Building Real Community on Threads with Laura Sinclair

Andréa Jones [00:00:00]:
Welcome to another episode of the Mindful Marketing Podcast. And this one feels near and dear to my heart because I met today's guests on threads. And yeah, we're talking all about threads as a community building tool. And Laura Sinclair, and I, we're connected through threads. It feels a bit meta, pun intended. So in this episode, we're gonna talk about how Laura uses threads as a tool to grow her business. But first, a word from our sponsor. Riverside is the all in one podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this right here show.

Andréa Jones [00:00:30]:
I use it to edit not only the audio and the video. It is like chef's kiss, magical, making the entire process so so easy. Plus, I love their magic AI clips. Their little AI robot in the background pulls out the most impactful moments of the episodes without me having to comb through and do it myself, Resizes them for social media. So those vertical videos you see on TikTok and reels, those all come from magic AI inside of Riverside. It's literally one click. It spits out 10 clips. I pick the best one and away I go.

Andréa Jones [00:01:05]:
Saves me so much time. If you wanna get on the Riverside train, check it out today, the links in the show notes, and make sure to use my code drea, d r e a, at checkout to get 15% off your membership. Okay. Laura, welcome to the show.

Laura Sinclair [00:01:21]:
Andrea, thank you for having me.

Andréa Jones [00:01:23]:
I'm excited to pick your brain on all things Threads and just your business in general because I love what you do. Like, I feel connected to it now as a mom. So for those people who are tuning in, they don't know who you are, give us, like, the thirty second elevator pitch about who you are and what you do.

Laura Sinclair [00:01:37]:
Yeah. My name is Laura Sinclair. I'm the founder of this mother reads business. I'm a business mentor for entrepreneurial moms.

Andréa Jones [00:01:43]:
How did you get into it? Like, was there a catalyst moment?

Laura Sinclair [00:01:45]:
Oh my goodness. Like, how much time do we have on this on the show on it? Well, I have a corporate marketing background. I'm a marketer like you. I started my career in PR. I worked in corporate marketing and left the marketing world. Left corporate actually in 2015, I ran a brick and mortar CrossFit gym for five years. And then when the world shut down for two weeks, I had an abundance of caution. I was eight weeks pregnant with my second child.

Laura Sinclair [00:02:08]:
And we ended up closing that gym at the end of twenty twenty. Fast forward. I was like, okay, now I have a three month old and I have to figure out how to make money. And so I started my online business. I started doing what was easy for me at the time, which was teaching small business owners how to use social media better because I was running social media and digital marketing for big brands in my corporate world, my corporate life. And then I used that effectively to build my gym business, which the pandemic wasn't overly kind to, but I also had a small baby and just didn't want to, didn't want to do it anymore. And so I started teaching people how to use social media, not dissimilar to the work that you do, but it sort of snowballed away from that. I started having conversations with women about motherhood and some of the challenges that they were facing.

Laura Sinclair [00:02:56]:
And so many of the conversations I was seeing about motherhood and entrepreneurship were really fluffy, really kind of like cute side hustley. And there wasn't a lot of people standing up for these really ambitious women building big businesses with big passion, have so much heart for it that are also navigating motherhood. And it kind of just started by accident. It started with my podcast and then it was a retreat and it was another retreat, and then it was a community and an event and sort of really leaning into growing this platform. And so it kinda happened organically, but I'm glad that it did.

Andréa Jones [00:03:32]:
Yeah. I'm glad that it did too. And that's kinda why I connected with you as well. Because I feel like there's like there's like two sides of being a mom in business. There's the one side where as soon as I was announcing my pregnancy, a bunch of people assumed that I would shut down my business. And I was like, oh, no. No. I'm not.

Andréa Jones [00:03:48]:
I'm No. I still am working. And then there was the other side of people who were, like, assuming that nothing would change. Right? And to be honest, I'm somewhere in the middle. Like, I'm not shut down, but I'm definitely not running at the speed that I was pre babies, especially, you know, with three year old and a one year old. I just literally cannot. And so that's why I connected with your post because I'm like, oh, this is someone who's like really gets it. Like, it's real.

