Ep 80. Instagram 9 Grid Strategy: How to Remain Visible on IG Without Burnout w/Ruthie Sterrett
In this episode, Ruthie Sterrett, the CEO of marketing agency, The Consistency Corner talks to us about the Instagram strategy for small business that allows you to have a presence without experiencing burn out on social media.
During the convo we cover:
- The basics of Instagram static 9 grids
- What to include in the 9 grid
- Where the 9 grid fits into the overall marketing strategy
We also hear about Ruthie's journey into entrepreneurship as a mom.
About Ruthie
Ruthie Sterrett is the Founder and CEO of The Consistency Corner, a full service marketing agency that provides CMO level strategy and done-for-you implementation for CEOs ready to take off the marketing hat.
With 15+ years of experience and wins like taking a $20M retail brand to $100M, Ruthie is uniquely qualified to help CEOs leverage marketing differently, and get back to leading their company and serving their clients. She is known for her optimistic and upbeat personality paired with a solution finding growth mindset.
In her spare time, Ruthie loves cheering on the Purdue Boilermakers while raising her family in sunny Florida.
LINKS & MENTIONS
Free decision guide to help you decide if a 9 Grid is right for you. Includes a 5 part mini series deep dive on the strategy with all the FAQs we may not be able to cover in our interview! https://www.theconsistencycorner.com/decide
Website: https://www.theconsistencycorner.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconsistencycorner
RESOURCES
- The Mom CEO Suite Masterclass Collection https://www.themomceosuite.com/masterclass
- CRM: Dubsado - Get 20% off your 1st month (if paying monthly) or 1st year (if paying annually)
- Livestreaming: Streamyard - Get a $10 credit
- Website Hosting: Showit - Get 1 month free
Connect with Phylicia
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IG: @phyliciapough
Connect with The Mom CEO Suite
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Instagram: @themomceosuite
Join The Mom CEO Suite Email Community
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Transcript
because so many of us, we get this like shiny object syndrome and think like,
Speaker:I'm going to do all the things and then we do all the things for
Speaker:like five minutes. And then we're like, oh, that didn't work. And I don't have
Speaker:time to do it anymore. And like, nevermind, nothing works. Well, that's not true.
Speaker:We just didn't give it time and we weren't consistent enough. So I love.
Speaker:Leveraging a nine bridge so that you can get your time back to
Speaker:do some of those other things to figure out which
Speaker:strategies actually work for you and your business. You are now
Speaker:tuned in to the mom CEO suite podcast. I'm your
Speaker:host, Felicia, wife, mom, and entrepreneur.
Speaker:In this podcast, I'll be sharing my mompreneur journey along with
Speaker:strategies that will help you build your online business operations
Speaker:in a sustainable way. The goal is to help you build a business that
Speaker:fits into your lifestyle as a mom who values putting family
Speaker:first. We will also hear the experiences and expertise
Speaker:of other moms with service based businesses. You'll get a peek into
Speaker:our journeys so you'll know that you aren't alone.
Speaker:Motherhood gets hard. Entrepreneurship gets hard. But
Speaker:together we can do hard things.
Speaker:Welcome to the suite.
Speaker:So, hey friends, welcome to another episode. Thank you so much for being here. I
Speaker:am excited to have a guest with us today. Um, Ruthie
Speaker:Starrett, she is the founder and the CEO of the consistency
Speaker:corner, a holistic marketing agency, supporting
Speaker:service based brands with 20 years of sales,
Speaker:retail, and marketing experience. Ruthie drives revenue growth
Speaker:with practical strategies and cutting edge
Speaker:content. Here's an example, a midsize retail
Speaker:brand. She led grew from 20 million to over
Speaker:100 million in revenue. So while business
Speaker:leaders are busy focusing on scaling, the
Speaker:consistency corner is the CMO partnership that brings
Speaker:coherence and efficiency in branding, marketing,
Speaker:and content creation. This is going to be so
Speaker:good. Hey, Ruthie, welcome to the suite. How are you?
Speaker:Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited for our conversation
Speaker:today. Yes, me too. We have lots to talk about. So before we hop
Speaker:right in though, just tell us a little bit more about yourself and really how
Speaker:you landed at this intersection of motherhood and entrepreneurship.
