Episode 282: A Week in the Life of a Social Media Manager with Kat Kurdziel

Full Episode Transcription:

Arianna Vernier: Hey y’all. Welcome back to the Virtual Assistant Mama podcast. We are continuing our week in the life series where I’m bringing guests who are in this virtual assistant entrepreneurial space and just sharing what their life actually looks like. So in this episode, I brought on Kat Kurdziel. She is a social media manager and mentor, and she’s just gonna walk us through what it looks like in her typical week in the life of a social media manager and all the things. So welcome Kat. We’re so excited to have you.

Kat Kurdziel: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited.

Arianna Vernier: Just love if you could take a moment to introduce yourself to my listeners, let them know a little bit about you, what you love to do and how you got into this role. Yeah, of course.

Kat Kurdziel: So again, I’m Kat. And so I started my business, oh my goodness, last year. So back in 2022, I had had my son at the beginning of 2021, and we are coming out of COVID. Well, still in the midst of it. And I worked for like a big chip company and Coming out of that where I was considered an essential worker and it’s my first baby and it was a lot. So work, balancing that with my new baby, trying to get back into the swing of a crazy schedule with work. It was a lot. So all of 2021, I just felt like it was a blur trying to find the time to actually spend time with my family. I was dropping off at daycare at seven o’clock, getting home at 4, 4:30pm and putting my baby to sleep by 6-6:30pm. So I was like, okay, I’m working crazy amount of hours to spend an hour and a half with you a day. And on the weekend I’m exhausted and we’re not going to do any of those fun things that you get to do with your baby. Like take them to all these fun places. So that year I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I was going to do next and trying to figure out, am I looking for another job? Am I looking for a work from home situation and just couldn’t figure it out. And it took me a year and that following January, so in 2022, I was like, okay, it’s time. We gotta figure something out. I had seen a lot of people talk about being like a virtual assistant and it seemed to work with what I want to do. Had the conversation with my husband and started, I think where a lot of other people start Google. And starting, like, some of those websites, like, I went on Upwork, I joined all these weird, crazy Facebook groups with, like, 500 different tips, but no, like, clear direction of what to do next, and really struggled for a bit, but was really, Determined to make it work. I was excited to be home, excited to have my son at home with me. And at that point with just a one year old, he was still napping. So I had time to figure it out a little bit and finally kind of started to find my groove, got really deep into social media. And now I help other business owners with their content and really connecting with their audience. Cross other platforms, not just Instagram, but through Tik TOK, through their email marketing list, through their podcasts, through their trainings and using the content that they’ve already created to really build out their social media and marketing plans so that they don’t have to spend time doing all of it themselves.

Arianna Vernier: I absolutely love that. I love that you’re helping businesses repurpose that information they’ve already created and just spread their message wider and I see a lot of similarities, I think I see. Similarities and every guest that comes on the podcast, but your story of just wanting to leave home with your baby and to be present and to have the energy on the weekends to do those fun things. I was the same. Like I was pregnant my third year teaching, like, how am I going to have the patience for my daughter when I’m coming home, exhausted and burnout, taking care of Connie, some other kindergartners. And so I totally relate with that. And I think. You know, a lot of us, we love our job and, and we, sometimes we even grow up seeing ourselves in that role. I, that’s how it was for me. Sometimes you just kind of fall into it. And, but motherhood is like such a big piece of us. I think a lot of times it’s women and it’s really hard to do that around a typical nine to five. So I’m glad you mentioned that.

Kat Kurdziel: No, it’s really hard. I think the hardest part too, is that. My two big corporate jobs have always been in like more male dominated businesses where I literally heard my supervisor say to one of my co workers that, Oh, this is, she’s going to find out really quickly. This isn’t a job for new moms. And that was just like, Ugh. I don’t fit in here as it is like I need to find something that works for me and someone that accepts that whether that’s myself building my own business or like another company but realize really quickly no one’s ever gonna support you the same way that you can support yourself.

Arianna Vernier: Definitely I 100 percent agree. So as a social media manager what kinds of tasks do you do throughout the week both for like your own business and then also like what things do you do for your client?

Kat Kurdziel: Yeah, so what’s fun is you mentioned to like the repurposing content piece. I get to like, really see where my clients shine. So like, for example, like Mondays are like my big CEO day. That’s when I like to kind of plan out my week. I play catch up, maybe catch up on a podcast of one of my past, like my other clients from last week, I’ll catch up on a podcast of theirs. While I start working through some of my own stuff and start like making those notes of okay, this is where I’m going to pull some information for some social media for next week, that type of thing. So a lot of times it’s like getting to see what they’re the expert in, right? And so getting to see my own clients shine. I’ll go through their past content for the week and then taking that and making it into a way to attract their own ideal clients. Right? So a lot of that, it’s a lot of consumption. I consume a lot of content some days and then just starting to plan out what their next week’s look at. We look at the month, what we had, like our rough draft for the month and then really honing in what each week looks like as it comes and giving them the space to. If they are like, okay, I’m actually feeling something else. My audience is telling me I need this. We can still like change on a dime to make it work for them. And then in my own business, just having that flexibility, seeing what either my audience is saying, seeing what people are saying, the DMS, or seeing like a struggle that maybe one of my clients is having and going. Okay. This is something other people are struggling with too. Let’s do a switch and talk about this this week on social media. So really it’s a lot of time in Instagram, TikTok, and then like I live in Canva and live a lot of times on my phone doing like CapCut or this or that and pulling audios and stuff. So it’s all, it’s a lot of content.

