054 What? How can Pinterest manage stress? Well, as a busy entrepreneur, Pinterest is an "underestimated gem" for building your brand and audience. Today's guest, Anna Huff, is a Pinterest specialist and she's got LOTS to share!!
In this episode you will discover:
More info <<HERE>>
Connect with Anna:
FREE Content Batching Formula <<HERE>> and Instagram
054 What? How can Pinterest manage stress? Well, as a busy entrepreneur, Pinterest is an "underestimated gem" for building your brand and audience. Today's guest, Anna Huff, is a Pinterest specialist and she's got LOTS to share!!
In this episode you will discover:
More info <<HERE>>
Connect with Anna:
FREE Content Batching Formula <<HERE>> and Instagram
Hello and welcome to the healthy, happy and mostly sane entrepreneur podcast. I'm your host national board certified health and wellness coach and I are Vedic practitioner and mostly st entrepreneur Ellen Leonard. Each week, I share my obsession with helping you build a healthy life that works for you, your family, and your business. Because I don't think you have to sacrifice your own health and well being to be successful. So please stay tuned. For today's episode full of ideas to make staying healthy just a little bit easier. Don't forget to hit subscribe, so you don't miss out on future episodes. And speaking of staying healthy, happy and mostly sane, and today's show notes, you'll find a link to a freebie just for you. 24 ways to stress less, that's right click on that, download your free 24 ways to stress less. I have been a stress management consultant and coach for over seven years now helping hundreds of clients and students figure out how to manage their stress. So I took my 24 best steps and loaded them into a guide just for you. To get you started and help you start to manage stress. It's especially important this time of year, and I've got you covered. So today we get to talk about one of my favorite business tools. And that is Pinterest. Yes, you can use Pinterest for business. If you didn't already know that omg you are gonna love this episode. And if you already knew that Anna Huff, our expert Pinterest strategist today is going to help you understand not only what this can do for your business, right? How it can help you to really uplevel your business, but also how it can manage your stress. Because pins once you make one, and if you do it well. And it's got a bunch of keywords in it. And it's perfect for your ideal client. But it's just out there working for you on Pinterest. So Pinterest is so much more than just looking up, you know, recipes and things for your kid's birthday. I use it mostly for things about my chickens and gardening. But you can also use it for business and is in a huff is a Pinterest strategist who helps female creative entrepreneurs create compelling content in order to show up and serve. So they grow their email list and their business. And she's got a lot to share with you today. That's dive in. Well, thank you so much for being here today. Anna, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast.
Anna Huff:I am so excited to be here. Thank you for having me. Of course,
Ellen Leonard:of course. And, you know, I like to start off these episodes with you know, your origin story, because every amazing entrepreneur, like all superheroes has a great origin story. And I'd love to hear like how you got into this. Okay,
Anna Huff:well this kid get No, I'll just give me the the brief overview. So I started back in 2017, I really, really had wanted to start a blog for some reason, I just had this tug on my heart that I just really wanted to have a place where I could share with moms and I could share with other women the power of like having a home that was you know, something that was comfortable. And that was, you know, well decorated, and how that really like reflects on your well being. And I just struggled for so long with self doubt. And with feeling like, well, who's gonna listen to me? Or not just that but like who are, are my are my co workers going to make fun of me because I want to do this creative thing. And at the time, I was a teacher. And it was like, you know, if you're a teacher, you're supposed to live, breathe and eat, like teaching everything, you know, like you're not allowed to have like these outside passions. And I just felt this tug on my heart that I just really wanted to do it. But I was struggling with all these other things. And at the same time, I had just, you know, gone through, let's see, in the matter of like, what, five years I had, like three kids and so life was crazy. And it was constantly changing, but I have a lot of kids. It is a lot of kids. I feel like I was pregnant for like, ever for years and years. And now I'm like I'm done. I'm done being pregnant. And I just really struggled. I struggled with being a new mom and I struggled with my identity and I struggled with all of these things. And you know, that kind of compounded for me for a lot of years. Um, and I know we'll kind of talk a little bit more about this, but I you know, ultimately ended up being