Speaker:I I love that question. So I am
Speaker:a. Current Florida resident originally from Indiana. So
Speaker:Midwest roots didn't like winter moved to Florida. Um,
Speaker:when I had my son eight years ago, he's eight now, I
Speaker:felt this like intense calling to do
Speaker:something to help working moms. This was like the height
Speaker:of the Pinterest mom era. And I remember thinking
Speaker:like, they all stay at home. Well,
Speaker:what about those of us who work like what are working moms doing? How are
Speaker:they figuring this out? And I was like, I don't know, but I'm going to
Speaker:figure it out. I'm going to figure out how to help working moms. And at
Speaker:the time I was working in retail, corporate retail marketing,
Speaker:and didn't really know what my calling was calling me to do. I
Speaker:just knew I wanted to help working moms. Now, fast forward, my
Speaker:son is now in kindergarten. really struggling in kindergarten and we
Speaker:had to change schools. And when we had to change schools,
Speaker:we lost our aftercare program. And so I had to go to my boss and
Speaker:say, Hey, um, I have to leave every day at two o'clock.
Speaker:And if that's not okay, well then, like I don't work here anymore.
Speaker:And that's exactly what happened. Six weeks later I resigned and
Speaker:knew in the moment that I sent my letter of resignation,
Speaker:that this whole hurdle we were going through with my
Speaker:son was sent here to get me to leave. So that
Speaker:I could actually start my business and do something to help
Speaker:working moms, because I was meant to start an agency to help
Speaker:other women continue to have the opportunity to work in their
Speaker:zone of genius with the flexibility to actually take care of themselves
Speaker:and their families. And that's also what we strive to do for our clients
Speaker:is to help our clients take Off some of the marketing hats, get
Speaker:marketing off their to do list because most business owners
Speaker:actually started their business to help people or serve
Speaker:people or for something other than doing
Speaker:marketing. And so we are here to take that hat off for them
Speaker:and give them their time back so that they can do that, doing what they
Speaker:love, what lights them up, um, or spending more time
Speaker:for their families or even taking care of themselves. actually
Speaker:love that. Um, so many things in the story. I think people can relate
Speaker:to the fact that it was a journey when you started it out. You're like,
Speaker:I want to help working moms, but not really sure what that was going to
Speaker:look like. I think so many of us, we start out like that. We have
Speaker:an idea. We have a passion for something, but we don't really know how
Speaker:to do or what we're going to do. Right. And now you have this
Speaker:agency. And so that's just a testament of sticking to it
Speaker:and just kind of working through all of the kinks, testing things out until you
Speaker:really land on your sweet spot. Right. and then it's also just
Speaker:interesting. I talked about this in past episodes about just how though. The work
Speaker:environment is not friendly to mothers. And
Speaker:that really kind of puts you in a position where you, you know, good for
Speaker:you, you were able to start your business, but sometimes for other people, it's a
Speaker:little bit challenging. but that is something that is a huge, huge
Speaker:issue, for women, for mothers, just this whole
Speaker:trying to work. and raise your Children, and we want to help
Speaker:to be able to make that intersection, easier, easier,
Speaker:right? Yeah, for sure. I mean, and even though I, you know, marketing is
Speaker:what I do, that's the niche that I'm in. I'm so passionate about
Speaker:number one as like a woman entrepreneur. showing
Speaker:the behind the scenes in the real life of being a mom, being a business
Speaker:owner, because I don't know anybody else, but my corporate background, every
Speaker:man that I ever worked for, every CEO I ever worked for was a man
Speaker:and CEO as a man looks different
Speaker:than CEO as a woman. And so I think as women, it's so important that
Speaker:we show each other How we're doing it, what's happening behind
Speaker:the scenes, the, the real amongst the highlight
Speaker:reel. And so I'm really passionate about that
Speaker:along with, like I said, giving other women that
Speaker:opportunity because you're right. Not everybody has the opportunity
Speaker:to start a business. I was so fortunate enough that I had a spouse that
Speaker:had a, strong enough income that could say, Hey, we'll be okay for
Speaker:a little while while you figure this out. And that he, you know, trusted in
Speaker:me enough to, to, to take the leap with me. But I know everybody doesn't
Speaker:have that. And so entrepreneurship isn't for everyone,
Speaker:but I think as a mom being able to do
Speaker:work that you love and being able to take care of your family
Speaker:should be for everyone. I love that. It should be for everyone.
