Season 1 Farewell: Reflecting on My Journey and What's Coming Next

About the episode:

Hey everyone, it’s RuthAnn here! I'm thrilled you're tuning in for today’s special episode. As we say goodbye to Season 1, I have some personal news to share—yes, I’m about to go on maternity leave! So, I'll explain how this will affect our time together and how we can stay in touch over the summer. I'll also open up about blending personal and business lives on social media, sharing insights from my own experiences. It’s a cozy, reflective episode as we prepare for what’s next. So, grab your comfy spot, and let’s start!

Highlights:

Deciding whether to mix business with personal on social media platforms
The importance of setting boundaries for online privacy and choosing what to share
How to align your social media strategy with your personal values
Updates on the podcast schedule and what to expect during RuthAnn's maternity leave

Resources

⁠Sign up for the newsletter⁠ OR share the podcast to social media and tag @r_artspace

Visit this episode's blog post ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Connect with me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@r_artspace⁠⁠⁠⁠

Learn more about ⁠⁠⁠working together

Hey there, welcome to Rebrand with Ruthann. I'm so excited that you're here. And I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you for joining me on this journey of my podcast and just being here. If you enjoy these conversations, I would love for you to rate and review the show, that really helps. And it really helps the podcast get out to more people. So I would be so appreciative if you could do that.
So today's episode is gonna be on the shorter and sweeter side, and it's just gonna be a quick topic I would love to chat with you about, and I'm also gonna be sharing what is happening next for the podcast, because things are about to change. So I'm excited to dive into all of this. So, okay. I'm excited to dive into all of this, so let's get started. So the topic of today's podcast is should you mix business and personal and so before I dive in
So the topic of today's episode is should you mix business and personal? This is something I get asked a lot actually is, should you have a personal Instagram? Should you have a business Instagram? Should you have a personal? And basically on any social media platform, should you have a personal account versus a professional account? Or should you just have one that's both? And so this is a topic that I'm so happy to discuss because I feel like, and not that I have all the answers, I definitely don't have all the answers, but I would like to share my thoughts and what has worked for me and also give you some food for thought if you are in this dilemma and you are wondering what you should be doing about your business and your personal accounts. So I think the main thing to know, I think that it's important to ask yourself a few questions first. So what is the goal you have for your business and your personal brand? Do you want, you know, I think it always comes down to like what you want. Do you want to, you know, have people find you online and to be able to see your family and like what you're doing and what you're working on? Is that something you want to have happen or are you kind of along like you want to be more private, you don't really want to share your kids' faces, you know, that kind of thing. So I think it's totally up to you, and I think it's good both ways. Like, I love following people who share their whole life, and I also love following people who only share, like, their portfolio and their work, like that. So I think it's just something that you need to decide, like, what you want to do and what's important to you. And that’s I think about that maybe not everyone thinks about, but I always think like, okay, if I was to get famous, like what I want everyone, what I want like people to just go searching through my archives and like read everything that I've been writing down, that kind of thing on Instagram or on my Facebook or whatever. And not that I plan to get famous anytime soon, but I think it's something to ask yourself. Like if you were to get a lot of recognition or a lot of success, a lot of visibility, how would you feel about a lot of people, strangers, checking out what you have going on online? And I think there is not a right or wrong answer to this. I think it's totally up to you what you want to share and whatever is right for you is right for you. So I don't think there's a right or wrong here, but I think it's good to ask yourself, what do you like to share? What do you wanna keep private and then kind of go from there.
And that takes me to the second thing is like privacy. Like, you know, do you want to, and I just mentioned this, but like, you know, do you want to have your kids' faces or their ages or, you know, all of that kind of stuff online or do you want that to be kept to yourself? I personally don't show my family as much on Instagram and I never really like showed too much of them, I guess. I was always, I've always been pretty private online, but it's something that,
I have become even more private online just because I decided to take a step back from Instagram back in the, around the start of the new year and stuff. And so because of that, I'm really only posting my work and that kind of thing on my Instagram grid. But then if I do show my kids or something, I show it in stories because I know it'll disappear soon. And so that could be an option for you if you're like, you know, I don't want to...
not share my, like I do want to share my family a little bit. You can always do that in a setting that it's more fleeting, like stories or something quick. It doesn't have to be on your grid where it's more searchable, that kind of thing. So that's kind of an option, but I think it's good to know. What are your boundaries when it comes to privacy for yourself and for your family and all that, I think it's important to know.
And then thirdly, what are your values? I think it's really important to go back to values. I feel like I always talk about this. Knowing your values is incredibly important because it just gives you kind of a compass for how you want to live your life.
If you really value family and spending intentional time with people and making time for the people you love, that will come through in your content. And I just think it helps you make decisions on like, okay, what do I wanna share here? What do I not wanna share here? Because if we're talking about, and I'm gonna get into this in a second, but if, should you have a personal account or a business account?