diagnosed with postpartum depression and you know, took over It took a lot of like me getting to like a really low point for me to get some help and really figure out what was best for me. But one of the things that I found was the most, you know, the most rewarding and therapeutic for me was really leaning into the things that I wanted to do. So all that said, I started this blog in 2017. And I started blogging and really took off and things were really great. And then, you know, I got a new teaching job. So teaching was a little less stressful, it kind of was for a while for me, and I got a new teaching job. And I ultimately decided that I just wasn't happy doing what I was doing as a teacher anymore. And I needed to do something different. And I had used all of my, you know, my knowledge of starting my blog, growing my blog, all of that, and I decided I was going to start my own business. And I was going to use what I knew about social and about content creation, and, you know, just hit the ground running well, COVID hit in March, and it was like my open door, it was like, Okay, let's do it. And so I did, I went for it and didn't look back, and I was able to quit my teaching job within a matter of like, a couple of months of starting my business, wow, things picked up so fast. And it was just really aligned for like, everything aligned for me the way that it needed to. And that's how I knew I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. And there was a lot of like, there was a little bit of hesitancy to quit my teaching job, because I was worried about the shame, sort of like involved in that. And if you know any of your listeners or teachers, they'll kind of know like, if they've ever had that poll to like, not teach anymore. There is a little bit of shame in that, like, people want to know, like, why you're quitting. And people wanted to, like, just assume that I was quitting to stay home with my kids. And yes, that was a big part of it. But you know, I had this this tug, and this pole, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. And so my business took off. And I started doing social media content management. And then I discovered that Pinterest was really sort of this like, underestimated gym. And
Ellen Leonard:I love it. So the best way to describe Pinterest,
Anna Huff:it's so is because it's so beneficial for your business. And it's so beneficial if you're a content creator of any kind. But it is just not. It's not thought of as you know, a platform that people are going to appreciate, you know.
Ellen Leonard:Yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And I want to go back for a second to some of the stuff you shared with us. Thank you so much for sharing so many personal things. But I think it's so interesting, it sounds like the common theme for you in your journey through coming out of your postpartum. And through finding entrepreneurship and making that transition from your nine to five was all about listening to your heart in what it was you really wanted to do. It really was.
Anna Huff:And that's something I've learned in the past, you know, few years, just in my journey of like, postpartum treatment therapy and things like that. It's just leaning into what it is that your heart tells you is right. And sometimes, you know, we try to fight that just like I'll just say, like, even with my business, and, you know, starting at six months ago, and then being where I'm at now, where I'm like, Okay, I'm ready to go straight Pinterest, let's do it. And I knew that kind of, you know, probably closer to the beginning. But I fought it for a while, right? Because no, no, no, no, that's kind of scary. You know, those big scary things are usually the things that like, our heart truly desires. And it'll happen eventually, you know, I didn't have to push it didn't have to force it. It does end up happening. But that is truly where I found the most happiness is when I do follow my heart. And I do listen to that and don't think about what anybody else is thinking. I mean, I think we just struggle with that, especially as women like, what are people going to think of me? What is my perception going to be because we are really kind of judged? You know, with this? Yes,
Ellen Leonard:we are.
Anna Huff:Way more than men are right.
Unknown:Totally.
Ellen Leonard:Yeah, you got the motherhood stuff rolled into that too. That's a whole nother level of of judgment from other women as well. Right? And then the teacher thing and all of that on top of trying to transition into entrepreneurship, which itself everybody listening knows that as an entrepreneur, you're constantly having to justify and explain what you do and it can get really frustrating because people just Don't get it. And you mentioned that you said people just want to do assume you were, it was all about staying at home with your kids. And you're like, Yeah, I do like my kids. But I'm also this awesome CEO who does stuff and it's almost like, they're trying to diminish it for us and experience of it and take it away from us. It's so interesting to me.
