What’s the Job of Social Media in Your Business? A Real Talk Conversation with Parenting Coach Dr. Gila

Feeling overwhelmed by content creation—or wondering if your social media is even doing anything for your business?

In this episode of The Consistency Corner, I’m joined by parenting coach and psychologist Dr. Gila for a real talk conversation on what social media is actually supposed to do in your business—and how to make it work for your season, your audience, and your goals.

We unpack what it looks like to:

• Align your content with your business goals (instead of posting just to post)
  
  
• Choose the right platform for your audience and your energy
  
  
• Simplify visibility when you’re doing all the things
  
  
• Show up with consistency without the pressure to be perfect
  
  

Plus, Dr. Gila shares how she helps single parents raise strong-willed and neurodivergent kids with connection over perfection—and why amplifying her message matters in a noisy online world.

🔗 Connect with Dr. Gila

Website: www.drgilaparenting.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/drgila_parenting

Facebook Group: Single-Parenting with Connection, not Perfection https://www.facebook.com/share/g/154KRmy72k/

Whether you’re a brand new founder or growing a brand that supports moms, this conversation will help you rethink the role of content and give you permission to show up in a way that feels good—and gets results.

Looking for a networking event that actually feels good? The Social Media Mixer is a virtual space where founders who support moms can connect, collaborate, and get actionable social media insights—without the awkward Zoom rooms or salesy pitches. Join us every six weeks for fun, structured conversations and strategies you can actually use. Grab a seat or get the All-Access Pass here: theconsistencycorner.com/mixer

Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and follow along over on Instagram!
@ruthie.sterrett
@theconsistencycorner

Transcript

Ruthie Sterrett (00:01.544)

Welcome Dr. Gila to the Consistency Corner podcast. I'm really excited for our conversation today. Dr. Gila is a parenting coach, clinical psychologist, and single mom who helps other moms who are raising, or parents, not just moms, but parents, raising strong-willed and neurodivergent kids with connection, not perfection. And before we get into what you do and how you help moms, we're gonna talk a little bit about social media. So...

My first question for you is something that I ask all of my clients and those that I kind of support and mentor, and we're just gonna get right into it. What role does social media play in your business?

Dr. Gila (00:40.537)

Yeah, so this is something I've been trying to figure out since day one of my business and I am still trying to figure out to be honest. I initially like, I tried getting into it and then I went through, I went through this phase where I decided I was just not, I decided it's not feeling good to me. is feeling, it feels inauthentic. It feels too hard. It feels like it's taking.

way more time than I have or than is like, I'm not seeing results for the time that it's taking me. And I also, to be honest with everything going on in the world was feeling like spending time on social media was not great for my mental health. And it also that contributed to what fell, you know, I feel like this is cheesy. Everyone probably said this, but like one of my top values as

as as a human, as a parent, and as a business person, as an entrepreneur, and as a coach, is authenticity. And to post promotional stuff and just kind of ignore that all these horrible things happening in the world felt really incongruous to me. And I didn't know how to navigate that. And so that was a piece of it. So I have mostly used it, I use it to

promote things, so if I'm in a summit or on a podcast or I hosted my own summit and I've hosted a resource bundle, both for single parents, and so I used it then to promote those. But I haven't done a ton, and I hired you to do a, what is it called, a three grid, which I also hemmed and hawed for so long I kept meaning to do it myself, and then I finally said, screw it, I'm.

Ruthie Sterrett (02:24.652)

A three grid.

Dr. Gila (02:34.217)

hiring Ruthie to do it. So and I'm so glad I did. And so at least I have that up there. And, you know, now I have been recently wondering about, okay, maybe I should dip my toe back into it and start using it more. But I want to do it in a way that feels, first of all, that feels aligned and authentic. And that feels like it is

worth my time and my effort and that is supportive for other people. like, you know, one of the things I struggle with in my business, so one of my main target audiences is single parents and parents of strong-willed and spirited neurodivergent kids. And a lot of my clients are both, they're single parents of strong-willed or neurodivergent kids. And so,

They often don't have a lot of time, they don't have a lot of money, and it kills me that I can't support everyone, regardless of money, but I need to pay my own bills. And so I do see things like social media as an opportunity to put good stuff out there that can be supportive for people who maybe can't access right now a deeper level of care.