Andréa Jones [00:04:12]:
It's not like I, you know, I wake up and like, we have like granola and then I, you know, run my business during naps. And I'm like, that is not possible for a lot of people.

Laura Sinclair [00:04:22]:
So

Andréa Jones [00:04:22]:
yeah. I love your post, around the real the rawness of motherhood in business.

Laura Sinclair [00:04:27]:
Yeah. You know what? I I just I'm too tired to tell anything about the truth. And so that's where it started on threads truthfully is it was like, you know what? Somebody, somebody's gotta be the person to talk about what this really looks like. And, hey, if it's gonna be me, then so be it.

Andréa Jones [00:04:42]:
Yeah. So what initially drew you to threads? Like, are you an early adapter kind of person?

Laura Sinclair [00:04:46]:
Yeah. So I was a big Twitter user in 02/2008. Huge Twitter user. I loved Twitter. Before, you know, this is when I was in PR school, working in PR. We would do a lot of actually pitching media over Twitter. It was something that we did back then. And I loved it and then kinda got away from it as I was no longer in PR.

Laura Sinclair [00:05:04]:
And so when threads first came out, I kinda jumped on it and was like, okay. This is cool. But then I took a period of time where I was like, okay. I'm actually, like, too busy for another platform. I can't I can't hack it right now. And so I think there was maybe, like, a six or eight month window, and then I actually broke my leg at the beginning of twenty twenty four. And I was like, okay, I'm bored. I'm bored.

Laura Sinclair [00:05:28]:
And I actually have this capacity for something else. Right. I'm literally stuck in bed. I can't, I broke my leg in two places. It wasn't a good time. And so I found myself back on all of a sudden I had this time and I somehow myself back on threads and I just started kind of using it. Like I used Twitter and I would just think something and post it. And that was sort of how it went.

Laura Sinclair [00:05:49]:
And it was just this opportunity for me to share some of my unhinged thoughts that didn't really make sense in any other platform. And that's really how it started was for me with a broken leg in bed, just posting my thoughts.

Andréa Jones [00:06:04]:
I love that. I feel like that's very much the vibe of threads, though. It's it's a less it's less buttoned up. It's more casual. It's it's, more approachable. So do you think that makes it easier for especially moms to to jump on the platform?

Laura Sinclair [00:06:18]:
I think so. It's so low lift. Right? When you think about what's required on some of these other platforms, I mean, you and I are sitting here making long form content right now. Like, we don't you don't have to do that on threads. You don't have to create a video. You don't have to create a graphic if you don't want to. And so there's something about how low lift it is that I think is is really attractive to both me and a lot of my clients. And there's also something that I'm seeing, Andrea, that I'm wondering if you're seeing too, where for some reason, the filter has come off on threads.

Laura Sinclair [00:06:46]:
Like, people are just so much more honest on this platform, and it's like a fun place to try things and see what lands and see, hey, if I say this, does this offend people? Or if I say this, am I gonna lose a bunch of followers? And not in a way to be offensive, but I think so many of us play it really safe with some of our opinions and the things that we believe. And so threads, I think, has been like a bit of a testing ground for a lot of folks as well.

Andréa Jones [00:07:13]:
Yeah. A %. I feel like so this has been something I've been thinking about a lot, which is this idea of the content calendar. I love it. Don't get me wrong. Especially as a business owner, it could be very helpful. But also, I feels feels like sometimes it goes too far. Like, my experience on Instagram and Facebook sometimes is, like, too curated, too too thought out, too, like, orchestrated.

Andréa Jones [00:07:34]:
I'm like, the way waiting for them to sell me something. Whereas it feels like on threads, it's just a vibe. I'm like, I wanna see what I see. Like, what what's gonna make me, like, today? You know? I don't know. Yeah.

Laura Sinclair [00:07:46]:
Yeah. And I I will say that the really fun thing about threads is just how much community it feels like is there. The level of support feels really different. I mean, I'm engaging with folks on threads that would probably ignore me on Instagram. You know, it's like people that I would never get our DM response from on Instagram reply to my threads, or I reply to theirs and there is a response there. So there's, there's sort of like, almost like an evening of the playing field that's happened over on threads, which has been really cool too.

