So many businesses get tunnel vision, blinders, or myopic in their marketing. They learned what works in 1989 and kept doing it. Observe. Who are your customers — really?
“Vacuum, Space in which there is no matter or in which the pressure is so low that any particles in the space do not affect any processes being carried on there.”
I recently had a late lunch / early dinner with my friend Rachel at Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern (and had an awesome margarita). During our lunch we were talking ideas and brainstorming in tornado fashion, as we do.
The topic of data came up. So, I was quoting that saying “lies, damned lies, and statistics” and I added “AND DATA!” I was discussing the idea of context when it comes to data. (more…)
If you’re to volunteer in the Open Source Movement or the WordPress Project, your whole health — physical, emotional, and financial — need to be a priority. I was honored to be the keynote at WordCamp Raleigh in 2018 on this subject. Special thanks to Pressable for sending me. They were also my client at the time.
Watch the Keynote: You Can’t Have a Thriving Codebase without a Thriving Community
(Timestamps are at the bottom of this post.)
What does code have to do with community?
Free and Open Source Software depends upon the community who builds, creates, maintains, supports, translates, and markets it. That means any Open Source project depends upon a volunteer-based workforce.
We all recognize that our livelihoods are somewhat attributed to the ability to use Free and Open Source Software — like WordPress — so we volunteer, contribute, to give back.
What about burnout?
It’s real.
We’ve addressed it before in many ways. So let’s talk about how what a thriving community looks like.
— Kate – The Realm’s Delight (@kathrynelspeth) April 28, 2018
What is a thriving community?
A thriving community realizes they can ebb and flow in and out of a project. They can contribute for months or years, take a break, maybe even mentor others, and come back — or not.
A thriving community recruits volunteers based upon inclusion, not guilt.
A thriving community isn’t burnt out or bitter.
A thriving community is healthy — physically, emotionally, and financially.
A Word About Perfection
I spent 14 years in construction accounting and my job demanded perfection. I spent hours looking for a penny if my bank reconcilation was off. Job costing had to be accurate. Contracts had to be perfect. I get it.
The problem with perfectionism is when we take a marketable skill from our career and apply it to our personal lives.
Progress is better than perfection. Done is better than perfect. Something is better than nothing.
Health comes in many forms: physical, emotional, and financial. And there are quite a few overlaps in these three distint areas, too.
It’s fine to talk about the abstract. In the conceptual, we all agree we should be physically, emotionally, and financially healthy. But are we?
And do we stop from iterating in our personal lives because we haven’t created the perfect meal or exercise plan, because we haven’t felt emotionally ready or because we have financial goals that haven’t been met? Maybe. But let’s take some actionalble steps toward progress.
The -er approach
Better. Faster. Thinner. Healthier. Happier. They all end in -er. This suffix communicates progress — not completion.
I’m going to talk about some of the things I’ve done in my life to be -er.
It doesn’t matter if we don’t collaborate together.
We are a community who understands iteration by collaboration. I put this on GitHub. Let’s iterate together.
Physical Health
1. My doctor wanted me to walk 60 minutes every day.
That was overwhelming and impossible. So, I walked some. I walked more. I walked longer.
First it was just 20 minutes once or twice a week. Taking photos to bribe myself.
Then it was 30 minutes. Now I do 1.5 to 2 miles three to four times a week. It used to be impossible.
I decided to subscribe to Special K protein drinks on Amazon Prime. Now I drink one every morning.
Sometimes, I forget to eat protein and then I remember. If you’re plant based or have other issues, find out what works for you. I’m not a nutritionist, just giving examples.
Actionable goals with incremental progress is the key.
What can you start doing today that will move your physical health in that direction?
3. Take a 15 minute nap at 2:30 pm.
The circadian rhythm is no joke. Set the timer on your phone and lay down – floor, bed, couch, wherever.
Close your eyes. Relax. Allow yourself to just be. You don’t have to sleep, you just need to rest.
If you want to level it up, drink coffee and by the time your alarm goes off the caffeine will have taken effect.
— Kate – The Realm’s Delight (@kathrynelspeth) April 28, 2018
Emotional Health
Emotional health is tricky and often it intertwines and weaves along with physical health.
My giant disclaimer is to follow professional medical advice.
Here are some things I’ve done to help promote my mental health.
