Amy Vaughan:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to our weekly power lounge. This is your place to hear authentic conversations from those who have power to share. My name is Amy Vaughan, and I am the owner and chief empowerment officer of Together Digital, a diverse and collaborative community of women who choose to share their knowledge, power, and connections. Join the movement at TogetherInDigital.com. And today, I am thrilled to welcome 1 of our very own. Today’s guest, Robbie Schneider, is a true embodiment of what happens when passion meets purpose in the digital space. As I mentioned, she is a beloved member of Together Digital in our amazing community, and she recently achieved something remarkable. She leveraged her goals from our 2024 goal setting workshop into reality in her newly published book, social media sanity and you, a guide to mental wellness for the digital marker.
Amy Vaughan:
So marketer. It’s Friday. And I’m just so excited, and I’m so stinking proud of you, Robbie. For over two decades, she has worked in health care and content marketing, and she currently leads social media strategy at the Franciscan Health Company and serves as a board chair for socialmedia.org. But what makes this story particularly inspiring is how she has channeled her experience into addressing 1 of the industry’s most pressing challenges, protecting our mental wellness and an always on digital world. And good golly, this couldn’t be more important and relevant at this time. And when she’s not just sharing her theoretical advice, she’s lived in the she’s not just hinging on theoretical advice. She has lived these challenges of balancing digital demands with personal well-being.
Amy Vaughan:
And today, she is she she’ll be sharing some practical strategies that have emerged from her both personal and professional journey and her deep understanding of the health care space. As we launched our 2025 authentic ambition goal setting cohort, Robbie’s journey from workshop part work workshop participant to published author could not be more timely. She is a shining example of how our community and support can help to transform professional aspirations into reality. So everyone, please join me in welcoming the amazing Robbie Schneider into the power lounge. Welcome, Robbie.
Robbie Schneider:
Hi. I’m so glad we finally got to talk this morning. And I, You know, I know we wanted to do this in Dec. 0 and It’s
Amy Vaughan:
all good.
Robbie Schneider:
Life happens, unfortunately, and I’m just excited. I think this is a wonderful time right now.
Amy Vaughan:
There it is.
Robbie Schneider:
Going on with the news and in the digital space. And I’m just, thrilled to be talking with everybody about
Amy Vaughan:
this and bringing some attention to it. As much as life can throw us in as hard as I know things were for you at the end of the year, you know, I think you’re right. I think now is the time that we need to be having this conversation. So, yeah, definitely members are listening. Non members share the news of this book, because it’s such a fantastic read. And, again, you know, you’ve walked the walk, and now you’re talking the talk. And I think that that’s so great. But before we dive into the book, I’d love to hear more about your journey, with this community Together Digital, and what sparked your decision to make writing social media sanity in you your goal during our workshop?
Robbie Schneider:
Okay. That’s a loaded question. And to be fair, you know, I’m gonna be frank with you. I was very unsure about Together Digital at first because there were some really great local communities and unfortunately my market didn’t have 1. And I was like, what is the value of another digital organization? And I’ll tell you, Amy, this 1 is different. It feels different. You know, we’ve got great connections, with the cohorts and the goal setting groups, and I’ve met wonderful women around the country who are willing to pitch in and help bounce off ideas and collaborate and really grow in our professional goals. So, I really, you know, I’m thrilled to be part of this group and I’m thrilled to continue with this group.
Robbie Schneider:
And I just can’t say enough about it.
Robbie Schneider:
so Amy had extended an invitation to, you know, just try it out for a year. And I said, okay. Well, if I’m gonna do this, I’m really gonna invest with this and really make sure that I’m making the difference with it. And then I said, I signed up for the goal setting workshop. I had no idea what I wanted to do.
Amy Vaughan:
Oh.