Andréa Jones [00:08:15]:
Yeah. That's what I love about it too. You your the community feels more equal instead of, like, a hierarchy of, like, you know, oh, this person has a million followers. I only have a hundred. You know?

Laura Sinclair [00:08:26]:
When you can't even see it in the context of the what threads gives you. Right? It's just like, here here's a person saying the thing. You either agree with the thing or you don't agree with the thing, but it does. It really has taken away some of that maybe hierarchy a little bit that might exist in other platforms.

Andréa Jones [00:08:41]:
Yeah. For sure. Well, I'm curious about, like, strategically how you look at it compared to other platforms. So you talked about how you kind of just post your thoughts as you think them. But how does that strategically play in your business specifically compared to a platform like Instagram?

Laura Sinclair [00:08:57]:
Yeah. When I started on threads, it was very there was no strategy. It was just like, I'm gonna just say whatever because I'm bored with a broken leg in bed and I'm gonna just share my thoughts. And my community did grow on threads really fast, just because I was unhinged saying the things that I think in my head that a lot of people would be like, oh, wow. I really feel the same. And like, good for you for saying that. But as we, you know, my legs no longer broken. I have to return to life as, as normal.

Laura Sinclair [00:09:24]:
I think for me, what's really changed is it's a lot about having more conversation. I think it's opening up posts that inspire conversation and also making invitations of others to be a part of my community. And that's a big piece of my strategy on threads is really anchoring in the I the notion that threads does inherently build community. My business is rooted in community. And so really just making continual invitations of folks to be a part of the things that I'm doing. And whether that's my spa days, I do these local meetup spa days that have actually turned into other women. Across Canada hosting their own spa days, own spot at working days, which I am obsessed with that all just started on threads. And I get women that are coming and meeting me in real life at the spa or coming to my community connection call and really just rooting in telling those stories and continually making those invitations.

Laura Sinclair [00:10:18]:
That's been a big part of my strategy as far as, like, moving people from threads into whatever else I have for them, whatever email marketing or funnel that I have from them has really just been about continually making the invitation and then telling the stories and building up my personality and sharing what I do and who I am in between.

Andréa Jones [00:10:39]:
Oh, okay. So I want some examples of this, just to give context. So when you're talking about so let's start with, like, one of your your, like, here's what's in my brain post. Like, do you have one that stands out to you?

Laura Sinclair [00:10:52]:
Oh, gosh. That's a really great question. I really

Andréa Jones [00:10:54]:
put you on the spot too.

Laura Sinclair [00:10:55]:
I'm really I'm like, go back to your thousands of threads and think about one that that no, I think like for me, okay. A great example of one is I really don't resonate with the word mompreneur. I find it infantilizing. And so I will post on threads often, like threads is not a platform where I just post it one time and never post it again. Like I'm, I'm going to post it and I'm gonna post it a different way, a couple of weeks later at a different way, a couple of weeks, like that is a big part of the platform, but really just leaning into my opinions. Right? I don't like the word mompreneur. I don't relate to it. I don't like mama.

Laura Sinclair [00:11:27]:
I just find them to be infantilizing. And so I post on threads often about the fact that I don't relate to this word. This is something that stirs up the folks. Right? People have big opinions on that. Another big one is talking about the fact that I'm sure you've seen this, that I won't hire a business mentor that doesn't have kids. And I believe that it is essential for a mentor to understand what it is that a mentee goes through. If they have children. I mean, you and I were just talking about the chaos of having a one and a three year old.

Laura Sinclair [00:11:59]:
This is another thing I love to talk about on threads and it pokes the bear. They get angry. People get angry about this and it's okay because the people that get angry are not my people and the people that agree with it are my people. And then I start seeing the follows go up and the connections. And then that translates into my Instagram following actually has grown quite a bit since my threads following has grown, and I'm making these new connections. And so I think a lot of it is just, like, anchoring in, like, these are the things that I believe. This is a space for you if you if you believe the same. And if you don't, that's okay too.