1. Trust your soul with a friend.
I’m not a private person. So I need a team of people I trust. I call them SEAL Team 7. They know everything about me. I have to have people who I can brainstorm life choices with who will have empathy and constructive suggestions.
Opening your soul and being vulnerable takes great strength and courage. It also gives courage to your circle to do the same.
No one has it all together. That’s an urban legend.
2. If you feel pain, feel it. If you need to cry, cry.
I’m no longer suppressing my emotions, talking myself out of them, or allowing anyone else to do so.
No one can feel your pain for you. It’s okay. Cry. Wash your face. Take a nap. Get up and start the rest of your day.
3. Lexapro
After my husband passed, I was deeply thrown into grief. After time passed, it wasn’t lessening. In fact, my anxiety increased to the point that I felt like I was constantly outrunning an avalance.
I saw my doctor and she prescribed an antidepressant.
I remember clearly waking up last year on March 8 with ideas. For the first time in ten years my brain worked.
Financial Health
Financial health is also important to a thriving community. You can’t keep giving back when you’re so broke, you’re stressed and overwhelmed.
In my career journey that ended up with me as a freelancer, this is what I’ve learned.
1. Believe you are worthy.
If you don’t believe you’re worth $150 an hour, you won’t charge it.
If you don’t know how much time you spend on a project, you don’t know if you’re profitable. This also means taking into account your expenses. See this blog post about job costing.
"Stop undercharging for your hourly rate. Please and thank you," says @YouTooCanBeGuru as the audience breaks into applause. "Believe that you're worth charging more, because you are!" #WCRaleigh
This is where failure is a great teacher. Sometimes the ideas we have come from iterating on our own ventures that aren’t working. Be open and agile to new ideas.
Keynote Timestamps
00:02:27 There’s no way you can have a thriving codebase without a thriving community.
00:05:38 I don’t want to get fired from my volunteer job.
00:06:45 Even your own volunteer work doesn’t all have to be you.
00:07:20 When you do things for WordPress, you are a volunteer. And when it’s not fun anymore, don’t do it.
00:09:07 You forgot the joy of why you’re giving back.
00:10:19 Those kinds of skills that make us conscientious that make us excel in our careers and our paths are really bad for our personal lives.
00:12:30 Progress is better than perfection. Something is better than nothing. Done is better than perfect.
00:13:08 Your website shouldn’t be like the Money Pit.
00:15:01 I have a personal working theory, that more than 50% of the people drawn to the people working with computers come from dysfunctional backgrounds based upon my own social science data.
00:29:53 People do not know how long it takes them to do things. Just because it’s easy to make a website doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take time.
00:33:01 Your body is connected. It’s a big, giant ecosystem.
00:34:20 Guess how hard it is to tweet for those people who don’t write. If you don’t write stuff for your blog, it’s pretty hard to tweet stuff from your blog.
Communication is a science. I’m frankly tired of seeing it categorized as a soft skill as though it’s less important. Of course communication includes data. The trick with communication professionals is that we read and respond to data live.
Are soft skills “hot air?”
I saw this Venn Diagram and was offended at best. (By the way, did you know that you can create Venn Diagrams on Canva?) Business people (marketing, sales, finance) are not inferior to software developers, engineers, and/or front-end designers. Every specialty has its training and technical side. Let’s respect expertise for what it is — expertise.
Thanks for commenting, Bridget. I did not create the Venn diagram, nor do I endorse it or its labels. It is used as a counterexample for classifying data science in an over-exclusive way.
Firstly, the fact that one didn’t create an image doesn’t remove one’s responsibility for it. What if it were hate speech? Why is it acceptable in the tech community to demean soft skills?
To be fair, this diagram and discussion brought something to the surface that I’ve been encountering since I began marketing as a career.
Data Requires Context
Sure. Pour over the data you have in Google Analytics. Make charts. Create ratios. Create forecasting models. That’s needed. I’m not against data.
But data alone isn’t the whole picture. Recently, a client noticed a drop in leads from Yelp. Is it because Yelp isn’t effective? That was the conclusion all too easy to jump to. Yet, what has changed? Quite a lot, actually. We began advertising on Facebook, we launched a new website with regular blog posts, and we started an Instagram account. Yelp isn’t less effective, it’s simply no longer the only star in the sky of data.
