Showing Up on Social Media When the World Feels Like It’s On Fire

As founders and CEOs, we know that social media is where our “office” lives—but what happens when the feed feels unbearable? From despair and overwhelm to the guilt of wondering whether to pause launches or keep posting, Ruthie gets honest about the tension of being a business owner and a human at the same time.

You’ll hear insights and practical gut checks to decide what to say (or not say) online. Ruthie also shares why consistency doesn’t mean ignoring the world, but showing up with intention, and why supporting brands that serve moms is one small way we can make an impact.

If you’ve ever opened your phone, scrolled the news, and thought, “I hate it here,” this episode will remind you that you’re not alone—and that you can keep showing up with humanity, alignment, and courage.

Resources & Shout Outs: Mo News, @sharonsaysso, @sarawiles, books by Isabel Wilkerson, and more.

👉 Join the next Social Media Mixer on September 26th to keep the conversation going.

Join the next Marketing Mixer, a virtual networking event for mom founders. 

Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and follow along over on Instagram!
@ruthie.sterrett
@theconsistencycorner

Transcript

Ruthie Sterrett (00:01.592)

Welcome back to the consistency corner. Today's episode, we're getting real. This is not about the highlight reel, this is real life. I'm recording this episode in pretty real time, just a few days before it's gonna go live and I'm moving around another episode that I had planned because I knew in my gut I needed to have this conversation with you today. And that conversation is what it's like to show up on social media as a human when it feels like the world is on fire.

And if you're listening to this, not in real time when it airs, we are mid September, actually recording this on 9-11, which we're on the 24th anniversary of that traumatic event. And we just had yet another school shooting yesterday and another horrific political assassination.

And so in the midst of all of this, I thought it would be helpful for us to have this conversation because I know as business owners, we're wondering this, we're thinking about it, and we should be talking about it together. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. And the thing that really triggered this conversation and this podcast was I woke up this morning after scrolling last night, way too much, consuming way too much content, and the first thought I had was, you know what, I am in the middle of a launch.

I'm relaunching the agency, I'm sharing some new resources, I have a client in the middle of launching her signature program. I wonder if we should pause our content for today or maybe even a couple days because social media just feels so loud right now. And then the really terrible part hit me and I thought, well, actually...

people are addicted to their phones and they pick it up to refresh it every five minutes like me. So maybe this is a good time to be putting content out there to capture some of that attention. And then I was like, my God, I cannot believe that even crossed my brain. But that is the tension of being an online business owner and a social media marketer, balancing being a human on the internet, feeling all of the heaviness that we carry in the palm of our hand.

Ruthie Sterrett (02:15.258)

and knowing that this is where my office is. This is where I show up every day to make money and build my life and fulfill my mission of supporting working moms. And doing all of that on the internet sometimes is awful. And you know, our brains, they were not designed to go from funny memes and reels to...

deep educational content to personal development to dogs to books and flowers and everything in between that we consume in our feeds to news updates of a school shooting of somebody was killed. people are fighting about gun rights. Israel is being bombed. there's a war in the Middle East like all the things right there in the palm of our hand and so often lately I have been opening my phone

scrolling the news and thinking to myself, I hate it here. I hate it here. I hate it in Florida. I hate it in America. I hate it on the internet. And when I sat down and really think about what is it that I'm feeling, it's despair. I feel despair and I bet you do too. And here's one thing to remember as there is a lot of divisiveness in so many of these issues, although I don't really know how anybody is divided on whether or not.

It's okay for school shootings to happen and people to have access to guns, but it's not what this podcast is about. Is that everyone's feed is different? And I actually saw a post from Dr. Morgan Cutlip, who I recommend everybody follow. And she was talking about parenting and moms and how moms carry this mental weight of parenthood. And it shows up in our feed so much about your kid's developmental stage and

things that you should be doing and this danger and this fear and this tip and this hack. And often dads are not seeing the same thing in their feed. And that was such a powerful reminder because my husband and I had even been having a conversation the day before about what was happening and the death of Charlie Kirk. And my husband didn't really know who he was. And I knew who he was and had opinions based upon what I've heard and the opinions that I

Ruthie Sterrett (04:39.342)

in alignment with from the people that I follow. But he didn't have that same experience. And we got into some really, you know, much deeper conversations about just the world in general. And I just, it really hit me that like his feed is not my feed and no one's feed is your feed. So when we do get into the place of like anger and despair and just remember like everybody has a different perspective on the world and

that is reflected back to them in their feed.