Andréa Jones [00:12:31]:
Yeah. For those of you who can't see the video, I'm doing like a massive head nods over here because I'm like, yes. I think that this is so this is what I call contrarian content. Because contrarian content serves a very unique purpose and that, yes, it gets people heated, it gets people fired up. But it gets the other side of that too. Like, when you say mompreneur, I'm like, yes. Like, mompreneur to me does not fit who I would describe my like, I think of and there's no offense to this, but to me, I think of, like, like, an Etsy account, like, kind of business. Like a little hobby, like, on the side.

Andréa Jones [00:13:05]:
Yeah. And I'm like, this is I'm not this is not a hobby to me. Like, this is my job. So I'm not gonna, like, diminish that. And to me in mompreneur, it feels like it's like, oh, cute. Like a little pat on the head. Like, look at her. Look at her go.

Andréa Jones [00:13:18]:
And I'm like, no.

Laura Sinclair [00:13:18]:
It's very pink. That's the way I used to describe it. It feels very pink. And not not because we don't like the color pink. It's just like it's just cute. And there's nothing really cute about what you and I are doing. We're No. Here to create impact.

Andréa Jones [00:13:31]:
Right. It's a actual business. And so, yeah, that that's the kind of stuff that I love to see on threads too because I'm like, I found my people. And I think this these signals that you're putting out there are calling out your people, which I love, so you're bringing them in. And then I wanna also talk about these invitation style posts because I think this is where some people fumble on threads because it can like, coming into the platform, especially as a business owner, we instantly go, like, how can I make money? Like, that we're all thinking it. Right? We're all, like, how can I make money? Like, how can I sell something? But you there's a delicate way to approach this, and so I wanna hear how you do it on threads. Like, what do you say to, like, call people and to take the step the the next step of, like, joining you somewhere?

Laura Sinclair [00:14:12]:
I I'm probably, like, not the most professional about it if I'm being honest, and some of that is my personality. I literally will say be like, hey. If you're a mom and you wanna come hang out with other moms, like, bring your chaos. It'll be fun. We're having this connection call. You should come. Like, it's literally that. It's not, are you a woman entrepreneur who is looking to connect with other women entrepreneurs at like minded and heart centered values? Join us for our community connection call.

Laura Sinclair [00:14:38]:
Like, I don't do that. I cannot do that. That's ridiculous. That just doesn't align for me. And so all of the invitations that I've made have have, I mean, if you go back and search my thread, that's like, hi, waving emoji. You know, I'm hosting a spa meetup on this day. If you're in the Barrie area and you want to come hang out or hi, if you're a mom who wants to hang out with other moms who are like minded, like you, who wants a business help and, like, feel free to come in your pajamas, that's where we'll be. And so for me, there's, like, an authenticity behind the cell that matters.

Laura Sinclair [00:15:11]:
And I I also have a podcast. I I always promote my podcast episode on Thread as Threads as well, and it's use the same thing. It's not like, on today's episode, we are featuring guest Andrea Jones, who is an expert. Like, no. It's not that. It's just like you know, I had the opportunity to talk with the incredible Andrea Jones. It was such a great episode. She shares this with us.

Laura Sinclair [00:15:32]:
If you're a mom who has, you know, a similar experience or you wanna go behind the scenes of someone who's made an incredible pivot, check out the episode. Like, it's just really coming from a place that's conversational and honest and making an invitation. It's like, hey. I have this sweet this cool thing. It's like having a delicious cookie. You want the cookie? You don't wanna eat the cookie? That's cool. I'm not gonna try to convince you to eat the cookie.

Andréa Jones [00:15:55]:
Yeah. Yeah. Do you think your marketing background has an impact on how you show up on threads?

Laura Sinclair [00:16:00]:
Yes. 100%. Absolutely. And I think this is the other the other piece. And, people often say to me, like, are you like, your content really helps people feel seen. I really feel seen your content. Do you do that on purpose? Well, yes. You know, I have a, I have a marketing background.

Laura Sinclair [00:16:15]:
I have a PR background, so yes, I have an added advantage over the average person that is, you know, learning to use it. But I think for someone that doesn't have a marketing background or doesn't have that doesn't come from that place, I think this is something that all business owners really need to tap into. It's like, who are you? And how do you want to talk to people? And if you just lean into your humanness, the fact that you're a human being, having a human experience, and you wanna bring other people into your human experience, that makes everything so much easier. So many times people say, I don't know what to say. It's like, well, what would you say if you were to meet this person on the street? If you're at an event and you were like, hey. I have this thing. Do you wanna come? It's no different on threats. Just be a human.