Anna Huff:Yeah, it is, it really is. It is like that people don't understand. Even now, when I tell them what I'm doing, people don't get it. And it almost is, I'll probably get to a point where like, I don't have to, like, feel like I have to explain it to anybody. I think I'm already kind of there like, what do you do? I do digital marketing, or I do Pinterest marketing, and people don't get that. But okay, whatever. Like, you know, you kind of get like these weird looks, but it's like, whatever. Are you happy? Are you are you fulfilled in what you're doing? You're not doing it. So people will go, Oh, you know,
Ellen Leonard:but isn't that funny that that's never the question that people ask. And I find myself more and more as in my journey of entrepreneurship. Those are the questions that I asked people. I'm like, What do you love about your job? What? What brings you joy? And most people are asking questions like, so what do you do? And that's just, I don't know.
Unknown:It's so
Anna Huff:what's the word? It's so like, almost just material. materialistic isn't the right word. But it is kind of like that, right? Like, we just want to know what people do because we want to put a label on it and life so much more than that. And you know, it took me kind of hitting rock bottom for me to realize that like, I'm sorry, I'm not happy. You know, I might tell people, I'm a teacher. And they might go, oh, my goodness, that's so great. You're a teacher, like, my mom was a teacher, or you know, my grandma's. I know how hard they work. And it's like,
Ellen Leonard:Yeah, we
Anna Huff:do work really hard. And, you know, it's not really fulfilling me anymore.
Ellen Leonard:Yeah, and I wonder how much burnout played into that too, because teachers do work really freakin hard.
Anna Huff:I mean, probably a lot, you know, burnout as a new mom and burnout as a teacher probably compounded into this, like, sort of moment where I was like, I'm done. I'm done. Um, so yeah, so it was more of a natural progression, though. I mean, it was kind of like this realization of like, Okay, well, if I do this, then this might be easier. This might make it easier for me. And then, when I got to that point, and it wasn't, it wasn't, it was easier, but it wasn't fulfilling still, it was like, oh, okay, I need to be doing something different. I need to be doing something that lights me on fire again. And then that's what I thought I would be doing with social media. And I got into that, and I was like, you know, this is really cool. My business was growing. And that was really exciting. Um, and then it kind of all sort of, like, hit me of like, this pressure of like, you know, with social media, with Instagram and Facebook, there's constant algorithm changes, and you feel like you're constantly like, trying to figure out how to beat the algorithm. And how does this person have like, 50,000 followers, and I only have, you know, 8000 followers or whatever.
Ellen Leonard:It gets really like, it feels like a rat race. And it feels like there's no real like, reward for it, you know, and I can hear the emotion in your voice as well, as you talk about how frustrating that is. And I'm guessing a lot of people listening are like, it is so exhausting. I know, I personally find Facebook and Instagram, I am a little better on Instagram, but I find Facebook to be just like, oh, it just, it sucks all the energy and life out of me. Like even if I'm just on there for a few minutes, I find it so challenging.
Anna Huff:Yeah, and you can get you know, you can really get lost in it. Like, if you're not careful, you can start scrolling. And then the next thing you know, an hour of your time is gone. And I mean, I'm sure the same thing can happen on Pinterest. But the power that I have found in Pinterest, is that it feels so much more genuine, it feels so much more real and like you're not Yes, Pinterest has an algorithm but you're not like constantly trying to figure out what that is so that you can like Race to the Top, you know?
Ellen Leonard:Yeah, and yeah, so it's got that element of predictability. And I find that when I you know, I use Pinterest slot for my business as as Anna well knows. Yeah, she helps me do better at it. But I like that predictability. But I also find that I like that. I'm not required to engage with people in ways that make me feel uncomfortable. Like you're not sliding into somebody's DMS being like, Hey, girl, what's up? Like, I mean, like all the advice you get for social or like having to post videos or having to constantly do This half Do you have to have to?
Anna Huff:Oh, my goodness, yeah. It's draining.