Robbie Schneider:
So I’m gonna give you my, you know, very real thing for anybody who can see. These are my sticky notes of ideas and goals and things I thought maybe I’d like to do over the 2024. No real sense of rhyme or reason, but I had ideas of things. And getting past the idea into action, it’s an evolution. It really is. And being able to work through, you know, kind of how I wanted to do things, how I wanted my twenty twenty four to look. I come off of a couple of very difficult years, not only COVID, but also with some life changing events in our family. Yeah.
Robbie Schneider:
And, you know, really trying to take a look at, you know, what can I do to kind of shift the script in my head and what can I do to really make the most out of what I’ve been through and to help others also? And so 1 of my goals was really just, it wasn’t even about writing a book at the time. It was about, Hey, I just wanna use my voice to leverage and discuss the impacts of working in a digital space and the impacts it can have on mental health, because we’ve talked so much about how social media is impacting our youth. And that’s such a valid conversation. Mhmm. But a lot of times what we tell people is just turn off your phone, put it away, download those apps. What do you do when you’re that? That’s your driver. And that’s a congressional and and your expectation is to be digitally connected all the time. How do you find that balance in life? It’s something that’s a challenge.
Robbie Schneider:
It’s something that doesn’t go away. And frankly, you know, given the political environment we’ve been in the last probably five to eight years, just given the evolution of the discourse on social media, and given the splintering of all the social media outlets that we have to choose from, from a brand perspective, we’re doing more and more and more. And with the speed of social media, you know, we’re getting less and less and less time and trying to figure out where that balance is so we can come back and perform and be at our best so we can do our best work for our brand is just it it’s it’s good for us, and it’s good for your business as well. Yeah.
Amy Vaughan:
Agreed. And thank you so much for being honest because I think it’s a fair and valid point. Right? And I think they were in a new era where there’s, like, this pivot obviously towards everything, hybrid and virtual and remote, and, you know, and it almost makes us feel more separated and fragmented and alone. And sometimes it’s hard to think because there are not always platforms that are built out there with intentionality and purpose and mission that you’re like, is this gonna be a safe space? Is this truly gonna be a place where I can, you know, bring my full self and talk about my challenges? And to me, I think that’s, like, the importance of community right now in the world that we’re living in, whether it’s online or offline, but finding your people in community, to source that collective courage that you need to sort of go after the things that you never thought you would go after. And I, you know, I think there’s a person I challenge all the time. I know women who have become the best of friends through our network and being on Zoom and chatting alone who start businesses together, you know, and then end up in the physical world together. It’s just, you know I mean, god, if people can get online and meet and get married and spend the rest of their lives together, why can’t I meet my professional soulmates online too? Right? And I also think and I do appreciate the fact that even though you were a little discerning about it, that when you came on board, you jumped right in because this is the kind of thing, right, any community. What you put into it is what you get out of it.
Amy Vaughan:
You can’t just show up and take it. You have to show up and be willing to give. And I think you’ve done such a great job with that, especially with being so brave as to choose a very value based goal of yours that I know was a little hard to do. We’re looking at all those posts to then take the things that you had experienced and learned and grew from and say, oh, I figured this out, and now I wanna help others figure it out. That’s just so amazing. I love that. And so, yes, kudos to you for just, you know, coming in, being intentional, using your time wisely. I think sometimes we make excuses.
Amy Vaughan:
I just don’t have the time. You’ve really done that. Like, you’re working a full time job and still showing up for yourself and taking the time to, like, do this always on social media, plus write a book about it. So I wanna talk a little bit about that. Like, you know, was there any particular moment, or was this something that kind of had been sitting inside either your mind or your heart? Was there any particular moment that made you realize that this was the message that you needed to put out there to, like, okay. Look at all those post it notes. This is the thing that needs to go out into the world of digital professionals.