Laura Sinclair [00:17:02]:
Stop overthinking it. Tap into who it is that you are the way that you wanna communicate. And I promise everything gets easier when you just take the I'm supposed to's off.

Andréa Jones [00:17:13]:
Yeah. This is where I really struggle with the formulaic approaches because, you know, as marketers, we learn the formulas. Right? And if you're listening to this and you're like, Andrea, you taught me a formula. Yeah. I teach the formulas. But in order for the formulas to work, you still have to bring you into that process. I do think this is why some people also have a problem with, like, large language models, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, because they're not bringing them into the process. They're just copy pasting the formula.

Andréa Jones [00:17:42]:
And the formulas are helpful. Don't get me wrong. They do help. They're they they're great. Like, Laura, you're talking about, like, the I feel seen type of content, and I love that type of content because it's such a a great powerful connection. And you know the formula of that, and you're still doing it your way. And it's like marrying those two ideas that's key. So I'm curious, like, when you think about threads, and specifically, like, managing your time on the platform too, because it sounds like you you you kind of feel inspired and you go off your inspiration.

Andréa Jones [00:18:13]:
But how do you make sure you're not, like, either a, doom scrolling on threads all day or b, you it's, like, been two weeks and you never logged in?

Laura Sinclair [00:18:20]:
Yeah. So this is a great one because I have definitely gone through seasons where I'm, like, posting on threads four or five times a day because I have all of the thoughts. And then I'm actually just coming out of a season right now where I haven't been as active on the platform because I ran my first event. I'm dealing with a major health crisis in my family. Like there's just so many things going on. I have still have two kids. I have a partner, a ship working partner, like all of the things. And so for me, there are sort of milestones and benchmarks that are required for me to show up on threads.

Laura Sinclair [00:18:49]:
So there's there's sort of two threads of thought. Threads of thought. Wow. Pun not really intended, but, like, let's go with it. Let's roll there. Good job, Laura. The first one is that it's my responsibility to show up for my business. Right.

Laura Sinclair [00:19:02]:
I have to, I just, my job to show up and tell my people about the podcast episode about the community connection, call about the community, about like, that's my job. And so there's that piece of it there that I'm able to like anchor in on, or these are the things that are required. The things that I, at a minimum, have to talk about across platform, I'm already creating this content, and it would be a real shame for me to not take the ten seconds and turn it into a thread. So there's there's that side of it. The other side of it is that I know that I can't show up on a platform and just talk about all my stuff. I can't just sell all the time. And so there's a piece of it that there's like a little bit of give and take required. It's like sending emails, right? I can't just send sales emails and hope that people are going to want to read my emails.

Laura Sinclair [00:19:51]:
It's not, it's not how it works. And so for me, it's like establishing what that minimum is and that's part of my strategy. Right. And so if the minimum is sometimes it might just be actually replying to other people's threads, because I find sometimes my replies to posts do as well as my sort of native posts on my own page, my own site. So it's establishing for me, okay, at a minimum, I'm gonna post I know I need to post once a day to talk about my things, my my business things. And then I'm also going to try to engage in the platform as well. And then when I'm in the season where I feel inspired and I have a lot to say that I'm going to go with that. But for me, it's sort of setting the standard for myself of this is what the bare minimum is, and I can commit to the bare minimum.

Laura Sinclair [00:20:35]:
And I think some of it is reps too. Right? Like, I've been doing this. I've been an entrepreneur for ten years. I've been in the online space for four and a half at this stage. And so, yeah, you just you make commitments and you stick to them.

Andréa Jones [00:20:48]:
Yeah. Yeah. I think that I love what you said about it. It like, it is my responsibility as a business owner to do this to my business. And I think there's a lot of things that we do in our business where we we are kind of wishy washy about it. And I think marketing your business is one of those nonnegotiables. And if threads is your thing, like, it is your responsibility to to show up there. I love that you said that.

Andréa Jones [00:21:11]:
I still am curious, though, like, how much time you're spending on the platform. Because when I first started on threads, I was spending hours and hours on it. And now I probably spend, like, fifteen, twenty minutes a day, outside of, like, creating content and stuff. But I'm always curious, like, how much time other people are spending.