Ellen Leonard:It really is. And you
Anna Huff:only have so much of yourself to give. Right? Um, so it's like, are you going to give it to your Instagram followers? Are you going to give it to your family? I don't know. Really? Yeah, that's an easy answer, right. So I just kind of got to the point where I was sort of like, okay, and I knew that there were people, you know, like clients of mine, which is why they were paying me, right, obviously, because, you know, they knew that that was something that was time sucking and frustrating, and they just wanted someone else to handle it. But that's how so many people feel about, you know, social, and, you know, there's a lot of stigmas around social media, and especially with some recent Netflix specials that have come out, like, there is a lot of, you know, negativity around that. But the benefit of Pinterest, I feel like is that it sort of eases a lot of that, like, constant stress, you know, of like, I don't post something today, what's gonna happen, you know, nothing, right? Nothing's going to happen, it's going to be fine. You know, and it does allow you to, like, batch your content and batch ahead of time. And you can sit down and say, Okay, I'm going to do Pinterest today. And then I'm moving on, and I don't have to feel like I'm present. But it's still going to work for you for the rest of the, the month or whatever. And it's not really a social media site in in the same vein as like Facebook, or Twitter or any of those others. It's really just a awesome search engine, right? Yeah. So a lot, a lot of people will lump it into social media. And I get it. It is it's, you know, it's not, it's not a social media platform. But people lump it in there with. But it is it's a search engine, and it's a visual search engine. And so it's really powerful because you have content that needs to be searched. And if you have the right strategy, Pinterest can be the thing that sends people to your site. I mean, how many site you know, clicks are you getting on your Instagram? Probably not many?
Ellen Leonard:Yeah, let's not talk about that.
Anna Huff:People are trained to stay on the platform, right? Like now we're learning how to do reels. And you know, there's all these things. And Pinterest is still generating traffic on my blog that I haven't touched for six months, because I've been building this business. And I'm still growing over there.
Ellen Leonard:That's, that's so awesome. So, you know, I really want the listeners to understand what a powerful tool I mean, Pinterest is awesome. And, and you can go follow and learn all about all the amazing things it can do for your business. But I would love everybody to understand how Pinterest can support us staying healthy, happy and sane while we're running our businesses. And you already touched on a lot of that, but it just feels like it's such a powerful stress management tool, in particular, and especially around how we manage our time and how we manage our energy.
Anna Huff:Yeah, for sure. So, you know, if you're any kind of entrepreneur running a business, and you're feeling stressed, social media is probably adding to that stress, because you're feeling like you have to show up every day, and kind of turn yourself on and put on this face. And Pinterest allows you to show up for your business without that stress. So you can show up by you know, sharing the content that you're already producing on other platforms, like your podcast, or your blog, or whatever. And if your business doesn't have a blog, let's talk about that. Because, you know, even if you're not ready to jump into podcasting, you know, because podcasting isn't for everybody. A blog is a great way to utilize your your content to leverage your business. And so Pinterest just allows you to basically use that without having to sort of like, show up and drain yourself up all of this energy, because there's so many other places in your business that you need to show up. And not only that, it's going to work for you, you know, it's going to start generating traffic to your site. If you do it the right way. It's going to be really successful. Whereas with I think social media, we get it stressful because we feel like we're not getting the results that we want. And so as a stress management tool, Pinterest can alleviate some of that pressure while giving us the results that we want.
Ellen Leonard:And so it gives us a lot more time and space to because it's the I feel like the batching of it is one of the biggest sources for me personally, myself like I know I can batch that content. And I can I can batch out for months and just be done. I'm not saying that that actually happens. I'm not that with it.
Unknown:I mean, January, right? This Yeah,
Ellen Leonard:right. Yeah, this. We're recording this episode right now in early November. But I have planned out into January Anna, so proud of me. She's like, Yeah,
Unknown:I know, planning that content.
Ellen Leonard:It's almost like I listened to things that she says and then oh.
Anna Huff:So, yes, so you can reuse your content, where like, if you were going to post something on Instagram, and then post the same thing the next day? Not that you would do that? Right? Because people are gonna go
Unknown:read about a few days of art?
Anna Huff:Well, you know, people, it's actually true, though, people don't really actually see all of your content.
Ellen Leonard:No, but I get what you're saying.