Ruthie Sterrett (03:57.762)

Yeah, that's so interesting that you said that about social media being a way to kind of give back to the community. And I know in the online business space and business in general, we talk a lot about lead magnets and freebies and ultimately like your social media content can be free resources that you're offering to the community and back to your ideal clients with no expectation that they may or may not hire you. It's just a way to give back.

Dr. Gila (04:13.327)

right.

Ruthie Sterrett (04:23.042)

I want to go back to something that you said about the world feeling like so heavy and on fire because I know that is something that so many business owners are feeling right now. And I've had this conversation with friends, business partners, my husband about like, the world, has the world always been a mess? And we just didn't know it, but like now we have it like at our fingertips 24 seven, there's so much more information out there.

And we were not, and I think you'd probably know this with your psychology background, we were not designed to hold that much heaviness all the time. And so I totally get where you're coming from, that that feels heavy. And a lot of business owners grapple with like, do I address it? Do I not address it? What do I say? What do I not say? So I definitely want to say that that is a normal thing for anybody to be feeling when it comes to their social media content and presence.

Dr. Gila (04:55.269)

Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Gila (05:06.768)

Yeah.

Ruthie Sterrett (05:16.386)

But one thing that we might be able to do that kind of can make it feel a little bit simpler is think about platform and surface. And when I say surface, I want to kind of like let everybody know if Instagram feels like a lot, let's just call it say Instagram, if it feels like a lot, it's because it is. It's four platforms in one. It's the feed posts, it's reels, it's stories, it's DMs, it's like it is a lot and each one of those surfaces.

has different jobs and we could even say the same for LinkedIn. There's LinkedIn newsletters, there's LinkedIn events, there's LinkedIn posts, there's the inbox. And so I start with that question for everybody of what is social media's job in your business? And then the next question is like, okay, we're kind of not 100 % sure what we want social media's job to be right now. It doesn't have a job description, so we're not sure if it's working or not. But then let's take it back a little.

Dr. Gila (05:52.87)

Mm-hmm.

Ruthie Sterrett (06:12.44)

step further and say, well, what are the things that we're doing to attract new eyes on our business? What are the things that we're doing to nurture that audience? And what are we doing to sell? And it sounds like for you, bundles, summits, events is one of the ways that you're attracting new eyes on your business. Nurture could very much be social media. Maybe it's email, maybe it's blogs. We can kind of talk about different things. And then it sounds like selling is maybe happening on social media as well.

And so it's not right now, but it could. We've some promotional posts before. But I always kind of ask people to say, when they sit down and look at their marketing holistically, for both, for those three phases of the funnel, attract, nurture, and convert, let's pick two places that we can consistently show up. And then it doesn't feel like, my God, I have to be everywhere all the time. I have to be creating all this content because even when we repurpose content, it's still work.

Dr. Gila (06:43.441)

Well, it's not right now, but it could.

Dr. Gila (07:01.99)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gila (07:07.953)

Mm-hmm.

Ruthie Sterrett (07:12.514)

But like, let's pick two places for each of those phases and they can be the same sometimes, and let's get consistent with showing up there.

Dr. Gila (07:21.913)

Yeah, that's interesting. was actually just realizing recently that there was a period where I was focusing a lot more on attracting new leads and recently I've been focusing more on nurturing and converting. And I had the thought of like, shoot, have I dropped a ball? do I need to, you know, and I go on podcasts and I've been in summits and all of that can bring in new leads, but it hasn't been as productive as I might like.