Laura Sinclair [00:21:27]:
I'm the same. I'm probably fifteen, twenty minutes a day. I used to be hours. You can go down the threads rabbit hole. Honestly, one of the things that's helped me a lot is I try to go on threads on my desktop and not my phone. I find if I'm on my phone, it's really easy to get caught up. Now that said, my following is not growing as fast on threads as it was when I was spending hours a day on threads and responding to absolutely everything and, you know, stuck in bed with a broken leg. But that's okay.

Laura Sinclair [00:21:53]:
That's okay. For me, it's like my, not all of my eggs are in the threads basket. Right? Like I have other, other things that help me grow my business and I'm in other places, but I would say fifteen to twenty minutes a day is about what I spend on threads on a day where I'm like really inspired. And I, maybe I'm in a threads argument with somebody or someone's disagreeing with me and I'm like, gonna stand on my stand on my stuff. Maybe like half an hour, forty five minutes, but most days I would say it's probably, yeah, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, something in there.

Andréa Jones [00:22:23]:
Okay. Cool. And are you repurposing any of your threads content? You mentioned kind of testing ideas. Do you take those ideas into long form content? Like what does that look like?

Laura Sinclair [00:22:32]:
Yeah. So I absolutely repurpose my long form content into threads. And one thing that I love to do on threads is if I test an opinion, if it goes well, I'll turn it into like an Instagram reel or I'll make it into a podcast episode, things like that. I'm often inspired by some of the conversations. So I like to use it as a testing ground that will then inspire some other content, but also I will take my long form content and turn it into threads.

Andréa Jones [00:22:56]:
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's how I do it too. Either most of the time, what you see on threads is, like, I probably set it in a podcast or in a live somewhere, like a live class. And then, like, oh, that's a good one liner, and I'll put it on threads. But I do test as well. I call this that reverse content repurposing where I'm like, I don't know if I want this to be ideal.

Andréa Jones [00:23:13]:
Let's see. And then if you respond to it, I'll turn it and expand it. So okay. Cool. And then how do you how do you measure your own success on threads? So you mentioned follower numbers. You mentioned replies and things. But I'm curious if you have any more structure to measuring success, or are you more so, like, feeling your way around it?

Laura Sinclair [00:23:32]:
I I would love to tell you that I have a really good structure, Andrea, but I don't. I think I'm still feeling just feeling into it. It's been I have not given it enough time. I don't think in my opinion, or really enough effort, like, focus. This is my thread strategy that I'm going to focus on for this launch, for example. That has felt like I've, I really have enough data to even go on. I will say that it's brought me the most incredible people. And I think that's the metric of success that I really lean into and threads is there's so many connections and opportunities for me, even, you know, being on podcasts.

Laura Sinclair [00:24:09]:
There was a, I posted last year that I got, rejected for, I think my post was, and it was being a little sassy. It was to the effect of, you know, I just got rejected for a podcast to be on a pod, I guess on a podcast you've never heard of because my social media following wasn't big enough. And I think at the time I maybe had like 3,000 followers on Instagram, but that wasn't large enough. And so that was the reason you don't. And I was like, wow, since when do we, you know, gauge a person's expertise or ability to be a decent guest on their social media following Andrea. I was invited to be on 38 podcasts from that one thread post. One post 38 people were like, come be on my show. Be on my show, come on my show.

Laura Sinclair [00:24:52]:
And I did. I even had a broken leg. So

Andréa Jones [00:24:56]:
perfect time for podcast guesting.

Laura Sinclair [00:24:58]:
I was, I have, I was a guest on over 80 podcasts last year and a lot of those came from. Being on threads, just connections on threads. And so I haven't looked at it like in a, from, as a marketer and that really like data point perspective yet. And I'm sure I'll get there. But for me, what it's done is it's just brought some really cool humans into my world. It's exposed me to new podcasts. I got to meet you. So that counts.

Laura Sinclair [00:25:25]:
But I think that for me has been like the measure of success on threads and yes, some of it has turned into clients and some of it, lots of people have come to my events and and come to my connection calls and things like that. So for now, it feels like for the fifteen, twenty minutes I put in a day, it feels well worth it.