Anna Huff:Yeah. So Pinterest, you know, allows you to reuse those things. Like, I could go back and repost blog posts or re repin blog posts that I had written, you know, two years ago. And it's going to generate traffic to my site. And if I had some sort of sales funnel setup, or something of that kind of thing, then it's going to be really valuable to me. But it's also going to, you know, at the same time, I'm not, I'm not showing up and having to recreate the wheel. So I saved myself time, which is sort of part of that stress management, right, like giving yourself more time to invest in yourself and, and rather than, like your business,
Ellen Leonard:and through everything that you've done, you know, you've shared so much with us today, you've, you really seem to have put things into place in your life that help you stay healthy, happy and sane. And I'm guessing Pinterest is one of them. And following what you love is very clearly one of them. But what are some other things that you do in your day to day life that help you kind of run your business successfully and still show up for your family. As the mom, I know, you love to be?
Anna Huff:I do. And you know, I found one of the biggest things is just reminding myself to be present in the moment. And so that is for me, if it's in the morning, when my kids are waking up, and we're getting ready for the day, it's like being present in that moment, versus getting caught up in thinking about all the things that I have to do for the day. That helps me to because if I'm thinking about everything I need to get done, and my kids are like, running around me like they need me. It's stressful. And so being in the moment is one of the things I you know, I wouldn't say I love to do it, because it's not something in it like comes super naturally. But it does, it does help and so that and then combined with like just moving every day. Because sitting at a desk in front of a computer doing, you know digital marketing stuff like can make you really stagnant. And getting out there and just moving my body is something that has been really valuable to my mental health in journaling, because also as an entrepreneur, your mind, or at least for me, I'm a creative entrepreneur. And so my mind is constantly running with all of these ideas. And if I don't have somewhere to put them, then it can kind of like keeps me from actually making any like steps forward and moving the needle in my business.
Ellen Leonard:Yeah, and I love that the first thing that you shared the being fully present. I feel like Pinterest allows you to do that more, because you're not always thinking about social Isn't that crazy? It does
Anna Huff:because yeah, I'm not waking up thinking about Okay, what I had to post the stories today or what do I have to make sure that I'm posting and, and commenting and data. It's just not like that on Pinterest. You're not expected
Ellen Leonard:that much. So an added benefit it helps to you to keep present in the moment. Every day. Absolutely it does. Yes. Yes. I love Oh, good. Well, so you know if people are like Okay, okay, settle down. You too. I want to try Pinterest. How can they find you, Anna? How are they? They're like, settle down. Ladies. Listen, I get it. Pinterest is awesome. And I clearly need to be doing it. Yeah, so how can they find you?
Anna Huff:Well, I would love it if they would find me. This is gonna sound funny, but they're gonna find me on Instagram and Midwest, social creative. And then also on Facebook, Midwest, social creative. And then we have a group for people who are wanting to learn more about Pinterest. And so if you find us there on Facebook, you can join our group and get in on all the all the inside stuff.
Ellen Leonard:And I will of course be linking to all of that in the show notes so that you guys can hook up with Anna and learn to love Pinterest as much as I do. Yes,
Anna Huff:yes. Everybody needs Pinterest in their life. And if you are just hearing of it, you can thank me later. I mean, you haven't just heard of it. But yeah, you can thank me later
Ellen Leonard:Yeah. Everybody's been on Pinterest, but are like, Oh, I could use that for my business. Well, thank you so much for coming on today and really talking about some of those really important mental health and just really prioritizing our health and wellness as we as we work in our businesses and for sharing your story with us. Yeah,
Unknown:thank you. I this was great.
Ellen Leonard:Thank you so much for listening today. I really do appreciate it. I hope you found that as valuable as I did. And I hope that you consider Pinterest as an awesome potential strategy for not only managing your your business and helping that to thrive, but also managing your stress and helping you to thrive as well. So of course, you can check out the show notes to connect with Anna and not only to find both of our Pinterest pages, but to also grab that free 24 ways to stress last guide to help you stress less in addition to trying to use Pinterest to manage stress, you can also use this guide. And don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes and have a healthy, happy and mostly seen week. I'll see you next time.