Ruthie Sterrett (07:34.99)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gila (07:50.345)

but yeah, agreed. It's hard to focus on all of it at the same time. I love your point about how Instagram is like four things wrapped into one. I hadn't really thought of it that way, but it's true. And then on top of that, it's connected to Facebook. So then like when I post on Instagram, then I have to, I feel like I have to, you know, then figure out how it's showing up on Facebook and optimize it for Facebook. And so it becomes like, and then, and now threads like, now do I put it on threads? And it just.

Ruthie Sterrett (08:17.998)

Yeah, so I had this conversation with another client recently about which platform should we prioritize because she kind of was in the same boat where she was like, well, is it LinkedIn? Is it Instagram? Is it threads? I don't know. There's an argument for all of them. And where I kind of encourage people to take a look at is two places. Number one, think about your ideal client.

Dr. Gila (08:19.587)

It's all the things, it's overwhelming.

Dr. Gila (08:26.533)

Yeah.

Ruthie Sterrett (08:44.096)

and what are they looking for when they go to the platform? So when she's going to LinkedIn, for example, she's probably looking for news in her industry. She might be looking to network with community partners or collaborators. She might be looking to hire, you know, she might be looking for a job. When she goes to Instagram, she's likely looking to escape. That's the type of

Dr. Gila (09:09.681)

Mm.

Ruthie Sterrett (09:11.822)

Platform that we often pick up when we like need a break when we need to disconnect from our own like actual life and so we want to be typically entertained or Validated and I think you probably with your business and what you do for people could definitely provide content that validates her And helps her know like my god. I am not alone. I'm not the only one going through this

Dr. Gila (09:15.387)

Yeah.

Dr. Gila (09:25.168)

Hmm.

Dr. Gila (09:31.813)

Yeah, for sure.

Ruthie Sterrett (09:37.442)

and then sprinkling in that nurture content of educating and supporting with the free resources. So just having that clarity alone of like, what is she looking for when she comes to this platform, I think can be helpful in not making creating content feel so overwhelming.

Dr. Gila (09:55.281)

Yeah, I love that. I haven't said this out loud in public, but I am hoping to launch a podcast, hopefully not too distant future. as you were saying that, right, it's like the validation, all of my content, I mean, I think validation is one of the big things that I do. But, you know, the validation might come from more of the shorter

reels and carousels and then the podcast might be able to dive deeper into like content around it. Yeah.

Ruthie Sterrett (10:33.282)

Yeah. And then thinking about, and that's interesting to think about too, when you introduce a podcast into your content ecosystem, what is the podcast's job in my business? And then how do I make that job work with some of those other pieces? Because podcasts can be different things for different people based upon their business model. And so it's a lot of things to think about rather than just like throwing spaghetti at the wall.

Dr. Gila (10:41.765)

Mm-hmm.

Right. Right.

Dr. Gila (10:55.245)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gila (11:01.967)

Mm-hmm.

Ruthie Sterrett (11:02.166)

and churning out content for the sake of churning out content. And so that's something to think about too, as far as consistency of, okay, I'm gonna do a podcast. Well, how often do I publish? Do I do seasons? Do I do weekly? Do I do every other week? Do I do twice a week? There's so many choices there. And same thing with social media content. And a lot of people ask the question of, well, how much content do I need?

Dr. Gila (11:10.352)

Mm-hmm.

Ruthie Sterrett (11:29.73)

Well, that depends again on our business goals and what job we are asking social media to do. If we're asking social media to both attract, nurture and convert, we need more content because we're asking it to do so much. But if we're saying, okay, social media for me is nurture, it is there to provide my audience information and value and validate her. Okay, it has one job. So we could probably do two posts a week and be just fine because the content is there for her to consume.

when she goes to get it, or it could be a nine grid where we're not posting at all. And then we pop in stories to share that there's a new podcast episode or something like that. But all of that stuff, those are big decisions to think through. And I know like within your own business, and I can even say as a social media person, I question like, well, what's the right answer?