Arianna Vernier: I think that’s really cool that you get to, you know, have your hands in other people’s businesses and just helping them, like I said, reaching more people and figuring out what message their listeners or their followers or their potential customers really need to hear and then you get to help bring that to life for them so they can reach those people. I love that you mentioned Canva. Some of the listeners might not know what Canva is. Could you kind of explain what that is?

Kat Kurdziel: So it’s my favorite little design tool because you can create anything in there really that you need to have that physical representation of your content whether it’s designing a post for Instagram Whether it’s designing something to look really nice at the bottom of an email whatever it is you’re looking to design. Like we just use it for our Christmas cards, for example. Like I designed those so that they are a little bit different. I don’t have to go to Walgreens and wait in line for a couple hours to have them printed. And it’s great. I love Canva. You can use it for everything.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah. Canva is awesome. And especially if you’re interested in a service that has to do with any sort of graphic design, like you don’t have to build graphics from scratch. You don’t have to spend hours and hours and hours learning how to use Photoshop in design, whatever, like those tools are great. And that’s great for like logo design and stuff, but for social media graphics. And just any kind of marketing piece in a business. Canva is a really great tool and it is not hard to learn.

Arianna Vernier: They have tons of online training that you could watch even on YouTube, um, and teach yourself. So Canva is a great resource for those listeners who are interested in social media management or any type of graphic design role. Start exploring that. That’s C A N V A. And they do have a free program that is amazing. And then their paid program is, well, I think it’s like 14 ish dollars a month, and that’s great too, but you can totally start and do so many amazing things with just the free platform. So how many hours would you say that you kind of roughly work in a week, and how much of that are you spending like on client work, and then also in your own business.

Kat Kurdziel: Yep. So I spend about just under 30 hours I think it’s like 27 and a half right now on client work each week And then about three to five in my own business and the big piece for me is just trying to find that balance so I put in a little bit of time before my kid gets up and then I put in after bedtime a lot of times because the part of the reason of Quitting my nine to five was so that I could be home with him. So really balancing that. And then I do have a VA. I actually outsource like a couple hours here and there too, as well to help keep me at that 30 hour kind of stop pace so that I’m only at max, like what? 32, 33 hours on like a heavy week.

Arianna Vernier: That’s awesome. I think I talked about this with another guest recently in this series. When you get to the point where you can start to outsource some of the tasks that. You don’t need to be the one doing, you don’t always need to be the one in the weeds of your business. Yes, at first, that’s probably what it’s going to look like until you start getting some clients and having a little bit of extra income that you could then delegate some of those tasks to, but like you said, it just helps you. Hand off some of those tasks so you can have that hard stop and be there to focus on your kiddo.

Kat Kurdziel: Yes, exactly It’s it’s really nice and then just trying to find the person that understands those pieces is huge but I’m very fortunate and because I focus a lot on content back to like that camera moment It’s I have a lot of templates for my clients already made So it makes it super easy to hand those over and all I need to do is spend a couple minutes Doing any last minute tweaks before I hand it to my own client. So it makes it nice to balance it.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah definitely. So what does your life look like outside of your business? So you’re working like 30 hours a week. What’s going on outside of that for you?

Kat Kurdziel: Yeah. So we have a library group we go to every week where we get to do like a read aloud and do a craft. So we have that every week. We love being outside. So we’re very fortunate to live less than five minute walk. next to a park. So we try to make time to go to the park every single day. If it’s a nice day, we’re going after lunch too. And really just whatever the day looks like, having that flexibility to connect with other friends that have kids, even if they are not within five minutes, I can, I have the time to schedule the time to make the play group to do the things that My mom friends that aren’t working as well are doing and having that flexibility to do both is huge. And then other than that, it’s a lot more just like chill. Like it’s very chill and I’m very lucky. My mother in law lives very close. So we can even do like a date night every couple of weeks with our friends and get to be someone other than mom for a couple hours.

