Go to sleep. Stop thinking. Worrying. Just … stop. And go to sleep. If you fall asleep now, you’ll get almost four-and-half hours of sleep. Well, now it’s four hours of sleep. You can survive on that. Just go to sleep right now. Three hours is enough, too, I guess …
Oh, the lullaby countless women everywhere sing themselves to (not) sleep.
Sound familiar? Maybe way too uncomfortably familiar if we’re being honest with ourselves.
Married. Single. Working. Staying at home. Kids. No kids.
Despite our differences, one thing is certain: Women everywhere – all ages, professions, lifestyles, races, and wages – are failing to ask for help.
But why?
We’re smart. We speak our minds. We’re intuitive – intuitive and empathetic enough to immediately recognize when someone else needs help. And then, in the mad flailings of our own drowning, we will offer that help to anyone else at any time.
But not ourselves.
As we discussed at the beginning of the month, women need help. Here, we share the firsthand account from a case study of our very own CEO who shared her story of when she realized she needed help from a Social Media Manager – and what life looks like for her now that she’s got it.
Spoiler alert: You may not be ‘fine’ – and that’s just fine.
Meet Tricia Sciortino.
Tricia is the CEO of BELAY – and she lives and breathes the day-to-day operations of the business including sales, marketing, IT, talent acquisition, client relations and contractor care.
It’s been said that ‘time is money,’ but Tricia couldn’t disagree more because unlike money, time is finite.
And Tricia had none to spare.
After assuming the role of CEO in January 2020, the demands on Tricia’s time – unsurprisingly – increased exponentially, and still with only 24 hours available to get everything done.
Something had to give.
“I’m passionate about boundaries, saying ‘no’ and knowing my limits – knowing where I add value, where I can step aside and where I need to show up, both personally and professionally,” she shares.
Thankfully, Tricia is a big – huge – proponent of delegation and knew it was time to get more help.
“It’s mission-critical as a leader to delegate, get help, and get out of your own way,” she says. “You cannot get far on your own. You need people. Everyone hits their lid of personal capacity eventually in business and personal matters.”
Practicing what she preaches, Tricia hired Robyn Ware to be her Social Media Manager.
“I was spending a significant amount of time daily tending to my social channels, not just in the actual posting, but trying to figure out what to even post,” she admits. “With a stagnant following and low engagement, I knew this was not time well spent.
“I didn’t have the bandwidth or understanding to analyze my activity and determine what content was resonating most with my audience, so I was really just throwing things against the wall and seeing what stuck. I knew my pages didn't have the appeal of other pages that I admired, but couldn't define why.”
But what Tricia did know? Her social media presence was a non-negotiable. She knew that social media moves at the speed of life – sometimes at the speed of light if the headlines are compelling enough – so more and more leaders and businesses have hired full-time managers to handle the 24/7 influx of activity, engagements and opportunities.
“As humans, we're just wired to have interest in other humans,” Robyn adds. “It's easier for us to get our head around what a person is about than a brand. So we build recognition around a person and then use that to leverage awareness for the brand.”
ENTER: A Social Media Manager
But, as with any delegation partnership, Tricia knew it would take time to onboard Robyn, get her up to speed and hand over the reins.
“It takes time and energy to onboard someone, delegate, get them up to speed on your preference – all the things,” she says. “It's not magic; it's a two-way street. What you invest in someone, you will get back tenfold.”
So after a kickoff meeting to talk about her goals for my brand and social channels, they implemented an approval system.
“Robyn plans out all posts across all my channels in Asana, so she would task me with approving all drafted posts in the beginning,” Tricia adds. “This way, I could give feedback on accurately depicting my voice as well as my sentiments.
“In the beginning, she would change some things – and then it was less and less and less,” Robyn shares.
“Just like with a virtual assistant, the more time you invest in the onboarding process for your Social Media Manager, the more time they will be able to save you down the road,” Tricia says.
So they created a spreadsheet for Robyn with various quotes of hers compiled from articles, emails, webinars, and other speaking engagements, both professional and personal in nature.
“This was really helpful for Robyn to pull direct quotes from, and also to give her insight into my viewpoints and serve as inspiration for crafting posts in the beginning,” Tricia shares. “And with Robyn's expertise as an SMM, she quickly became an expert at echoing my voice, so we weaned off the approval system and Robyn now posts on my channels independently, for the most part.”
But their partnership isn’t ‘set-it-and-forget-it.’
“Monthly check-in meetings are important, though, to continue to provide feedback and talk through any potential shifts in strategy,” she says. “And from time to time, Robyn will ask for insight from me on a particular topic to keep the content on my channels fresh and evolving.”
The Life-Changing Results
“Working with Robyn has allowed me to get completely out of the weeds when it comes to managing my social channels,” Tricia says.
“I still carve out time regularly – but no longer daily – to provide her with videos and other content for my pages, however, there is now an ROI on the time I spend because the content aligns with a strategy that is effectively increasing followers and engagement.”
“For Instagram, she had 500 followers,” Robyn adds. “And now we're at 1,200 – and that's been organic. We’re not buying followers, which a lot of people do. It's just building influence and engagement through regular posting, compelling content, trying to tag people who have a following when we can – that sort of thing.”
And beyond the time Tricia has reclaimed time to do the things only she can do – and let other people take care of the rest – she now enjoys a ‘next-level’ social media presence.
“Robyn has taken my social channels to the next level by integrating brand colors and focusing on the overall aesthetic of my pages giving them that wow factor,” Tricia adds.
Are you ‘fine?’ Could you be more ‘fine’ – or actually fine? We can help – and getting started is the easiest thing you’ll do today.