Dr. Gila (12:21.987)

Yeah. And I'm listening to you and you know, I love what you're saying and this idea, it's almost like a relief, like, I don't have to do all of it. That would be amazing. but it's hard to envision dropping any of those three because in order to nurture, have to people to have people to nurture. So you have to attract and in order for me to pay my bills, I need to convert at some point. And so, yeah.

Ruthie Sterrett (12:46.646)

Yeah, you're right. do in your business, in your marketing strategy, you do have to do all three. You have to nurture. You have to attract, nurture and convert. There are going to be seasons that you're going to push the gas harder on one or the other. And it's important to kind of take a look at what I encourage people to look at as their campaign calendar and say, when are we pushing harder on one or the other so that we're not trying to do all three at full speed all the time.

Dr. Gila (12:52.602)

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gila (13:09.359)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gila (13:14.363)

Yeah.

Ruthie Sterrett (13:15.126)

And then we can figure out what content feels good to create, what content can we tweak to make different differences. And you're right, you have to do all three of those things, but you don't have to do all three of those things in six different places all the time. So that's where it's like pick two. we usually look at like the quarter, say, okay, for this quarter, I'm in three summits and I'm guesting on two podcasts. Awesome.

Dr. Gila (13:31.397)

Mm-hmm.

Ruthie Sterrett (13:42.956)

That's one of my attract things. Okay, number two, maybe I'm going to do a lead magnet swap with somebody or maybe number two is I'm going to run ads or maybe number two is I'm going to lean in heavier to reels. And then nurture, maybe I'm going to post twice a week and send one email a week and then convert. Okay, I'm going to show up in stories a couple of times a week and talk about my offers and I'm going to send a sales email once a month. Now we've picked two for each one.

Dr. Gila (13:45.318)

Mm-hmm.

Sorry.

Mm-hmm.

Ruthie Sterrett (14:11.318)

And we can do that consistently and ask ourselves after two, three months, what kind of results did I get? Do I need to push the gas a little bit harder? If so, okay. Do I need to shift and maybe pivot and show up someplace else? Okay, let's look at it. But I know, so I know within your own business, it's so hard to make those decisions that it can be really helpful to have someone outside looking in sometimes walk through those decisions with you.

Dr. Gila (14:17.743)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gila (14:37.787)

Totally, and I love what you're saying about breaking it into quarters because, right, it's very easy to fall into, even though I know this as a psychologist, it's very easy to fall into the like, all or nothing, know, perfectionism, I have to have the perfect plan mentality as opposed to like, okay, well, for now, we're gonna try this and then we're gonna reassess and.

Ruthie Sterrett (14:57.644)

Yeah. And it's, and as a human, like you want the validation of like, what I'm doing is working. And so if it's not working right away, we're like, well, maybe I should just stop. Maybe it's not working at all, but sometimes it just takes time. Yeah. Well, so I'd love to hear a little bit more about the work that you do with parents and why it is so important for you and how you landed on serving single parents and parents of neurodivergent children.

Dr. Gila (15:03.835)

Yeah.

Dr. Gila (15:10.745)

Right, right, yeah.

Dr. Gila (15:24.343)

Yeah. So I am a single parent of a neurodivergent kiddo and I call beautifully complex is another term I like to use. And interestingly, Instagram is part of my story of why I, so at first I was, I wasn't sure if I should, you everyone's nervous about narrowing down their niche when they start because I want to help everyone. Anyone who wants help at least. But I actually remember towards the beginning,

I was on Instagram and for whatever reason, this one day within like the span of five minutes, I saw three different reels or carousels that were like kind of triggering for single parents or potentially triggering for single parents. And I just really, that day in particular, like I felt really impassioned by it. Is that the word? Really motivated by that and.