Speaker:Um, so let's dig a little bit deeper. Let's talk about some marketing. I
Speaker:think, man, in the online space, when we talk about marketing, I
Speaker:think, you know, Now people just instantly think
Speaker:Instagram, right? But there's more to marketing, of course,
Speaker:and we can talk about that. But I think
Speaker:Instagram also comes with this, experience of getting
Speaker:burned out. Or just being a lot to handle, not
Speaker:being able to keep up. And I have just heard lots of conversations
Speaker:where, you know, especially moms, they're burnt out where they're over Instagram.
Speaker:Right. but it does have its high points, right?
Speaker:Instagram can be good for marketing. How can
Speaker:entrepreneurs, especially those who are moms, how can they
Speaker:maintain their visibility? Without being on Instagram
Speaker:all the time. Yeah. Well, first, let me share a little story
Speaker:back when I was in corporate, I was actually managing social media
Speaker:profiles for 16 different profiles. Um,
Speaker:I had my own little side hustle that I was trying to figure out on,
Speaker:you know, and I had my Instagram, but then like for the company I worked
Speaker:for, I'm managing 16 different social media profiles. So I'm spending a lot of time
Speaker:on the platform. And one day I'm scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling,
Speaker:scrolling,
Speaker:Realize 45 minutes has gone by and that amount of
Speaker:time that I just spent scrolling added zero value to my
Speaker:life. So it was like, what am I even doing here? Why am I
Speaker:spending all of this time on this thing? But I realized like working in
Speaker:marketing, I can't just. Give up on Instagram. I can't just throw in the towel
Speaker:because like 3 billion people are on Instagram and
Speaker:and in 2024 if we get
Speaker:recommended a product, a service, what do we do? We go look it up on
Speaker:the internet and so it's important to have a presence,
Speaker:but that doesn't mean we have to be on this constant, this
Speaker:content hamster wheel. And so a few years
Speaker:ago I had launched a new offer and I'm gonna be
Speaker:totally honest here. The offer flopped like. Didn't sell any and
Speaker:I was devastated, number one, but I was also burnt
Speaker:because in preparing for that launch, I had created a ton of
Speaker:social media content and I was just like sick of it and over it and
Speaker:I had heard about the nine grid strategy, which we're going to talk about today
Speaker:and thought, you know what, I'm going to give that a try. And if you've
Speaker:never heard of a nine grid, it is a visual content
Speaker:strategy that turns your Instagram into a mini
Speaker:website or a magazine cover or a billboard.
Speaker:And it's called a nine grid because you use the first nine
Speaker:posts on your grid and then you don't post any more.
Speaker:Because in those nine posts, you are telling
Speaker:the reader everything they need to know, who you are, who you
Speaker:help, the problem that you solve, how you help them, what
Speaker:additional resources you have, where else you might be hanging out if
Speaker:it's not Instagram, such as your email list, or maybe you're on LinkedIn, or
Speaker:maybe you do hang out in stories, but you point people to the right
Speaker:direction so that when they go to look you up, that box is
Speaker:checked for a professional and a strategic Instagram presence.
Speaker:But you don't have to think about what to post any more.
Speaker:And I absolutely love the nine grid. I have one up now and
Speaker:I put mine up. I think it was back in September.
Speaker:Actually, it might be time for a new one. But I did it right before
Speaker:my son was born because I just knew I wasn't going to be on Instagram.
Speaker:Um, so I know you said that you Implemented it and you tried it,
Speaker:you tested it out. So can you talk a little bit about when
Speaker:you did your experiment? What was life like for you as a
Speaker:mom and a business owner prior to the nine grid? And then after
Speaker:you implemented it, what was it like? Yeah.