Context, a story, matters when interpreting data. That comes with soft skills. Anyone can collect data. But can you ask the right questions to interpret the data?
Brené Brown is now famous for saying, “Maybe stories are just data with a soul” in her TED talk. Stories give context to data. This is what makes data powerful. Otherwise, any data can be manipulated for any purpose.
“Figures often beguile me particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.’” Mark Twain
Are soft skills scientific?
They are. This is why behaviorism is a part of psychology. There are plenty of studies that look at inflection, tone, word choice, gestures, facial ticks, and body language. All of this is data. It’s being streamed through our senses and interpreted in real-time by our brains.
Soft skills are scientific. We call them soft because it’s hard for us to define.
Those with business, marketing, sales, and communication skills read a different kind of data: it’s human data. It’s behavior and behavior patterns. We analyze body language, inflection, and tone. We decipher patterns and predict behavior in real-time in order to adjust the conversation for affinity.
Whether online or in-person affinity is key. Affinity leads to loyalty. Loyalty leads to sales. Of course, data is important, but it’s good to be reminded that data is a look at the past, not in the moment. Collected data is the autopsy. Soft skills are preventive medicine.
“I’ve concluded that that data has the most impact when it’s wrapped in a story. …Data won’t get you standing ovation; stories will. Stories inform, illuminate, and inspire. Tell more of them.” Carmine Gallo, Harvard Business Review
Social Media Managers are awesome. They’re so awesome, in fact, that they get mind-blowing (read: unreasonable) requests.
My friend Carol Stephen wrote a post called “What Can a Social Media Manager Do For You?” In that post, she includes items such as research, deciding when to post, and choosing hashtags.
I thought it would be fun to do the opposite.
I love it! Please write it (and tag me so I can retweet it!). Also, they won't wash your car, write fake Yelp reviews, or do 200% more than they were asked to do.
10 Things Outside of the Scope of Social Media Management
A social media manager should not:
Care about your business more than you do.
Be a videographer.
Be a video editor.
Be a professional photographer or editor.
Be an expert in InDesign, Photoshop, et al.
Design logos or creative.
Build your website.
Be a technical SEO expert.
Be an expert in paid advertising.
Be a professional copywriter.
Even though many social media managers have specialized training in marketing, these requests are way out of the scope of social media management. Especially if you’re underpaying them or (god forbid) are using a VA.
How Much Should I Pay a Social Media Manager?
Paying a social media manager what they’re worth is directly correlated with the quality of the postings. I strongly recommend against hiring someone on an hourly basis since social media management isn’t a 9-5 job.
With that said, ZipRecruiter shows that the average salary of an in-house social media manager is $62,638 (2025) in Corpus Christi, TX. The low is $23,666 a year and the highest is $105,773. What surprises me is that nationally, ZipRecruiter shows that the average is just above Corpus Christi’s, which isn’t an affluent area.
In contrast, I have flat rates based on the platform and scope. If you want the pro level of Twitter/X, for example, that’s going to cost you $1200/mo. But if you want the low end, it’s just under $400.
Who Typically Hires a Social Media Manager in a Large Corporation?
A Marketing Manager ($85k+/year) will most likely be responsible for the entire list but outsource quite a few marketing tasks to vendors.
A social media manager who bills for the work, not the time, is easy to get a hold of and has a good account of their own. A Marketing Manager will likely hire a social media manager to work under them.
Social Media Managers Free Up Your Time
Have you thought about outsourcing social media? It’s a great way to grow your business and free some of your own time. Having realistic expectations helps you value what a social media manager actually does.
A good social media manager will represent your brand online and off. They will post content created by your editorial staff (content creation is another job). They will post photos taken by your team (or professionals you hire) and write captions and add hashtags. Your social media manager will interact with your audience (known as engagement) with your best interest in mind.
Do You Need a Social Media Manager for Your Business?
What kinds of questions can I help you answer or problems I can solve. Let’s roll up our sleeves and do the work.
So, you’re a small agency or freelancer. How do you market your WordPress freelance or small agency? My recommendation is content marketing through creation and distribution.
What is Marketing?
Marketing is using resources to bring your product or service to the attention of your customer (the market). So you have to dedicate resources (time, personnel, and budget) to tell people about your business. What are the best ways to do that? Here are some of my ideas.
