. So I'm not pursuing it super hard. So you gotta do trial and error, but you gotta find what the right fit is for you.

CAMILLE: Right, yes. We can't let social media dictate what we want and what we need. Like don't let social media dictate what your worth is or what your business should look like. And you can say no to certain things in the social media world and choose what's really important to you and what's gonna work for you experiment with things. Don't be afraid to experiment with things because trial and error.

AMY: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a great point to wrap up on. I feel like we really have had an all-encompassing conversation about this and I do pray that it will be helpful to people and we're going to keep working on this too. You know, we haven't got it all figured out but we've definitely not. We found some things that help.

So as we are closing out, I want to ask you a question Camille and it's a question that I ask each of my guests and this is something you can apply to your business, to social media or just to your life. But I would love to hear what is bringing you peace right now lately.

CAMILLE: Yeah, and this actually applies to all areas of life. But it's just that God like he knowing that he knows our next step and he holds our future has been it's always been such a reassuring thing for me but especially if there is a slower season in business or if there's unknowings about relationships or travel plans like those those very specific details that we can't always be in control of um it's just so reassuring and it brings me so much peace to know that he's got that next step and that he knows exactly what's to come.

And just following his path and walking along the journey with him and holding his hand along the way.

AMY: That's right. Yes, because he's the one who's in control of our future and it's so easy to think that we are and try to take the reins and take control and make things happen. And I literally have to fight against that every single day and have been fighting it today, like before we got on to record, like fighting, like taking things into my own control. So thank you for sharing that because that is an encouragement.

I know it's an encouragement, especially in your stage of leaving high school, leaving like traditional, like the schooling environment that you've been used to your whole life and starting out on a new path. And it is just, yeah, I mean, it brings you the ultimate piece to know that you don't have to handle everything.

CAMILLE: Right. You don't have to plan every second and you don't have to plan the next six years of your life. Down to every detail. He's got it.

AMY: Yes. He already knows what's best for you before you know. And he'll reveal it to you one way or another, whether it's in the moment or in advance.

But he's got us. Yeah, it's beautiful.

Well, thank you for being on today Camille. I'm so excited that we got to do this and that everybody got to meet you and I can't wait. So for people to connect with you.

So I will be putting all of your links and ways to contact you in the description so people can check out your entirely amazing aesthetic Instagram.

CAMILLE: Thank you.

AMY: And that's it for now. We will see you all next week.

CAMILLE: Thanks so much for having me.

AMY: Bye. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. We look forward to connecting with you more, whether that's on Instagram, TikTok, or our email list. We'd love to hear what you thought of today's episode, and if you have any additional tips to add. We will see you next week with more tips and tools to becoming a peaceful entrepreneur. Bye for now!