I think it's good to know what your values are and like, do you wanna be sharing a lot with the people you love or do you want to keep that stuff private? That kind of thing, it's just important to know. So I think it's always good to keep your values close and to just keep them in mind when you're making these decisions. So now we're gonna talk about should you incorporate your personal life into your business life? And this is specifically talking about social media platforms. Like should you have a personal account and a business account? And the answer I'm going to say is, my personal answer is yes. I think you should have two separate accounts. And obviously you can do whatever you want here. But I think for me, especially when I was more on Instagram back in the day,
I was wanting to share my family and silly things that I was doing and life and that kind of thing. And I feel like it just made more sense for a personal account. And I didn't really want everyone else to be seeing all that. And so I decided to separate them. And so personally, that is the route that I have taken is I have a personal account where you have to like ask permission to follow that kind of thing. And then I have a business account where I strictly am talking about business. And honestly, it got to the point for me because I don't have time to like switch in between platforms. And honestly, I don't have time for Instagram anymore in general. But I would just be on my business account and I would end up sharing like personal stuff anyway, like not personal stuff like I would on my personal account, but just in general, I would just be sharing more family, more stuff I was doing, kind of lifestyle stuff. So I think it kind of, that was my advice. And I think that still is my advice, is like having it separated, but it is a lot more to maintain. And if you wanted to be posting every single day on both accounts, like obviously that's a lot and so I think it comes down to what do you have the bandwidth for and you know go back to those few things I asked you to consider. You know goals, what are your goals for your business and your personal brand? What is your view on privacy and how can you incorporate your values? I think knowing those things will help you decide what you should do and I do think that social media has come a long way in just a few years and people are sharing way more personal stuff on their business pages, which I think is, I think it's good because people are being authentic and they're just sharing the real them and everything like that. So I think that's totally great. So I do think there has been a way bigger crossover in the recent years to how much you're sharing personally and professionally, but to each his own. And so I just wanted to give you my thoughts on the topic of like, should you mix business and personal? The quick answer is yes and no. I think you should, I mean, I think it's good to show who you are and to show what you're working on and showing a little bit of your life in general. And, you know, I think there's also boundaries, like, you know, what,
How many photos of your family do you want people to have? How much access do you want people to have? How many details do you want people to have? So I think it's a yes and no answer. And I think it really comes down to what you think is right, what you feel is right, and go with your gut on that one. Hopefully that was interesting or helpful in some ways, but that is a question I get a lot. So I hope that...
I didn't ramble too much as I was trying to answer that, but yes, those are my thoughts on that topic. And so now going into what is happening next for the podcast, I just wanted to give you a quick update on the status of everything and what is going on next, just so you can stay in the loop. I am going on maternity leave, so that is coming up.
And so June 19th is when my baby is due and we will see if he will make an appearance on that day or a different day. But I am taking a maternity leave starting the beginning of June and I will be out until mid August. So that is the plan is I will come back mid August. So for the podcast, this is the last episode that's gonna be weekly.
And from here, we are gonna go into once every three weeks for the summer. So that is the plan is you will hear a new episode every three weeks over the summer. Just because I'm gonna be on maternity leave and I didn't want to batch that much content. And I feel like people are kind of taking a break in the summertime anyway, in a lot of ways, you know, kids are home from school, that kind of thing. So.
And there's already so much great content on this podcast. So if you haven't already, look back through, you know, the last 30 ish episodes and find something that you love because we have some great, great interviews and episodes and we have our little mini series with Barb on her rebranding journey. So we have a lot of good content already on the podcast. So I would love for you to check out all of that. But yeah, we're going to do.
a new episode every three weeks until August. And then in August, I am coming back to work and to the podcast in a bimonthly manner. So I will be having two new episodes a month starting in August. So I'll keep you posted on all the things so you'll know what's happening. But that is kind of my tentative plan for now. And I always reserve the right to change my mind. So.
That might happen as well, but this is the plan and this is what feels great. And I'm just excited to be going on maternity leave with my baby very soon and just spending the summer together with all the kids. And Zia is going to be home from preschool. And I think it'll be a really nice summer. So that is the plan and.
I hope you'll stick with me through the summer and content not coming out as often as it used to be. But yeah, that's kind of what's going on and what's in my bandwidth at the moment. And if you have any feedback or if you want to hear about a certain topic or anything like that, I would love to hear your thoughts. I always want to hear your thoughts. So you can.
you know, message me on Instagram at r underscore artspace, or you can email me at Ruthanne at rartspace .com. And I would love to chat with you and see what you love about the podcast and what you wanna keep going or bring in or, you know, hear differently. I would love to make it more enjoyable for you in any way that I can. So I hope this was a fun little snippet of an episode. And yeah, I look forward to.
chatting with you in a bi -monthly manner when I come back from maternity leave. So until then, I hope you have the best summer. And like I said, you'll be hearing episodes from me every three weeks starting after this one. And yeah, I will talk to you later. So thank you so much for being here, for choosing to listen to this podcast. And I just appreciate you so much. And I will talk with you again soon.