Speaker:So once I put it up, first of all, I had a ton of fun
Speaker:creating it. Like I loved, I'm like a, I don't know. I like like pieces
Speaker:and puzzles and parts and putting things together. I reach all background. I was in
Speaker:merchandising and I like, I love to just like make all the product fit and
Speaker:figure it out. But yeah, That's what a nine grid felt like for me. So
Speaker:I love doing it, which also made me like realize, Oh, you should do this
Speaker:for other people because you like it. Not everybody does. But
Speaker:once it was up, it was like a weight
Speaker:was lifted off my shoulders because I didn't have to allocate
Speaker:time. Every week to content creation, every month to
Speaker:content planning every day to like, Oh, did
Speaker:that post go out? and you know, the, the dopamine
Speaker:hit we get from checking the analytics of like, did people like
Speaker:it? Did people comment? I just didn't have to worry about that anymore because it
Speaker:was like, this is here. Yeah. There is content in
Speaker:this grid that tells people what to do next, if I can help them,
Speaker:and if I'm not for them, like, okay, that's fine. And the other
Speaker:thing that it really helped is it gave me my time back
Speaker:so that I could actually focus on other things. Other marketing strategies,
Speaker:because like we talked about Instagram alone is not a strategy. It's a
Speaker:container and we should be marketing in other places, whether
Speaker:that's networking groups or participating in summits or
Speaker:bundles or guest speaking, email marketing, long form
Speaker:content. You know, I host a podcast, taking that podcast and turning it
Speaker:into a blog for my website. It gave me time
Speaker:back to do some of those other things. other things because I now
Speaker:no longer had to think about what I was going to post. And you know,
Speaker:you referenced that yours has been up since September and it might be time for
Speaker:a refresh. And that's a question I get from a lot of people is like,
Speaker:well, how long can I leave it up? And I typically recommend
Speaker:that people look at it after 90 days, every 90 days. And after
Speaker:the first three months, if nothing has changed in your business.
Speaker:Okay. Leave it up. Like that's totally fine. No reason to reinvent the
Speaker:wheel. If nothing has changed after six months, most of us
Speaker:have something that has changed in our business. Maybe we've got a
Speaker:new offer or we've tweaked the way we talk about something.
Speaker:Something usually shifts in six months. So every six months is a
Speaker:good time to go in and maybe refresh it. But the thing is you don't
Speaker:have to start from scratch because you already have one. So you
Speaker:can go in and edit, you can tweak, and you know, I've had
Speaker:people ask the question of like, well, okay, if I refresh it, um, do
Speaker:I take the old one down? No, just move it on down the grid
Speaker:and do another one. Like people evolve, brands evolve,
Speaker:and that's okay. And that's one question that I get a lot too, of like
Speaker:the first time you put up a grid, should you archive all of your old
Speaker:posts? has time for that. It's fine. Like, I
Speaker:like to do a little separation, so three posts
Speaker:that are like a solid color, or like my logo spread across three
Speaker:posts, and in the captions for those posts, just say
Speaker:like, Hey, you want to get to know me better? Feel free to look around,
Speaker:but everything you need to know is above this line and what's current And,
Speaker:you know, we talk about sometimes a question I'll get is like, well, if I
Speaker:put up a nine grid three, four or five months ago and people land on
Speaker:my page, are they going to think I'm not active? Because it was
Speaker:posted so long ago when it says like, three months or whatever.
Speaker:Here's the thing. It's a visual content strategy that we put together like
Speaker:a puzzle. So it clearly looks like this is
Speaker:intentional. And there's a story to tell in these nine posts.
Speaker:There's a journey that these nine posts are going to take you on. And somewhere
Speaker:in one of those either first or second posts, we'll talk about like,
Speaker:I don't post here regularly because I'm doing XYZ
Speaker:instead. And so then we're telling people and they know,
Speaker:Oh, this is intentional. But now I get to know everything that I need to
Speaker:know about this business instead of wondering, are they still in
Speaker:business? Oh, this is so good. Okay. So I hope y'all are taking
Speaker:notes. Ruthie just dropped a whole little mini masterclass for you guys.