Robbie Schneider:
I think for me in my journey, you know, I’ve worked in the social media landscape since, you know, the early days of Facebook, and it was literally my career that took a pivot when I had a conversation with somebody in another room saying, hey. What do you think about this Facebook thing? And had I known that this would completely shape me here, who knows who knows where I would have been? But you know, as, as we’ve seen social media grow and evolve and some ways good, some ways bad, you know, and coupled with a pandemic and I work for a healthcare organization And especially if you think back to the very early days in 2020, there was a lot of confusion, a lot of concern. You know, we rode the emotional roller coaster of what the heck is this? Watching the science experiments in real time, essentially. You know, we’re testing we being, you know, the global science community is testing to try to figure out what exactly is going on and how our best practices for treatments and prevention and that kind of thing, trying to make sure that, you know, we’re out there as a public health resource, trying to be that resource for people who are reaching out for information, whether they’re concerned about a loved 1 or they may be needing to visit the hospital or, you know, hey, I saw this on social media and you work for a hospital. You must know what’s going on. It was truly an emotional roller coaster. You know, I think I went sixty days without a day off, in the initial weeks, because you just had this sense of, you know, this is your moment. This is the stuff we’ve been planning for since h one n one back in 02/9.
Robbie Schneider:
And and and these are, you know, we’re we’re actually this is evolving in real time. And, you know, the reality is I dealt very much with burnout as a result of it, and I didn’t realize it was burnout at the time. I was tired. You know, we kind of got through the motions. Everybody was was was going through this collective social shift where you weren’t seeing people and you were suddenly trying to get your child to actually do their homework while you’re trying to do your job at 08:38
Amy Vaughan:
hours.
Robbie Schneider:
And thank God I made it through me and my kid actually made it to the next grade. I’m quite shocked that that happened to be honest, but, I really, you know, there was, there was a lot and I came through this and started thinking it was like, well, maybe it’s amazing. And, you know, I worked with, you know, my manager at the time and he was kind of like, well, what can we take off your plate? I’m like, well, you can’t take anything off of my plate unless you, you know, get more people.
Amy Vaughan:
And and
Robbie Schneider:
so it was kind of like, well, if you don’t take anything off your plate, it’s kind of like your fault. And it’s it’s it is and it isn’t. It’s just the reality of the situation. And we were in very unique times. And then, I’m very blessed that I’m part of socialmedia.orghealth, which is a consortium of other healthcare social media professionals across the country. And we were all starting to have those same conversations. We’re just exhausted. We’re burned out.
Robbie Schneider:
We just can’t keep up at this speed. And I realized it’s not a me thing. It’s not our hospital thing. It is a health care social media professional thing. And as I, you know, continue these conversations, you know, we got through the worst of the pandemic, and we’re still all burned out, and we’re still all tired. And, you know, what do we do to kind of help evolve the conversation? And I you know, as I’m reading and growing, I’m learning that it’s, you know, not just health care social media professionals. It’s people working in digital space. It’s people who are working in media relations.
Robbie Schneider:
It’s people not even just in The United States. You know? The burnout among professional communicators is huge. There are studies in The UK and Australia and around the world demonstrating the level of burnout and mental health concerns that we’re all facing as communicators. And, you know, so we have to take a look at it. And sometimes the answer is maybe we don’t have that resource to step back, but maybe we’ve got some other resources. And it’s having those hard conversations. And maybe it took me into my forties to realize that I can have those hard conversations and say I can’t do all the things at once and have it all perform to their best abilities and for me to be performing at my best abilities. And so having those conversations of, hey.
Robbie Schneider:
You know, if this needs to get moved up because of a campaign, something else has to go.
Amy Vaughan:
Yes.
Robbie Schneider:
And so if if you can’t meet this deadline or If this needs to be moved up, what needs to get shifted so everything gets the appropriate attention they deserve not only from the social media team, but the design team, the marketing team, the eyes that are looking at the content that you want people to react to. If you are flooding people with post post post post post, they’re gonna tune you out and you’ve done no good other than just spinning your wheels. So having those tough conversations, it gets easier over time. Being asked to be brought to the table and saying, hey, don’t forget, we’re here as a strategic resource. Being able to have those deep conversations. It just makes all the difference because whatever you can do on the front end to help reduce your stress in your Workday is gonna help you out when you hit those crisis events or life events that cause that upheaval professionally.
