How to Grow Your Business using Instagram with Xue Bravo

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

moms, business, o’clock, kids, bedtime routine, feel, sue, pandemic, wake, create, people, work, find, day, sleep, teaching, year, dinner, social media marketing, stay

SPEAKERS

Rita Suzanne, Xue Bravo

Rita Suzanne

Welcome to the Mom Owned and Operated Podcast, the podcast about moms and for moms, where we have candid conversations about running a business, raising a family, and remembering ourselves. I’m your host, Rita Suzanne, a single mom of four, digital strategist, and provider of no nonsense business strategies and tactics. This is mom owned and operated. I’m Rita Suzanne. And today I have my friend Xue, Xue, I’m so excited to meet with you and learn all about you and how you’re running a business, raising your family and remembering yourself. So please tell us all about you and your family and your business.

Xue Bravo

Hello, okay, so of course, my name is Xue, I am a stay at home mom to four, I’ve got a six year old, a four year old, a two year old, and then a four month old, who’s actually here with us joining us on this podcast episode. And I actually have two businesses. My first business I started in the summer of 2019, which is a sure curry like a grazing table business. So essentially, it’s catering. That’s what I would explain to people. And then my second business actually have stopped the catering business last year. Of course, because of the pandemic, there weren’t any events going on. So it just made sense to kind of put that on pause. But in the summer of last year, in 2020, so July, I decided to start a social media marketing business just because during the pandemic, well, of course, when it started, so many my mom friends were coming to me asking me about social media and how they can start their own business online as well, just because, of course, no more brick and mortar locations. So that’s kind of how I got into social media marketing and teaching other moms. I just found that through, you know, the past five, six years of warning myself, I had gained expertise and knowledge that I didn’t even know I had. So that’s currently what I do, in in my business called get social with Sue, because I love it. First of all, I’m carrying other moms to pursue their passions of, you know, becoming entrepreneurs. And then secondly, I love teaching them about social media, because I feel like as moms, we do want to be at home, whether that’s full time or part time, but we do also want to, you know, start a business. And I find that social media is the best free tool out there to just get your business started. So I’m really passionate about empowering moms to start their own business, but also giving them the tools and education to do that.

Rita Suzanne

I love that because I as his service provider, I think one of the hardest things that we find is like marketing, right? It’s, it’s the marketing is the hardest part because you’re promoting yourself and maybe as a service provider, you’re used to like being in the behind the scenes. And so having someone to help you who can really like get your voice or even train you on how to come out there and and speak to other people without, I guess, you know, I guess while maintaining your brand is one of the hardest things you can do. So I love seeing people come in and take over that because it’s been my biggest. I don’t know, I know how to do it. It’s just the consistency. And so having someone helped me is the most important part because the inconsistency. So I love that you’re doing that. I love that you’re empowering other moms. Since you have four children, and they’re so young, can you tell us like what an average day looks like you I know that they change but what does a typical day look like for you?

Xue Bravo

We I am usually up around between like 530 and 630. I feel like it usually depends how the night goes with the four month olds, but usually 536 30 I’m up and they don’t really get up until about 730 or eight. So I really use that time to the first thing I focus on is really just me. And something I called priming is what I learned from like Tony Robbins it kind of just gets me into like a way better headspace and mental space. Because I feel like oftentimes a lot of moms when I say you, you should try to wake up before your kids. Even if it’s 30 minutes, I feel like they often think it’s to work. But really, it’s actually to get yourself into a better state because if you just think about it. I don’t think anybody wants to wake up to hangry kids, you know, like screaming at you Mom, I need milk Mom, I need food. And that’s what I found that was my reasoning for getting up early not to work, but to really like fill myself up because I just found like, I was so cranky, if I always was like I’m gonna hit snooze and hit snooze and wake up when my kids wake up or like my kids or my alarm. And you know, I did that for so long. And I know so many moms do that. But again, I just found that the you know, the pain of it was, you know more than the pleasure of sleeping in for an extra 10 minutes and so I really try to wake up just a little bit earlier than they do get my you know headspace ready for the day, start with gratitude journaling. I feel like all the cliche things that they tell you to do. That’s what I tend to do. And then I hydrate, and then I, if I have time before the kids wake up, then I do my top three for work. So I’ve already will actually, first I plan the day. So I kind of write out, you know, what appointments I have for the day, my daughter’s school if we have to, you know, run errands, so I kind of plan the day. For me, planning hour by hour works well, before I do do block scheduling. So I do recommend that everyone try out block scheduling, or hour by hour, whatever is going to work for you best. But I think the number one key to any planning is really prioritizing, knowing and understanding what to do and when to do it. And really also prioritizing what is actually going to move your business forward. Oftentimes we get caught up in just like doing doing doing and then at the end of the day, or even at the end of the month, we find out our business has not moved forward, because we just sort of kept ourselves busy with all of these little tasks that we didn’t really need to do. So really make sure you prioritize and tasks are going to move your business forward. And so all my work is kind of done before the kids wake up. And this doesn’t mean I completed everything, I’m just saying, I try to focus on working before the kids wake up. And for me personally, this is because I want to be as present as possible with them during the day. And I feel like that is the ultimate goal to be as president and be more present with our kids while having a business as possible. And so at the beginning of my business, I was working like literally all day, any, like 15 minutes, I could. But again, I just found for me personally, that that was kind of kind of productive of what I really wanted was to be present with my kids. And so what I’ve done now is just, you know, my daughter will do breakfast at eight o’clock, we’ll clean up at 839 o’clock, my daughter has school, I usually set my live trainings or any live q&a is at nine o’clock because at least one of them is occupied. And usually the two month old takes a nap around 830 or nine and so at least I have to occupied and the other two, I can occupy a different way while I’m doing my lives at nine o’clock. So that’s also where I sit in another like work task work item. And then after her school is done, usually about 11 we already do. It’s already lunchtime, and then we do cleanup time. And then we’ll do a little bit of homework. She’s only in kindergarten, but I feel like they have a lot of homework.