Ruthie Sterrett (05:56.046)

Okay, so all that to say, I'm having these thoughts, I'm thinking about recording this podcast and I go and do some message, boxer messaging with my mentor, Julia, who's a coach, former therapist and always gives such great perspective. And she named the feeling and agreed like, yeah, you're feeling despair. And it's a lot about, because we cannot possibly comprehend everything that is happening.

all at once, everywhere in the world, and we were not designed to do that.

And it's heartbreaking because we do have access to all of this information. But if we stopped our business for every tragedy, we would never be able to pick our content and our marketing back up because it just keeps happening. And as I thought, like, well, who am I to say something and who am I to even talk about this? Her question was like, well, why wouldn't you? Because you're feeling this really deeply as a human.

and your community probably is too. So when we're thinking about whether or not we're gonna talk about certain issues in our content, there's a couple things to kind of gut check yourself about whether or not you're gonna talk about it. And also, if it feels really heavy and you need to take a break and put your phone down and step away and stop looking, that's okay too. And it's hard. I kept telling myself last night, like I'm not gonna get on social media.

not gonna look at this anymore and then what do I do? I pick it right back up because her brains are addicted to it. Our brains are actually looking for more information and I can't remember who I heard this from but what are we looking for especially in turbulent and traumatic times is our brains are seeking safety and they're looking for, it's looking for a signal that hey it's okay now or hey are there any more threats and we keep looking at our phones because that's where we get the information from.

Ruthie Sterrett (08:01.07)

So we do have to have strong boundaries and be aware of that. But let's go back to whether or not you should talk about a situation or not. So when I was in high school, a sophomore in high school, Columbine happened. And I think that was really the biggest for a lot of us in the 40s and 50s, 50 year old range, even late 30s. That was like a turning point in our lives. We were young enough to know what was happening and that was one of the first big school shootings.

And that was over 20 years ago. Today, September 2025, there have been 146 school shootings this year.

Ruthie Sterrett (08:43.529)

146. And within days, the freaking news cycle moves on. We scroll past it like it's never happened. Because we've become numb to it. We feel it in the moment, but we just move on because another tragedy happens and another tragedy happens. And so then coming back as a business owner, it's like, well, Colleen, what am I even supposed to do during all of this? Because we can't individually.

fix anything. My business alone is not going to end gun violence and yours isn't either. And while some of us are called to talk about things on the internet and others of us feel like I don't know if I should talk about this or not, what does this mean for my content? I think one of the things to remember is that if you're showing up with intention and deciding what to talk about, if you're, if you're having conversations about this issue,

offline, that's our first gut check. If we're not talking about the issue offline, there's no need for us to go talk about it online, okay? Because that's inauthentic. And I saw this happen when I was in the corporate space with the Black Lives Matter movement, that businesses, big, big businesses and celebrities and influencers, it was like, if you didn't put that black square up on your feed, you were getting canceled.

and

If you, it happened during COVID with people and stance on vaccinations and masks. If you weren't saying the right thing, you were getting canceled. And so then companies, brands were like, well, what do we say? And we have to go back to our values. And again, if you as a brand, as a business owner, as a founder, care about a specific issue and you're talking about it offline, that's your first gut check of whether or not it's okay to talk about it online.

Ruthie Sterrett (10:45.122)

You don't need to make a statement about everything. mean, literally you cannot make a statement and talk about and care about every single issue because there are too many issues. And Sharon says so, who's one of my favorite people to follow, highly recommend her book, The Small But Mighty.

kind of gives that advice. And she's a former government teacher and talks about, if you really want to make a difference, pick one issue that you really care about and work on that issue. We don't have to talk about all of them. And for me, one of the issues that really does rile me up and pull at my heart is gun violence, particularly in schools. And so that's an issue that I'm talking about. That doesn't mean you have to talk about it.

