Know When to Tune Out the Guru Advice and Trust Yourself

Ten years ago, I never could have imagined that I would be where I am right now, and if you are feeling discouraged when it comes to social media, I want you to know that so much can change in just a year. When I first started out on social media, there were no “rules” but now Instagram is flooded with “guru’s” telling you what to do and what not to do. Not only did it suck all the fun out of social media, it can get confusing with all the conflicting information. 

So instead of feeling like you’re doing everything wrong when it comes to social media, I want you to think about the advice you’re listening to, does it fit into your life? Does it make sense for you and where you are in life right now? 

Human connection is the heart of social media, so don’t stress about having perfectly polished content, I want you to keep sharing your heart and making people feel seen in the process. That's such a huge gift and it's helping people become obsessed with you because you get them. How cool is it that you can post a few times a week, show up in stories, document your days in simple ways, and make people feel connected to you and like you're their friend.

Featured content in this episode:

• What I would post for you this week

Recommended episodes:

• Episode 30: Attract New Followers with Talk to Camera Reels
• Episode 41: Let’s Make Content Creation the Easiest Thing on Your To Do List
• Episode 74: How to Humanize Your Account When You Feel Stuck in Business Mode
• Episode 92: This is the Era of Experiences and Belonging
• Episode 94: You Want Your Content to Fit Your Life, Not Become Your Life