And that sort of kept growing, to be honest. So I do support, like I said, I do support parents who are not single parents, but increasingly, I just feel passionate about creating spaces and resources that do have the single parent in mind because there's so many beautiful parenting resources out there, which is amazing. And...

they will be really beautiful and supportive. And then there's like this, I call them these little like landmines, right? That you like don't expect and don't, and you're in this like supportive environment. And then bam, you're like reminded that your family looks different, that your family looks not only different than other people's, but then what you probably expected and wanted it to look. And you have some unique struggles. And I also like to remind people some unique blessings, right? And

Ruthie Sterrett (17:14.179)

Yeah.

Dr. Gila (17:15.281)

I think that having, know, being able to sort of name all that and for people to feel that they're specific, you know, all of us have different, very specific situations, but that their sort of general situation is seen, that someone gets it, and not just me, but my community. And so, you know, I now have a free Facebook group called Single Parenting with Connection, Not Perfection.

and I did a summit for single parents and it just, I hear over and over again how even if they're just lurking and not actively participating, that it's so nice to know that there's, there's people who get it, that you're not alone in this and that not every family has the white picket fence, two parents, you know, all of that. So.

Ruthie Sterrett (18:04.972)

Yeah. I think it's really interesting what you said about, know, everybody's like, my gosh, is this niche too narrow? I want to help everybody. I can't help everybody. But when we talk to everybody, we know that nobody listens. And we start talking to one person, other people eavesdrop. So by choosing that one person and being bold and saying, like, I see you, I'm here to support you, other people are going to pay attention to. And that's OK. When you think about

Dr. Gila (18:12.826)

Yeah.

Dr. Gila (18:17.968)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gila (18:31.652)

Yeah.

Ruthie Sterrett (18:34.328)

Connection over perfection. I think this is something that we can even apply to social media We're here to connect because social media at the end of the day. It's social before media so it's about connecting humans and the fact that you have a Facebook group in a space for people to connect and It might be interesting even to pull your audience in that Facebook group and ask them

Dr. Gila (18:36.07)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gila (18:40.037)

Totally.

Dr. Gila (18:47.141)

Mm-hmm.

Ruthie Sterrett (19:00.522)

Where do they go for content? What do they like to see on social media? What is supportive for them outside of just your own group? But when they're scrolling and that right there is a goldmine of information. When you think, yeah, and when you think about like the core message that you want people to walk away from, I think what I'm hearing you say is that they're not alone. Even if it's different, it doesn't mean it's wrong, right? Yeah.

Dr. Gila (19:13.947)

That's a great idea.

Dr. Gila (19:26.851)

Absolutely. And if you're struggling, you're not alone and it's not your fault. This is you're carrying a lot in a system that is not built for you and that is not supportive and not built for your kiddo. Right. Because a lot of my clients have kids who don't fit that typical mold. And so when you're on Instagram and all these different social media outlets and you see all

Ruthie Sterrett (19:39.95)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gila (19:55.813)

this parenting advice and a lot of it can leave you feeling like, there must be something horribly wrong with me or my child or both of us because none of this is working. And if I tried that, they would just like scream at me harder. And so these are kids who need a slightly different approach, who need a lot more collaboration and nuance and less of that sort of traditional parenting, like control over approach. And so.

it can feel really alienating to see a lot of that out there.

Ruthie Sterrett (20:28.172)

Yeah. And when I think about content for you between, I think it could work as both attract content and nurture content. It's that like what traditional parenting advice is getting wrong. What traditional parenting advice doesn't know about single parenting or what traditional parenting advice doesn't understand about high spirited kids or neurodivergent kids. Because anybody who is in the seat of a parent in that situation, like

Dr. Gila (20:39.439)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gila (20:49.828)

Mm-hmm.

Ruthie Sterrett (20:58.264)

They're grasping for information and they want to know that like, okay, yes, that advice over there is for other people and maybe I can learn from it a little bit, but it's not actually for me. And so how do I find the information that is for me? So that's shareable content, that's savable content, right?