Speaker:So I want to circle back to a couple of things you said. first let's
Speaker:go back up a little bit. we'll get more into the specifics of the
Speaker:nine grid, but can you talk a little bit more? You did touch
Speaker:on it about how Instagram is just a part
Speaker:of the marketing strategy and where it really fits in. Can you talk more to
Speaker:that? Okay. Yeah. You know, the Instagram gurus,
Speaker:they will lead you to believe on Instagram that it's the end all be all
Speaker:that it's the magic bullet that is going to save your business that is going
Speaker:to help you sell hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is just not
Speaker:true. There, first of all, there is no easy button. There is no magic
Speaker:bullet. So if anybody's trying to sell you that, like, please ask questions cause that's
Speaker:just not a thing. Um, but where Instagram
Speaker:can fit in the funnel is different for different
Speaker:people, but every single business needs to have
Speaker:places and strategies where they do three different things. Number one,
Speaker:attract new eyes to your business. So getting
Speaker:people to. Find out that you exist who don't already know you
Speaker:exist. That's called top of funnel marketing. If you're going to do
Speaker:top of funnel marketing on Instagram, the two ways
Speaker:you can do it are Reels, Because they get shown to people who don't already
Speaker:know you and ads, that's pretty much
Speaker:it. And ads cost money and reels you have to do like
Speaker:tons of them to actually make an impact. So
Speaker:right now we know, okay, maybe top of funnel, I need some other strategies like
Speaker:networking groups, participating in bundles or summits.
Speaker:guest speaking, guesting on podcasts, referrals,
Speaker:all of those SEO on the back end of your website and having
Speaker:keywords that people are searching. Those are all top of funnel
Speaker:strategies that we want to make sure we have in place. Then we
Speaker:move down the funnel. And once people know you exist, they're aware of
Speaker:your business. How are we nurturing them? How are we adding
Speaker:value? How are we helping them get to know us?
Speaker:Learn if we're for them or not decide if they
Speaker:like us and that can be done really well on
Speaker:social media that can be done with posts and a nine grid because now
Speaker:someone has found you and is reading those posts to get to know you.
Speaker:It can be done in stories because voice and your face, if you like,
Speaker:doing stories can be really effective for building relationships.
Speaker:It can be done through email marketing. It can be done through long form
Speaker:content such as your podcast or your blog or videos if you do
Speaker:video channels on YouTube.
Speaker:Before we move into the third phase, which is the convert or the sell phase,
Speaker:I want to remind you that not one piece of content
Speaker:or one platform can ever do all three. It just
Speaker:can't. And so we've got to be spreading our energy and our time
Speaker:out amongst the three different strategies and know that it's
Speaker:like this whole ecosystem that works together versus
Speaker:one thing. And so, like I said, the third phase is
Speaker:the convert phase, which is, you know, somebody opting into your email
Speaker:list, or maybe Purchasing from you. Um, and we can
Speaker:do that through email marketing. We can do it through direct reach out
Speaker:through, you know, DMS and conversations and sales calls. We can
Speaker:do it on social media with calls to action that drive people
Speaker:to that thing where they might purchase. And, you know, the cool thing is
Speaker:we have strategies and tools called like many chat.
Speaker:automations that we don't even have to be there to regularly do it,
Speaker:but knowing that that's not the only way to sell. Email
Speaker:marketing is something we all should be thinking about if we're not already. And
Speaker:so thinking about even how do we use social media to move people
Speaker:to our email list so that we can use those different platforms. Um,
Speaker:strategies and platforms and all of that stuff. When I work
Speaker:with clients, what we do is we figure out which one of those many
Speaker:options is the right one for you because there is
Speaker:no one right strategy. There is the right strategy for you
Speaker:that you enjoy doing that feels in alignment with your energy and your
Speaker:values that doesn't feel like a huge
Speaker:drain and time suck and that you can do at an
Speaker:intensity that will move the needle.
Speaker:Consistently, because so many of us, we get this like
Speaker:shiny object syndrome and think like, I'm going to do all the things and then
Speaker:we do all the things for like five minutes. And then we're like, oh, that
Speaker:didn't work. And I don't have time to do it anymore. And like, nevermind, nothing
Speaker:works. Well, that's not true. We just didn't give it time and we weren't consistent
Speaker:enough. So I love. Leveraging a nine bridge so that you can
Speaker:get your time back to do some of those other things
Speaker:to figure out which strategies actually work for you and your business.