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Transcript

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:05]:
I am your host, Shannon McKinstrie. Welcome to Good Content, the podcast where I remove the never-ending content creation guesswork and overwhelm so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked— good content. Hello, welcome to the Outer Banks. I think this is probably one of the only times I've done a podcast episode here. We're kind of stuck. There's a crazy storm that's about to hit. Back home in Raleigh. So we've been down here, so we're like, maybe we just, uh, stay another day and stay safe.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:37]:
So, whoo, praying. Just crazy storms these days, man. So we got Chloe here. Cam, our tween, is still sleeping, naturally. But I didn't know what I really wanted to talk about this podcast episode, but something happened yesterday, which is— it's a perfect time to talk about it. So yesterday I get a DM from a friend, actually someone I've met, and I want to talk about, um, a little bit about how I'm pinching myself, right? One, that we have this beach house, that this, this business I have has allowed us to do things like this, like go to the beach on a random weekend in March because there's a fun St. Patrick's Day parade here. You know, I never ever could have imagined that this would be our life.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:16]:
Like, literally never could have imagined, um, when I first started this business 10 years ago. To give the story real quick, you know, I've been in marketing, media and marketing. Well, I studied TV production in high school. We're talking late '90s. Hello, it was, I was doing everything on VHS. Like, I studied TV production because I went to a taping or a live recording, taping, whatever you want to say, of SNL back when I was 16. No Doubt was the musical guest. Um, it was '90, gosh, '96, '97.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:45]:
And my mom actually had a friend that worked at NBC at the time. So I, you know, I naturally freaked out. No Doubt's gonna be there. She got phoned her friend, um, pre cell phones, pre-texting days. And he was like, yeah, got you, got us in. And watching all the movement at SNL, like the people running from set to set, I was like, this is what I wanna do. And since I was old enough to hold the family camcorder, my dad's, which was like 18 million pounds, I've been documenting. I mean, I drove my family crazy, but it's all good now.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:17]:
I think they're, I think they're okay with it now because it actually was a passion, not just me being annoying. It's just been, it's in my blood. This is what I've, I do. Okay. Then went on to Virginia Tech, studied television production. I continue to study journalism, marketing, et cetera, blah, blah, blah. Went on to my dream job, quote unquote, at CNN, but that was during Katrina, the tsunami. I mean, it was horrific, the things I witnessed.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:41]:
Lots of trauma there. Ended up then going, what do I do with my life? I actually didn't want to be in the newsroom. I thought I did. I wanted to direct, right? And then I bounced around to sales and marketing jobs for years and years and years. I never made more than about $50,000, $55,000 in any of my corporate jobs, right? I was the shy girl that was like, please no one call me on a conference, in the conference room. I did not feel like I knew what I was doing. I honestly just never fit into that world and I felt very intimidated in those, in that environment. I was just kind of the social butterfly of the office.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:18]:
That was what I liked most. I liked going out for happy hour after work. Uh, just going cubicle to cubicle to be like, guys, what do we think of the latest episode of The Bachelorette? But yeah, it just, I never felt myself. I never felt like any skills I had were useful to anyone, which sucked. Right. So again, made $55,000 a year. And at CNN I made in the 20s. Okay.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:38]:
I made $28,500, I think was my salary. Crazy. Even back then, that was crazy. So I never ever thought, and I hate to say it like this, but honestly that I would amount to anything. My dream was, you know what, I just can't wait to be a mom. Like that was always also a dream. So I was like, well, if my love of, if all my skills do not make money, which is documenting and taking videos, and this was before social media, I was like, well, at least I'll, you know, sit in this cubicle the rest of my life, make a decent salary. You know, for years, like I had to say no to friends being like, hey, let's go to Miami.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:11]:
I'd be like, I don't have the money. I can't go. Or, um, hey, let's go out to this nice dinner. I'd be like, yeah, I ain't got it. So. The fact that I'm sitting in our beach house is crazy. 10 years ago, I would've been like, you're absolutely insane. So I just wanna say that to say so much can change.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:29]:
So much can change in a year. We have seen people on social media blow up in 3 months, right? And it, it changes their entire life. You don't have to wait 10 years. 10 years ago, the, the reason it took me 10 years is because no one took what I do seriously 10 years ago. Now here we are, right? So with that said, I just wanna say that. And I think why I love what I do so much and why I have been able to get here is because there were no rules then. So that way when people started coming out with rules, like all these gurus and these marketers that whatever, don't get me started, it was sucking the fun out. And I was like, why are y'all listening to them? I have done nothing they're saying to do.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:05]:
And what's crazy is I would tell people, go look at your favorite creator, go look at the brands that you're obsessed with. Are they doing what these people are saying? And every time someone's like, No, it looks nothing like what the strategy that someone's preaching. And I'm like, exactly. So why are you listening to them? And also as a side note, um, if you're watching on YouTube, you see Chloe's having some iPad time because that's the realness of my life, right? School's canceled today because of the storm. I need to get this podcast out and obviously the day got derailed. So now we're getting our lives together, going to go find a fun activity to do after this. But I don't have a life where I have hours to create content, hours to create podcasts, hours to do whatever, right? We. So a lot of the stuff out there too, I tell people is like, is the advice you're listening to, does it fit in your life? Do you have time to be a full-time content creator? No? Cool.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:53]:
Neither do I. And I'm still able to do what I do. So with that said, just be careful. And the reason I chose this to be just so that you guys understand like how I got here and all the stuff that I did that was not in the quote unquote rule books, not that there should be any rule books, but that I was able to get here. So. Any advice out there that is too stressful, is not working, throw it out, throw it out. And also on that note, and the reason this all came about, so yesterday we're at a St. Patrick's Day parade here in the Outer Banks.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:23]:
It was so fun. And I get this DM from a friend. I spoke at Social Media Marketing World last year and I got to meet her and she's also in the social media world, right? And I'm a keynote this year, which is crazy, next month. And I'll be talking a lot about this, like kind of like social media, getting back to basics. Like we're just on here to connect and we just want to connect with humans., and so much of the content out there telling you what to do to grow on Instagram literally takes human connection out of social media. So make that make sense, right? So she let me know, she goes, Shannon, I just want you to know there's a reel, uh, referencing, references a lot of people, but one is me saying yapping, quote unquote, videos where we just yap to the screen, right? Are making your services look cheap. Okay. Which is so funny.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:08]:
It's just this, it's the typical social media marketers out there that I'm just like, what are we doing here? Like what? What? So I love yapping to the camera. I also love having fancy carousels. I do a mix. There is no one way. If you look at even Diet Coke, you'll see their content is not even polished anymore, right? Like we are getting more back to natural, off the cuff type feeling content, right? So for her to say that is just like, one, crazy, but also two, it doesn't help anybody. And. I took it upon myself to make a reel about it and tell people, you know, this is why you have to be so careful about who you take advice from. So this is not to lash out at this person.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:51]:
This is not to, um, say my advice is the best. No, it's literally almost like choose your fighter. Like when it comes to creating content, take advice from the person who makes it make sense for you. There's people out there who do things totally different than me and they're doing great. And what I said in the video, right? If she thinks my yapping videos make my services look cheap, well, that's kind of crazy because I'm literally a keynote next month in my dream conference. I've built a 7-figure business and my clients who do similar content as me because they live crazy lives. They are either still at a 9 to 5 and this is a side hustle or they've got kids or whatever it is. Their content isn't crazy polished in a studio with good lighting either, and they're doing great.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:37]:
And a lot of my clients, just so you know guys, only post 3 to 4 times a week. Most of them, majority actually. Um, so with that said, there's a lot of advice out there. I just wanted this to kind of be one of those episodes where you just kind of, right? This should be the fun part. I repeat, this should be the fun part. Because if you think about it, what you're doing is sharing your message. What you're doing is helping people. What you're doing is helping people feel seen and inviting them into your world and sharing why you love what you do and sell the products you sell and open the coffee shop you open and did the journey you're on.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:13]:
You're sharing your heart, but you're also making people feel seen in the process. And that's such a huge gift and it's human connection. It's helping people. Just become obsessed with you because you get them. There is a loneliness epidemic, right? So how cool is that, that you can put a post up a few times a week, show up in stories, document your days in simple ways, and make people feel connected to you and like you're their friend. How cool is that? It's really stinking cool. So if you are right now, like, I'm going to throw in the towel, I'm going to lose it. You're freaking out.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:47]:
I get it. I hear it all day long. This might be a sign to stop listening to a lot of the people out there. Because I already know who a lot of these advices is coming from. And that reel last night in particular, calling out me and other very successful people's content, saying that the way that we are teaching content is making people look cheap, is wild. A wild take. Not to mention those yapping videos. Reese Witherspoon's doing them now.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:10]:
Hoda Kotb's doing them now. So like, let's just stop with the nonsense. And again, I'm not even mad because I already know my people would never listen to that. But I worry about the people who are just getting into this and just getting started seeing content like that. Like, that sucks. So this is just one of those episodes to say, hey guys, come on in, come back. Let's listen to previous episodes. Grab the hooks that I share every week.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:32]:
I am sharing today a post of a whole week of content for you with the captions. So go to it, test it, think about your people, get to know your people. What do they need to hear today? What are they frustrated with? What are they scared about? What can you do to help them pause and just Just breathe a little lighter. There you go. Same goes for products, right? I love it. People are like, well, I just sell candles. I just— no, you sell identity and taste and making people's houses smell good or being able to gift their mom something special on Mother's Day or their dad on Father's Day, make their Easter, Passover celebration look more whatever. Same for products.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:08]:
All right. I'm going to wrap this up because I'm going too deep and I just wanted you guys to know that. It's okay. When you hear advice out there, take everything with a grain of salt, even mine. Okay? I love you, friend. You've got this, and I'm so proud of you. Talk to you next week.