Social Media Without the Burnout with Ruthie: Social Media Strategy for Busy Entrepreneurs with Guest Expert Ruthie Sterrett

As a mom of two running a growing design studio, I know how overwhelming it can feel to keep up with content, stay consistent, and also keep small humans alive. That’s exactly why I brought social media strategist Ruthie Sterrett onto The Self Made Life Podcast to talk about what a realistic social media strategy for busy entrepreneurs actually looks like.

Ruthie has over a decade of experience in corporate retail marketing and now runs The Consistency Corner, helping brands who serve moms show up consistently without burning out. This episode is part two of our conversation (part one is over on her podcast) and it’s packed with reassurance, strategy, and permission to build a plan that fits your real life.

The “shoulds” in your marketing (and why they’re so loud)

We kicked off the conversation with a story every parent gets. Ruthie’s fourth grader was exhausted one morning and just could not get out of bed. She had two choices:

• force him up, fight, yell, rush, and get him to school on time, or
• give him the extra 20–30 minutes of sleep he clearly needed, accept a late slip, and protect their peace.

She chose the second option and decided not to shame herself for it.

That moment turned into the perfect metaphor for marketing. There are people on the internet “shoulding” all over you:

I should post more
I should be on TikTok
I should be doing trends
I should go live
I should be on every platform

The reality is, many of the people yelling these shoulds are full-time content creators. Their job is content. For most of us, that’s not the case. You’re a designer, photographer, coach, organizer, therapist, florist, or founder first. Content supports your business — it’s not your entire identity.

A sustainable social media strategy for busy entrepreneurs has to start with your real capacity and the season you’re in, not what someone on the internet says you “should” be doing.

Social media is a container, not the whole strategy

One of my favourite reframes from Ruthie was this:

“Social media alone is not a strategy. Just like a coffee cup isn’t coffee — it’s a container.”

Your Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or Threads are containers for your message, not the message itself. They’re also not meant to carry your entire marketing plan on their back.

Instead of building everything around one app, Ruthie encourages looking at your marketing from a 10,000-foot view:

• Top of funnel – where new people discover you (Reels, SEO, podcast guesting, events, referrals)
• Middle of funnel – where you nurture them (social posts, email, podcast episodes, blogs)
• Bottom of funnel – where you convert them (sales pages, DMs, email funnels, application forms, discovery calls)

Social media can show up in all three stages, but it shouldn’t be the only thing in every stage. That’s where burnout happens, especially for moms and multi-passionate entrepreneurs.

So before you worry about posting frequency, you need to ask:

• What role do I need Instagram to play in my business right now?
• Is it discovery, nurture, conversion, or a mix?
• What’s realistic for me in this season?

That’s the heart of a grounded social media strategy for busy entrepreneurs — one that honors your goals and your life.

Ruthie’s 5 C’s for consistent marketing

Inside the episode, Ruthie walked us through her 5 C’s framework, which she uses with clients to create sustainable content systems.

1. Conversion

Start with your business goals.

• Do you want more 1:1 clients?
• Are you trying to book out a specific service?
• Is your priority list growth, podcast downloads, or workshop sign-ups?

Without clear goals, it’s impossible to build a social media strategy that actually moves the needle.

2. Campaigns

Next, look at your campaign calendar.

For brands that serve moms, this often syncs with the school year:

• Back-to-school
• Holiday breaks
• “May-cember” chaos
• Summer slowdown

Your content should reflect what your ideal client is actually experiencing in their life. If your audience is in launch mode, burnout mode, or school-lunch-packing mode, that context matters more than the latest trending audio.

3. Clarity

Then, focus on brand clarity:

• Who are you talking to?
• What problem are you solving?
• How do you want them to feel after interacting with your brand?
• What makes you different from others in your space?

This is where strong branding and clear messaging make everything easier. When your message is dialed in, creating content that resonates becomes simpler and faster — especially important when you’re working naptime to naptime.

4. Content Strategy

Only after you’ve defined your goals, campaigns, and clarity do you move into the actual content strategy:

• Which platforms make sense for your business and capacity?
• How often can you show up sustainably — 2x per week, 3x per week, daily?
• What content types support each funnel stage (Reels, carousels, stories, emails, blog posts, podcast episodes)?
• How will you repurpose content to save time?

This is where a social media strategy for busy entrepreneurs really comes to life. Instead of posting randomly, your content becomes a layered, purposeful plan that supports your offers.

5. Consistency

The last C is consistency — both in terms of routines and metrics.

You don’t have to track every single number, but you do need to know:

• What content is bringing in new eyes? (often measured by impressions or reach)
• What content people are saving or sharing with friends?
• What content drives replies, DMs, or clicks to your site or offers?

Ruthie shared a “success equation” she learned from a mentor:

Time + Consistency + Intensity, multiplied by Belief

If your efforts are too light, they might never gain traction. If they’re so intense you can’t sustain them, you’ll burn out. The sweet spot is finding a level of output you can actually keep up with and trusting that, over time, it will add up.

The Instagram 9-grid + layered marketing

One tool Ruthie and her team love is the Instagram 9-grid, where your grid becomes a mini website. Instead of posting daily, you use those nine tiles to communicate:

• Who you are
• Who you serve
• What you offer
• How people can take the next step

The 9-grid doesn’t replace the rest of your marketing. It simply turns your profile into a clear, polished “online business card” so that when people find you through referrals, networking, events, podcasts, or SEO, your Instagram isn’t an empty or confusing place.

The key is remembering that every piece of your marketing has a job:

• Your website might be the full online home
• Your 9-grid is the foyer
• Your email list is the cozy living room
• Your DMs or contact form are the kitchen table conversations where real decisions happen

When your marketing is layered like this, social media stops feeling like the whole world and starts feeling like one powerful piece of a bigger system.

Measuring success when most people are lurking

We also talked about the reality that many of your future clients are silent lurkers:

• They binge your content quietly
• They rarely comment
• They might not respond to your polls or engage with your Reels
• Then one day they fill out your inquiry form and say, “I’ve been following you for months.”

That’s why likes alone are such a shaky way to measure success.

For busy entrepreneurs, it’s more helpful to ask:

• Are the right people watching and returning to my content?
• Is my content clear about what I do and how I help?
• Does Instagram support my bigger strategy — my website, podcast, blog, or email list?
• Are conversations, referrals, or inquiries increasing over time?

Numbers matter, but they’re only one part of the picture. Human behavior, relationships, referrals, and trust are just as powerful.

Outsourcing without guilt

Toward the end of the episode, we got into outsourcing and the “I should be able to do this myself” guilt.

Ruthie’s take?
Look at what drains you and what gives you energy.

If social media, bookkeeping, editing, or admin tasks leave you exhausted, that energy leak is costing you — in creativity, in client work, and in your ability to show up as a parent and human.

Sometimes the best social media strategy for busy entrepreneurs is not a hack… it’s hiring help.

That might look like:

• Weekly nanny support so you can work uninterrupted (hi, that’s me 🙋🏻‍♀️)
• A social media strategist to own the content plan
• A bookkeeper so you’re not drowning in spreadsheets
• A podcast editor so you can just hit record and move on

You can do anything. You can’t do everything — at least not forever.

Listen to the full episode

If you’ve been feeling stretched between the girl boss grind and the soft girl slow life, this conversation will feel like a big exhale.

🎧 Tune into this episode of The Self Made Life Podcast with me, Ashley Wyatt, and guest expert Ruthie Sterrett to learn how to build a social media strategy that supports your goals, your family, and your nervous system.

And if you haven’t yet, start with part one on The Consistency Corner and then circle back for this episode.