Speaker:Yeah, I love that you said it's an ecosystem. You're totally right. We think it's
Speaker:going to be like this one thing or this one place that's going
Speaker:to get us that massive growth or whatever that we're looking for.
Speaker:But it truly is an ecosystem. and I love that you do this with your
Speaker:clients. It's fit to the client and what their goals are, what their lifestyle
Speaker:needs are, you know, how they are as a person. It's the same way with.
Speaker:like systems and tools, there is no one size fits all, right?
Speaker:Just because I use a certain tool and I love it does not mean that
Speaker:it makes sense for you, your business and your goals. Um, so you were talking
Speaker:kind of like in the middle piece of that funnel about the nine grid and
Speaker:how they can get to know you. So if somebody is, starting to build
Speaker:their nine grid. What makes it effective or what are some
Speaker:of the things that should be included in those different posts?
Speaker:Yeah, that's a great question. And we could probably spend nine hours
Speaker:talking about the nine different posts, like, to be honest. So I'll give you a
Speaker:high level overview that we want to include in
Speaker:Those different posts, who do you help? Who are you for?
Speaker:Who is the idle client? Because when we talk to everyone,
Speaker:no one listens. When we talk to one person,
Speaker:other people eavesdrop. So don't be afraid to talk
Speaker:to that one person and tell that one person that you're talking to them. The
Speaker:other thing is like who you are and what is
Speaker:the authority you bring to the table. Now that authority doesn't
Speaker:have to be like degrees or certifications or years of
Speaker:experience. It might just be a story that you tell. Your
Speaker:story that got you to where you are today. But sharing a little
Speaker:bit about you on a personal level and how that relates
Speaker:to your business. Um, and then if you have
Speaker:free resources, Sharing that in the grid because that's where we're going to
Speaker:have the opportunity to have a call to action to move people to our
Speaker:email list. And, you know, like we said, with many chat, you can have a
Speaker:keyword strategy where you say, you know, drop the keyword below.
Speaker:I'll send you the link to get this tool. This is what the tool does
Speaker:for you. It's also linked in my bio if you want it, you know, those,
Speaker:those kinds of little things. And then along with the free resource, your offer.
Speaker:So whatever your offer is, and this is the one thing that I want to
Speaker:say always should be in the center of the grid, like that main
Speaker:middle piece, because we're in business to sell something.
Speaker:So unless you're just doing Instagram for fun, like. If you're
Speaker:doing Instagram for business, like let's talk about your offer and make sure it's there.
Speaker:Um, and then one other thing that I really want to work with people on
Speaker:that we talk a lot about is your brand values. So
Speaker:knowing what your brand values are and weaving that
Speaker:into the content, whether it's through quotes or
Speaker:stories or even just language calling out why certain things
Speaker:are important to you, because that's going to help attract your tribe
Speaker:to you. That's going to make sure the right customers. are aligned
Speaker:with you and say like, yes, this person is for me because you're
Speaker:clear on those brand values and you're using them in your content to
Speaker:connect with the right audience. That's really good.
Speaker:Um, I hope y'all are taking notes I'm gonna say it again But if you're
Speaker:looking for an example I'm sure you include all of those things in yours and
Speaker:we'll connect ruthie's instagram in the show description So you can check
Speaker:out her page as well. Just go see an example and get some ideas
Speaker:But Ruthie, you do also support your clients in doing this for them,
Speaker:right? Yeah. Yeah. So I will say first, if you go look at my
Speaker:Instagram at the consistency corner, I'm extra. Mine is a
Speaker:15 grid. You don't have to do that, but like, I'm extra.
Speaker:So just know that, but you, we can get it done in nine posts. Um,
Speaker:but we offer at the consistency corner. We have some.
Speaker:DIY options, which are Canva templates to design it. So you're
Speaker:not starting from scratch. And then my all time favorite tool that I love to
Speaker:share with people is the planning pack. And the planning pack actually
Speaker:has prompts for all nine posts and
Speaker:chat GPT prompts that tell you what to tell chat GPT.