Arianna Vernier: I love that. And I think what you said about. Being able to work in the pockets of your day. So you mentioned before that sometimes you get up before your son and work a little bit and then you’ll work after he goes to bed so that you can spend the day with him. I think a lot of people think as a virtual assistant, you are like social media manager, any of these services you can offer in this world. Some people that aren’t in it yet think like, Oh, I can’t sit in front of my computer for hours a day with my kiddo around me. You don’t have to do that. You, you work it into the pockets of your day. So your business gets to work around your life instead of your life having to work around your job. And now with what you’ve set up, you get to pick like, Hey, we’re going to go to the park right after lunch, cause I’m not going to be working during that time. I’m going to go hang out with some mom friends and you get that amazing balance of like, yes, you get to be home with your kiddo, just like your stay at home mom friends, but you also get to help provide for your family as well. So it’s just that really cool of like, I get to have both. So I love that you mentioned that.

Kat Kurdziel: Yeah, I think that’s like the big piece and it’s like you give up little pieces that Like you don’t expect to have to give not have to give up But like if i’m waking up at five o’clock in the morning, what would I be doing? Otherwise, I don’t sleep well Anyways, so what would I be doing? I’d be scrolling for different videos anyways in my free time. Why not get up and go do the work at 11 a. m. We’re going to the park. We’re not bringing my phone. We’re leaving the notifications off and it’s so so important to have that balance.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, I love that so What would you say to somebody who wants to step out of their current nine to five? They’re really just, like, wanting to figure out what they can do from home, but it just feels really overwhelming. What would you say to that person?

Kat Kurdziel: I would say the first thing is not trying to do all in one day and taking the time finding that little like half hour you have here, finding that pocket of time to, okay, today I’m going to go online. I’m going to research some ideas, or I’m going to go scroll through I’m in a Facebook group of some moms that want to like digital nine to five too. And like, I’m going to see what they’re working on. And then also finding someone that you relate to that’s living the life you want to live. That comes from like a similar background, I think is huge. And finding someone that you can look up to and see how they did it. And just having that person to either connect with and even reaching out to them and being like, Hey, I love what you’re doing. How did you get there? And just having those real connections, I think is like the biggest piece, but not, not trying to do it overnight.

Arianna Vernier: Amen to that. I think sometimes we think we have to figure it out all on our own. And then when we hit a roadblock, we’re stuck and we don’t know how to get past that. But when you even just reach out to other people and ask like, Hey, how did you overcome this? Or like, did I, you know, buy you a cup of coffee and just like, pick your brain about this for, uh, I don’t know, a couple of minutes for an hour, just learning from other people and figuring out how can I, how can I make what they have fit my life and what I want? How can I take those little steps that are going to make my dreams of being home with my kiddos come true? Like don’t look at the whole big picture because then it gets really overwhelming. Just start taking those bite sized steps. I love that you mentioned that.

Kat Kurdziel: Yeah, I think that’s, it’s just, it becomes so overwhelming otherwise because we’re trying to make it happen in such a quick period of time. And it’s, it’s going to overwhelm us more than the point of getting out of that situation, right? To reduce the overwhelm.

Arianna Vernier: Yep. And it’s really helpful too, if you like set yourself a goal date for maybe when you want to leave your nine to five and then break that down. I was a teacher, so we’re big on backwards design. Like we have a test we need to give our students. How do I backwards design and figure it out. What lessons I need to teach and in what order to hit that goal of getting my students or master the content so they can pass the test and we need to approach our goals the same way like break them down into bite sized pieces and figure out in what order you’re going to take those steps. And then it’s a lot less overwhelming when you’re like, Oh, I just have to do this little step this day, this little step this day, keep repeating, doing those little steps. And you’re going to be surprised by how quickly you can accomplish that goal. So if you’re listening to this podcast, I do have lots of episodes about breaking down your big goals into bite sized steps. So you can go find those episodes, but yeah, like Kat mentioned, just. Break it down, make it tangible, easy to do, nothing super overwhelming because if it’s too much you’re going to end up giving up and then you’re never going to accomplish those dreams in your heart and I don’t want that for you. It has been so great having you on today Kat. Where can people come and connect with you and just become your best friend?

Kat Kurdziel: I hang out the most on Instagram. My handle’s @KatTheVirtualGem and it’s in the show notes too. So feel free to connect, come say hi. I love sharing my favorite tips and a little bit of insight of what our days actually look like. I’m always in my stories kind of showing you not even like, Oh, here are all the business pieces, but here’s what we’re doing for fun today too. So that’s the best place to connect with me.

Arianna Vernier: Awesome. So yeah, if you are listening, make sure you go and get connected with Kat and just, yeah, follow along on her journey. Well, thank you again so, so much for coming on today. It was such a pleasure having you on the show.

Kat Kurdziel: Thank you so much.

Arianna Vernier: All right, y’all. Make sure you leave a review on this show if you’ve been loving it. That’s just what helps us get more amazing guests on the show, just like Kat. And I cannot wait for you guys to tune back in for the next episode real soon. I love y’all so much. I hope you have a great rest of your week.