Andréa Jones [00:25:41]:
Yeah. No. I'm so glad you said that because I low key love data. Don't get me wrong. But and also, I think we go too far. We go too far sometimes in the measuring of the metrics. And, like, I do think it's good to, like, take a little pulse point check, see, but not to get obsessed with it because, you know, we're we're at a time in history where we've never had this much access to information before, this much access to data. You know, go back twenty years ago if you're running a business, you couldn't put up a billboard and go, oh, I know exactly 3,463 people saw this date.

Andréa Jones [00:26:14]:
Like, you can't you didn't do that. You would just go, well, I hope I hope people saw it. I hope they I hope they read it. I don't even know how long they looked at it. And so I feel like we have we have too much information sometimes, and we go too far with it where there is this, like, intangible metric of like, man, I met some really freaking cool people, and you can't really put that in a spreadsheet or in your Airtable base. Right? And so I love that. I love that. And, like, like, we're we're proof.

Andréa Jones [00:26:40]:
We're proof of it.

Laura Sinclair [00:26:41]:
I love that. We are. We put it.

Andréa Jones [00:26:44]:
So I wanna talk

Laura Sinclair [00:26:44]:
ROI proof.

Andréa Jones [00:26:45]:
I know ROI proof. I wanna talk my last question is about boundaries because I do think that especially as moms so sorry to non moms out there, but I know a lot of people listening to this podcast, even if you're not a mom, you have other things. Right? You're you're taking care of your aging parents. You have chronic illness. You are going back to school. You have a full time job. Like, whatever it is. We struggle with, like, the boundaries of it all, and we can take this beyond threads too, and I'm curious about how you place your own boundaries specifically when it comes to sharing information online.

Andréa Jones [00:27:20]:
How do you make sure that you're not just like, here's my breakfast? You know, like, how how are you how are you deciding what to share, I guess, boundary wise?

Laura Sinclair [00:27:29]:
Yeah. That's a really good question. This is something that I've been really I've I've played with over the last, you know, ten years of entrepreneurship, four and a half years of being online. For me, I only share the stuff that my audience needs to know. And so, I mean, I haven't even talked. I mentioned that I, you know, I had a family or an aging parent and my father had a medical emergency. I haven't even talked about that online because it's, it doesn't, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't, I mean, it matters for me, but it doesn't matter.

Laura Sinclair [00:27:59]:
To my audience. Right. Like, and I'm sure there'll be people that would love to be supportive of me in that season, but it doesn't matter for my business. It's not relevant. And so one of the things I've learned is just like my if I think about my life as a big, beautiful cake, there is only a slice of the cake that is really required to be online in my business. I don't talk about my kids much. Right? If my daughter's going through something, I'm not gonna go on my social media and be like, my seven year old daughter came home and had this issue and that issue. Like, I it's just not it's not required.

Laura Sinclair [00:28:31]:
It's not something that I desire. I'm actually quite a private person. I keep a hold a lot of things to the chest and with my close circles because that's how I prefer to be. You know, I don't show my kids' faces online. For me, it's just really figuring out, okay, what are the things that people need to know about me to know, like, and trust? Right. We talk about that in marketing all the time. Me enough to know that I am the right person for them. And usually that has to do with my values.

Laura Sinclair [00:29:00]:
You know, the the things that I do to take care of myself, I have a horse. I have to post about my horse. I post about my horse way more than I post about my kids. But it's really just deciding, you know, what are what are the slices of my life that are relevant for my business? And, yes, I'm building a personal brand, but there's a whole lot of me as a person that I get just for me.

Andréa Jones [00:29:21]:
Yeah. Yeah. I love that. That's beautiful. And I think the beautiful thing about it too is we get to decide. Right? Like, I think the in my opinion, the only way one of the ways that you can figure out what a boundary is is sometimes it gets crossed. Right? And so for me, I posted briefly my kids online. I when they were both born, I posted their pictures.