And it doesn't mean that your audience is going to align with you or may not align with you. And that's something that you have to be okay with in your own personal values. But let's get back to the fact that like our one statement is not ever gonna change everything. And let's focus on the small things that we can control. We can control how we support our families. We can control how we show up for our communities, meaning our friends.

our clients, our collaborators, the people that we hang out with on the internet. And helping people feel a little more capable, a little more hopeful, a little less alone. Because social media, guys, it's social first, it's media second. It's meant to connect people.

And at the consistency corner, what we do is we want to amplify the voices of brands that serve moms and connect moms to solutions that help them. I I truly believe at the end of the day, like moms are the ones that are going to change the world and they need help. So if your business is helping moms, I need you to keep talking about what you do so people know. And we can help you with that. I mean, side note, if you're like, I cannot do this anymore.

Ruthie Sterrett (12:55.182)

That's, we're here to help. But it can, I mean, it really does. It can feel impossible to show up on social media when the world is on fire. And in 2025, it feels like the fire just never goes out.

And if the clients that we work with, we're gonna show up with humanity and we're gonna align with you on your values and what matters to you and what issues you talk about or don't talk about and figure out the right way to communicate it. So in closing, couple resources that I wanna shout out and just share. If you're also like, okay, the world is on fire. I wanna throw my phone in the lake. I don't wanna consume any more content.

But also know as a mom, it's important to stay informed about what's going on without the fear mongering because we need to be informed so that we can lead our families, so that we can raise that next generation. Couple resources I love, number one, MoNews, the MoNews podcast is a great place to listen to the news. I am a MoNews premium member, which is $9 a month. It's 100 % worth the money because of the amount of context and information.

You get from MoNews is they are a nonpartisan news outlet. Second, Sharon says so. already mentioned Sharon McMahon, incredibly, incredibly smart woman and teaches us so much and is an amazing person and human in terms of her humanity. Sarah Wiles, a little bit more radical. I'll be honest there has a little bit of a salty mouth, but the girl is smart and she's she's very, very good with her research, her words.

She's a great communicator and humanizes people because the dehumanization that's happening in the media right now is a huge part of all of these issues.

Ruthie Sterrett (14:49.624)

And there was one more that I was gonna share, but now my brain is left as blank and I can't even think about, gosh, who was the other person? Sarah, Sharon, Mo.

you

Ruthie Sterrett (15:10.158)

A book that I read recently is called Cast. Okay, hold on, we're gonna start this section over.

Ruthie Sterrett (15:35.758)

A book or a couple of books that I highly recommend reading are Cast, The Origins of our Discontents. Okay, start over. Couple of books that I recommend for perspective and understanding of the greater world around us and in ways to kind of put what's happening today into perspective by Isabel Wilkerson, who I was introduced to her work from Sharon.

says so, Sharon McMahon. The first book is called Caste the Origins of Our Discontents. And then the second one is The Warmth of Other Suns. I'm gonna be honest, these are hard to read. But I found them incredibly informative and powerful.

Ruthie Sterrett (16:25.154)

And then if we're also looking for more smart women to learn from, the podcast Diabolical Lies, it's very long, long form. mean, it's like hours for some episodes, but the hosts are very smart and very well researched. And it's just another place that I've been able to consume some information that has been helpful outside of social media. So.

When circle back to what I want you to take away from our conversation today, it's okay to show up and acknowledge the heaviness and it's okay to keep moving forward in your business while also being a human. Consistency doesn't mean ignoring the world. It means showing up with intention. If you need a space to keep this conversation going and discuss with other moms who care about supporting moms,

and what that means for our marketing. I'd love for you to join our next social media mixer, which is on September 26th. It's part networking event, part workshop. We talk business, we talk life, we just connect and cheer each other on and navigate how we can all come together during the real conversations and things that are happening in the world because we don't have to do this alone. And I'm so thankful that you were here. I'd love to hear your thoughts and what you struggle with or how you

guide yourself in your business of what to talk about and when and how to manage your marketing when the world is on fire. So send me a DM on Instagram. Let's talk about it. And thank you so much for being here. I'll see in the next episode.