Rita Suzanne

Is she an actual school? Are you homeschool?

Xue Bravo

No, she’s she’s but yeah, she’s like work through schooling. Yeah, she’s virtual schooling. And it’s just a lot of coloring. It’s a lot of coloring. And so I feel like it just takes a lot of time. And I mean, I’m not I don’t have to sit there and call with her. But it’s just a lot of like, stay focus. And you have to color this, you have to call it that. And yeah, it’s just, it’s just a lot of covering. And so yeah, we do that. I feel like that’s usually where I’m one or two o’clock. And then. So as you can tell the whole days pretty much filled with the kids. And that’s totally reasonable. If and then after that it’s kind of more independently time. So if they’re playing, and I see that they’re all playing well together, then I’ll go to my iPad, and I’ll just create content or reply to emails, things like that. And then it’s already like 330 or four o’clock, we’re already prepping for dinner. And I usually leave about an hour to prep for dinner, even if it doesn’t take that long. Because I’m finding that as my kids are growing up, they want to be more a part of making dinner. And so I really have to give myself a lot of grace and a lot of grace and patience. And so before I would just be like, No, you guys are watching TV, I’m gonna make dinner in 30 minutes and then be dead. But now I’m like, Oh, it’s kind of you know, it’s not very good for them growing up. It’s I’m always like, No, no, no. So I’ve blocked out an entire hour so that they can help me. And the cooking process is very slow. But at least I feel like this is a chance for us to be more present with our kids and teach our kids something. So for me, that’s what I found. So usually like between 330 and 430 is when we make dinner and then we’ll spend another hour eating dinner because you know, kids are eating lunch yet. So then that’s already like 530 and then we already started a bedtime routine. It’s so crazy how fast the day goes. But yeah, 530 to 630 is our bedtime routine will do brushing teeth, bath books, bedtime. So they’re all usually in bed by 630 or seven. So that’s really nice. And then I tried to do like a 15 minute pickup and then get into my my bedtime routine of really just like shutting down so that I can get like a very good night’s sleep. If I do have to catch up on something, then I will do it at that time, like right after they go to bed just so I can be off of this screen as soon as possible, if that makes sense. So that my brain is not I guess reoccupying right. Your Yeah.

Xue Bravo

So if I do have to do any work on the computer, Or on my iPad on my phone, that I’m trying to do that as soon as possible after the kids go to bed. And yeah, I feel like that’s that’s worked very well for me. And something I do want to know is I used to actually work in the evenings at nighttime a lot. So I usually around eight o’clock when I’m ready for bed, then I’ll work until like, 12, or one o’clock in the morning, and then I’ll sleep because I’m like, I have to wake up anyway, you know, like, I’m gonna have to wake up, it’s like, if I stay up, then I can sleep in No, I have to wake up anyway. So I might as well just stay up and work. But something that I learned was your sleep before 12pm is a lot more. I don’t know what it is, it’s more beneficial for your body, then your sleep is after 12 or midnight. And so I don’t know if that’s true or not. That’s what I heard. So I’m like, Alright, I’m really trying to sleep before 12. And if I have to wake up earlier, like four or five, then that’s better versus going to sleep late and waking up late. So that’s what I found.

Rita Suzanne

like, if you have to, like figure out what works for you, right, like, if you like some people are like early risers, they like to get up at five o’clock and work. I’m like you I would wait until my kids go to bed and then I’ll do work, you know, so it and then I will stay up until 11 around 11 It depends on how tired I am. You know, but probably 11-12 I mean, I’ve gone way later. But of course my kids are way older than yours. But I still have to get my youngest son has epilepsy. So it’s tough to get up at a certain time to give him his medication. So you know, it’s like always list deadline of you are not sleeping in, like, that’s not even going to happen. Yeah, exactly. But, you know, it’s like, you have to find what works for you. And sometimes staying up to finish your project is you know, just what you have to do. So are you in your business? Are you teaching other people how to do their own? Or are you like assisting them and doing it for them? Or both?