Andréa Jones [00:29:45]:
And I just something about it, I was like, I don't wanna do like, I never wanna post them online again. I just wanna protect their little preciousness. So don't I don't share their pictures. I don't I don't share their full names. I'll talk about my girls. I'll talk about their ages, generally speaking. But for me, that is one of my boundaries is my kids, and nobody online knows nothing about my family. Like, you'll you won't know my extended family.

Andréa Jones [00:30:06]:
I have I have a family. You won't know them. So

Laura Sinclair [00:30:09]:
My husband hates social media. And I'll talk around on the podcast a little bit, but he's not on my social media to the point where I'll get messages from people that I haven't seen in a while. And they're like, so are you still me? Yes. I am. It's just my marriage doesn't matter for the context of my business. My clients and those the people that are, you know, close to me know him and they, you know, have that experience. But for my Instagram and my threads, like, nobody needs to nobody needs to know. Yeah.

Laura Sinclair [00:30:40]:
It's not it's not required.

Andréa Jones [00:30:42]:
Yep. Same. And you can always change your mind too. Like, my husband and I filmed our honeymoon vacation, like oh my god. That sounded bad. We we

Laura Sinclair [00:30:51]:
What did you do?

Andréa Jones [00:30:52]:
Tell me more. We we did a road trip, and so we we were vloggers. We, like, vlogged the road trip. Like, oh, we're in Montreal. Now we're in Ottawa. Now we're you know what I mean? And now we would we would never do that. Like, we he doesn't wanna be online. He does the bare minimum for his business.

Andréa Jones [00:31:08]:
I do mine for my business. And same people are like, you haven't posted about your husband in a while. I'm like, oh, yeah. I mean, we just don't we don't create that kind of content anymore. Right? Like, we used to put our entire lives online, and now we're just very private people. And so you you can change your mind too at any point. If you're like, oh, I wanna do this or I don't wanna do this. Go for it.

Andréa Jones [00:31:27]:
I love it. I love it. Thank you for sharing, Laura. I think it's really important, for everyone to get a sense of, like, what's really working, what's actually happening with real, like, businesses that are active, that that are doing the dang thing on threads. So I appreciate you sharing that. And I know there are some people listening who are like, OMG. I need more Laura in my life. What are these community calls? Tell us about them.

Laura Sinclair [00:31:49]:
Yeah. So every other Tuesday at 10AM eastern time, we host a community connection call. It's just an opportunity to come and hang out with other like minded moms. You want to come and complain about your kids? You go for it. Yeah. This is a safe place to do it. You're going through something. You want to just come and have a laugh.

Laura Sinclair [00:32:03]:
We always laugh. Some of the women that come call it the community hug, the biweekly community hug. And it's just a place to connect with other women who are doing the thing and navigating this intersection of motherhood entrepreneurship and every other Tuesday at 10AM Eastern. I think we have one today that this episode drops, which is exciting. But if you head to this mothermeansbusiness.com, you can learn more about those calls, and I'll make sure I I share a link with you, Andreas. So if anyone's listening that wants to come and hang out with a bunch of other mom entrepreneurs that are keeping it real, I would love to see you there.

Andréa Jones [00:32:34]:
Yay. Awesome. Yeah. I'm gonna put that link in the show notes. Y'all can find it at onlinedrea.com/35eight. That's 358. Laura, thank you so much for being on the podcast today.

Laura Sinclair [00:32:46]:
Thank you for having me. This has been awesome.

Andréa Jones [00:32:48]:
Yay. And thank you, dear listener, for tuning in to another episode of the Mindful Marketing Podcast. If you have more goodness, especially threads goodness, come on into the Mindful Marketing Lab. I have a course on threads, actually. We talk about threads all the time. And, also, if you wanna just dive into some of our resources coming up, what tomorrow at after this episode, I'm doing a session all about AI. If you wanna learn how to use AI ethically, mindfully, k, come to this session in the lab and learn. I've also built a lot of AI resources, custom GPTs and things that you can use in your business to be your shortcut to this all, but it only works if you do the groundwork first.

Andréa Jones [00:33:26]:
We're gonna talk about that and more inside of the lab. Coming up next on the podcast, we're gonna have the amazing Maggie Patterson on the show to talk about staying solo and launching her new book called Staying Solo as well. So stay tuned for that. I'll see you next week. Bye for now.