Speaker:So you get the right things out. And we talk a lot in that
Speaker:tool about how to connect the captions to the
Speaker:images and make it all make sense. As a puzzle,
Speaker:and I will say, if you're going to create your own nine grid, it takes
Speaker:around 15 hours, if not more to create one. So just know that
Speaker:up front. This is not like a 20 minutes. I'm in car line. I can
Speaker:throw this thing together kind of project. And it's not only is it
Speaker:like a maybe 15 hour project, but it's not one that you can really
Speaker:effectively do. in little short buckets. Like
Speaker:when I do one for a client, I map out three hour time
Speaker:blocks to work on it because to make it all feel cohesive and go
Speaker:together, it's important to give yourself that space to create.
Speaker:So if you're like, Whoa, pump the brakes, I don't have 15 hours.
Speaker:Um, I can do it for you. That's one of the things that we do
Speaker:done for you, nine grids. And we can either just get that nine grid
Speaker:done, put it on your Instagram, check. You're done. Or we
Speaker:have a package actually that will do a three month marketing plan with
Speaker:your nine grid. So you have that roadmap of what to follow
Speaker:outside of Instagram. Once it is, um,
Speaker:set it and you've like forgotten about what you're going to post anymore.
Speaker:Nice. And I'm so glad that you mentioned how long it actually takes.
Speaker:I know that when I went to do mine, I don't know why I thought
Speaker:it would just take me a couple of hours, but it definitely took a whole
Speaker:lot longer. And so in, I was going to ask you, in doing the
Speaker:next one, what are some tips that you have to be able to do it
Speaker:quicker? but you already answered that question, so we're good. You can get that, the
Speaker:pack. What did you call it again? I call it a planning
Speaker:pack because it's like, it's like a spreadsheet that you can make notes
Speaker:in. There's a brand checklist that is a lot of things you want to kind
Speaker:of get out of your head and on paper before you start. And
Speaker:then the chat GPT prompts for how to kind of go next and get the
Speaker:captions from AI. Okay. So Ruthie has all the resources for
Speaker:you. I would love to get your perspective on this. people have
Speaker:the nine grit, right? But there is also an option, if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker:that you can post a real And it
Speaker:not go to your actual profile? Is
Speaker:Yes, that's a yes. That's a really good question. And it's like a little hack
Speaker:that I share with people. So you can still post reels.
Speaker:Um, I love a reel for a podcaster because you're going to have clips of
Speaker:your show or just if you like to do reels, nobody has to do reels.
Speaker:But if we like to, when you post a reel, you
Speaker:can post it to your reels
Speaker:tab only. So there's a little setting
Speaker:that's like post this to reels tab only or post
Speaker:to. main tab or main grid and reels grid.
Speaker:Now that's a great setting. I'm thankful that Instagram
Speaker:gave that to us. If you schedule your reels and you're
Speaker:using either Instagram natively to schedule them or
Speaker:another tool or another platform, you can't use that setting.
Speaker:But you can always remove the reel from the grid so then it just moves
Speaker:back over to the reels tab only so it doesn't quote unquote mess
Speaker:up your grid. If you want to use a
Speaker:reel within the nine grid, you definitely
Speaker:can. What you're going to do is you're going to create a reel
Speaker:cover that has the graphic from that portion of the grid
Speaker:as the center. So it still fits into your grid
Speaker:puzzle, but there's a reel behind it. Oh, that's such a
Speaker:great tip and a hack. Okay, Ruthie has given us so
Speaker:much in this episode today and we could keep it going,
Speaker:so Ruthie, if you have any just final tips
Speaker:or words of encouragement, especially speaking to the moms in business, related
Speaker:to their marketing or Instagram, please share that with us. And then also
Speaker:how can people connect with you? Yeah. So
Speaker:when I, when we talk about nine grids, one thing that I will say is
Speaker:who a nine grid is not for. I want to kind of share that.