Xue Bravo

Yeah, no, I actually teach people I really focus on teaching. So I’m not a social media manager, because managers, they actually create the content for you that schedule it for you. Yeah, they do it for you. So I’m really more of a, I like to call it a strategist because I really want to focus on helping you create a strategy for yourself, and then teaching you how to do that. So essentially, I teach people how to clarify their niche, and it really really niched down, identify the ideal client, create their content to color their caption pillars, as well as their photo categories, so that you have all the pieces in line to create your content, your social media marketing strategy, so I will teach people that,

Rita Suzanne

yeah, I love that. Because, you know, and it helps them to, like I was saying earlier, like capture their own voice versus somebody else getting there. Like, I don’t ever really like other people doing my social media, like you can schedule it for me, but I want to be the one who writes it. And I do want to be the one to create my images. But that’s the designer of me is the images part. But you know, like, I want to be able to do it so that I feel like that. So everybody can recognize it’s me, you know, like, if I was writing my, my stuff for me, it wouldn’t feel it wouldn’t feel genuine to me, I hate, you know.

Xue Bravo

But yeah, and a lot of like moms that I work with, they are new to their business as well. And so when you’re just starting out, it’s also hard to find your authenticity. And so I think it’s very important to be creating the content yourself so that later down the road, you actually know where you’re doing. And if you do decide to bring somebody on, you can be very clear with your brand and your messaging, and then also understand your insights and your metrics and make sure that they’re doing their job in the correct way. Cuz you don’t want to bring somebody on and then you just you don’t know what you’re doing. So then you don’t know how to measure make them their capabilities and stuff like that.

Rita Suzanne

Well, that’s true, right? If you don’t, if you don’t even know, like, what metrics like you’re saying to even measure, how do you know that they’re doing what they’re supposed to do? how, you know, you’re getting an ROI on your investment. And so I think that’s great. Um, you know, we could talk social media all day. Yeah. But I love that you’re teaching pizza people because, you know, that’s more important than, you know, anything because it helps them in the long term, especially for new business owners, because, as you mentioned, they’re going to pivot and you know, and grow as they’re in change. And I hate when, you know, everybody thinks like, Oh, I need this. This brand is gonna stay with me forever. It’s not it’s going to change as you change and grow in your business. So before you started your first business, what were you What was your previous job before that?

Xue Bravo

I guess before I was a stay became a stay at home mom. I was actually in the restaurant industry. I had a very huge goal of owning my own restaurant someday and I hope this still comes true. You know, I love food. And so what I was doing before was actually I worked at Benihana. I don’t know.

Rita Suzanne

I know I know it. I used to live in California.

Xue Bravo

like to cook on the girls. So I actually was a server or bartender and a chef at Benihana. And so that’s what I was doing all three of those. And then I transitioned to management. I did that for about a year and a half. And then after that, I left to start up a gastropub, in another part of Southern California for my friend, he opened up a restaurant and then I went back to work at the place that I went to manage at the place that my husband and I got married at. And so basically, my whole life was just drawn up until, yeah, as soon as I was, I think I was eight months, like seven or eight months pregnant. Then I left the restaurant industry to have my baby Of course, that was like six years ago. And then yeah, I’ve been staying home mom since.

Rita Suzanne

I love that. So because of the restaurant and you’re you’re wanting to like promote yourself on social media, that’s how you got so into it. And then like you mentioned, because of the pandemic, you had to figure out, like how am I going to pivot and make something that’s gonna work for me and my family? I absolutely think that that’s the best thing a lot of people did such a good job pivoting and finding other things that will work for them during the pandemic, which is you know, has been so important. So, I love that you said that you prime and that’s like the journaling and all of that stuff and and you know in keeping yourself you know focused and I think that that’s good I’ve never heard anybody call it that it’s usually I go morning routine this and morning routine that but it’s the same thing. Um, so since you have a baby’s up and everything and I don’t want to like take too much of your time. Can you tell us like where we can find you online?

Xue Bravo

Sure, you can definitely find me on Instagram I feel like that’s where I’m the most active especially my stories I share kind of like day today but you can find me there I get social with Xue but it’s can be Xue with an x so get social with and then XUE and then of course I have a free Facebook community as well you can find that via Instagram as well all my links are there. And I feel like those are the the two places that I’m at or you can just go to my website which is getsocialwithxue.com as well.

Rita Suzanne

Thank you so much sue for taking the time and you know, I hope you have a wonderful day.

Xue Bravo

Thank you so much for having me on.

Rita Suzanne

And there you have it. I want to encourage you to remember that being a mom who runs her own business is not easy. we all struggle but just keep moving forward and don’t forget to make time for yourself. As moms we are usually the first thing to go to the bottom of the list. If your business is overwhelming you and you need real solutions, not just some sugar coated suggestions apply to work with me at ritasuzanne.com/apply/