Dr. Gila (21:08.816)

Yeah.

Dr. Gila (21:14.607)

Yeah, yeah, and it's hard to stand in that confidence that like, that's what's wrong is that it's not for me, right? Because it's human nature to just like keep questioning, well, it must be me, I'm doing something wrong, I'm doing it wrong, or, you know, I haven't figured it out. Everyone else has it figured out, I'm a mess, right? That's a very common feeling.

Ruthie Sterrett (21:37.772)

Yeah, I think it's a common feeling in so many aspects of our lives. And I don't know about you, but like as a as a mom, as a business owner, as a woman, I have found I was having this conversation with my husband. I said, Do you find that you're more confident than you were 20 years ago? And he was like, Absolutely, I know so much more. And I was like, I'm less confident. Because I feel like now that I know more, I know how much I don't know.

Dr. Gila (21:42.584)

Absolutely.

Dr. Gila (22:02.159)

I was just having this chat with a friend of mine who is a very successful, she works in the consulting industry and she's very successful and she was going up for like this different job in this promotion and she is having intense imposter syndrome and we're talking about how, you know, I trained at some of these like muckety muck programs like Johns Hopkins and Oxford and blah, blah. And you do encounter these usually men who are very confident.

Ruthie Sterrett (22:17.518)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gila (22:31.533)

in their knowledge and their abilities and they just have this, I mean, I have met women in the muckety muck institutions who have that also, but I do feel like there tends to be, and we were talking about this, like she said, her husband also has that, right? It's more, it comes more easily, but I do agree with you. I think that to some degree, the more you know, the more you know you don't know. And the research shows, right, that people who don't know that much

can be more confident, but it's a naive confidence. And I think there's sort of like this, you know, this curve where like you get, you get more confident, I'm sorry, you get less confident as you, as you know more, but then you sort of turn that corner. There does come a point where you can start to feel a little more confident as you start to master things. But the other thing is, that there's different types of information. like, I can feel more easily confident that like,

Ruthie Sterrett (23:03.195)

huh.

Dr. Gila (23:27.607)

I know how to write formulas in Excel because that is like achievable. I can learn it. have like concrete information to show that I can do it. Things like parenting, you're never finished. You've never like achieved like, okay, I'm now a master parent. It's always a work in progress. As soon as you have something figured out, it changes.

Ruthie Sterrett (23:40.43)

You're correct about that.

Dr. Gila (23:53.009)

Life throws you curve balls and so it's really hard to feel confident in parenting because it is this sort of nebulous, like no one gives you the manual, there is no formula you have to learn, so it's really tough. But I will say, I think it is possible to build that confidence and some of that confidence comes from knowing that you are not the only one who's having these problems.

and the only one who's parenting in the way that you are parenting. So, you know, if you're the only one that you know who is trying to parent without punishment and timeouts, then it's hard to stand in that confidence that that is the right decision for your family. When you're in a community with people who do share that value and share that parenting approach and might have kids who sort of resonate and respond in a similar way, it's easier to...

have that confidence and to build that confidence.

Ruthie Sterrett (24:50.188)

Yeah, for sure. And because we are all about building community at the consistency corner, I'd love for you to share where can people connect with you? Where can they learn more about your Facebook group, your resources?

Dr. Gila (25:00.739)

Yeah, so my Facebook group is called Single Parenting with Connection, Not Perfection. My website is drgilaparenting.com. You can actually get to me by typing in parentingwithconnection.com or singleparentingwithconnection.com. And on Instagram and Facebook, I'm drgilaparenting. I know it's hard to spell, it's D-R-G-I-L-A, rhymes with tequila. People like that little tip.

and I have free resources and would love to connect.

Ruthie Sterrett (25:33.196)

Yes, we'll link everything in the show notes. Thank you so much for being here. This was a really great conversation.

Dr. Gila (25:37.691)

Thanks for having me.