Speaker:If you are still figuring out who is
Speaker:your ideal client, how do you help them? What are your offers? Like
Speaker:you're still testing out offers and trying to figure things out. I
Speaker:actually encourage you to keep creating content because creating
Speaker:content actually helps you clarify your message. And
Speaker:so then it might not be time for a nine grid. Now, in
Speaker:that boat, or in any boat, if you're not ready to commit to a nine
Speaker:grid, you can use a three grid. So every
Speaker:single one of us can actually pin three posts to the top of our
Speaker:profile. And that's kind of like dipping your toe into
Speaker:the nine grid world. And I actually have really started doing
Speaker:this lately for clients who have a nine grid is we'll put a. three grid
Speaker:on top of the nine grid for whatever they're currently launching.
Speaker:And so it just allows you to use these tools a little bit
Speaker:differently, a little bit more strategically. So keep that in
Speaker:mind that you don't have to go all in. You can dip your toe in
Speaker:on this kind of grid static strategy, see how it
Speaker:feels and use it at different times for
Speaker:different reasons. You know, it doesn't have to be like a Yeah. I'm never
Speaker:going to post again for the rest of my life. Like, no, I have a
Speaker:client who she put it up for a month for summer vacation. I have people
Speaker:who might put it up at the holidays or people who will do a 9
Speaker:grid for a whole launch because instead of posting
Speaker:regularly during the launch, like, they just want to get it up there and they
Speaker:want to have a lot of information about the program or the
Speaker:resource or the. The tool that they're launching that you can't necessarily
Speaker:share in three posts. So they do it in nine. So just know
Speaker:that there's so many different ways that you can leverage the tool. And if you'd
Speaker:like to connect with me, send me a DM. I'm happy to answer questions in
Speaker:the DMs, um, or at the consistency corner, our
Speaker:website, you can find all the resources there and schedule a call. If you'd like
Speaker:to learn more about how us do one for you. And all
Speaker:of that is going to be in the show description and notes so you
Speaker:can easily connect with Ruthie. I don't know about y'all, but Ruthie has gotten me
Speaker:a little bit excited about Instagram right now.
Speaker:Yes. You know, and that is the thing is I love to talk about this
Speaker:with people that Who have kind of given up on
Speaker:Instagram or they're kind of over it or like, nah, just nevermind. It's not for
Speaker:me because it can get you excited again, because it's like,
Speaker:Oh, I don't have to do it the way all the gurus and
Speaker:people are telling me. And often what happens on Instagram is we see
Speaker:people selling courses that are going to teach us how to do the thing, but
Speaker:then we still got to do it all the time. Um, Or social media
Speaker:managers, which feels like it might be a right solution.
Speaker:But even with a social media manager, you have to continue to
Speaker:provide content. You've got to get them photos. You've got to
Speaker:get them updates for, you know, what's going on in your business. You've got to
Speaker:have the approval process. Like there's still a lot of energy that
Speaker:you're going to use if you outsource to a social media manager.
Speaker:And this like makes it so you don't have to do that.
Speaker:Love it so much. Ruthie, it has been such a pleasure having you on.
Speaker:I am going to, so I'm going to be updating my, my
Speaker:grid. I don't know if I'm going to do a whole nother nine grid. You
Speaker:mentioned something I was thinking about just doing the three grids and having some other
Speaker:things. The options are, I don't want to say
Speaker:endless, but it's a lot of options. There's a lot of options. Absolutely. And that's
Speaker:one of the reasons that like I do a call with people
Speaker:is to talk through the options and figure out what is the right
Speaker:option for you because there's not, it's not a cookie cutter
Speaker:strategy. There's a lot of ways to customize it for your business goals.
Speaker:Absolutely love that. And so again, we'll have all the information in the
Speaker:show description. So you guys can connect with Ruthie yourselves. Thank
Speaker:you so much for being here with us and guys, we'll see you in the
Speaker:next episode. Yes. Thanks for having me.
Speaker:Thank you for listening to the Mom CEO Suite Podcast. If
Speaker:you enjoyed this episode, can you do us a favor? Leave a review on
Speaker:iTunes and share with other moms in business like you.
Speaker:Help us spread our message and empower others who are at this intersection
Speaker:of motherhood and entrepreneurship.