Amy Vaughan:
Mhmm. Yeah. And I love that you’re so spot on. We need to really start looking at and thinking of, like, I think we’re all burnt out on the word burnout, but we need to talk about what’s behind the word burnout. It’s a mental health impact, and it’s acknowledging the fact that it’s impacting and hurting a lot of people. And even though some people might think it’s, like, a fluffy thing to have, like, mental health, you know, because we don’t put it on the same level as physical health yet, it does impact physical health. It does, in fact, in fact, like, affect,
Robbie Schneider:
It’s amazing how many performances there are. Conditions are impacted
Amy Vaughan:
By your health.
Robbie Schneider:
Anxiety, your Absolutely. Higher cortisone. You know? I don’t want to be that statistic that goes back to the fact that we’re talking about public relations professionals being at higher risk of heart attacks. Yeah. This is not just a digital question. This is an industry question.
Amy Vaughan:
It is.
Robbie Schneider:
And it’s something that we’re past time, having those discussions about.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. No. I absolutely agree. And that sense of, you know, doing it all, doing it alone, always being on, always having the answers, it puts us in that fight or flight mode. Right? And so, like, we’re constantly responding from a place of fear and uncertainty, which is just, again, like, trauma after trauma, which, again, impacts mental health, physical health, performance, innovation. So, like, if your team’s not being as productive as they could possibly be if you’re not, you know, really putting the things in place to really help them create that.
Robbie Schneider:
Absolutely. I mean, I remember at 1 in the pandemic, I would literally have a stress response when my cell phone pinged.
Amy Vaughan:
Oh my gosh. I believe that.
Robbie Schneider:
And it was 10:00, eleven o’clock at night. It was because people were moving so fast and they’re like, oh, and I need to tell them this. I ended up finally coming to my senses and saying, okay. I’m gonna have a work rule. And I talk about this in my book too is, you know, set up your work rules for technology. And, having my okay, admittedly, having my child teach me how to do the dark hours and so I wasn’t getting those notifications for work and letting people know that unless the hospital is literally on fire
Amy Vaughan:
burning down,
Robbie Schneider:
that I will break for hours. And that’s what seems like such a simple thing to do, but just because I’m thinking about it and I need to get out of my head does not mean that the team needs to execute it immediately at that moment. You’ve got to be able to, as a professional, be able to discern what is the most important thing, whether it is 8AM or 8PM.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. On that note, I would like to lean into this next question actually as more about, for our listeners who are leading digital teams or aspiring to and marketing teams, you know, I love that you are doing this work with the socialmedia.org health as their board director. I’m kind of curious as to what are some of the practical strategies that you talked about boundaries and work hours, but what are some other strategies that you have seen work for protecting the team’s well-being?
Robbie Schneider:
Boy, it’s all about it. You know, we are communicators, and we, I think, as an industry, do the worst job of internal communication. Oh, right. That among our teams. I’m not even talking about our organization. I’m talking about talking amongst ourselves. So, you know, on my team, we literally have daily touch bases, and we’re talking about everything from what’s going on in the world to, what’s going on in your world. And if, you know, my coworker right now wasn’t feeling the greatest, I’m like, okay, go.
Robbie Schneider:
He’s like, well, maybe I need to go eat. Well, first of all, go eat. And if you’re not feeling better then, and if you need if you’re feeling off, go take care of that. And we’re okay for the weekend and I can monitor. And so you need to just be able to have those conversations because if I’m dragging because I’m not feeling good or I’m stressed out or I’m worried about X, Y, and Z, I’m not bringing my best to the table. Yeah. And that’s, you know, I would rather somebody take the hour. They need to go for a walk or go to a doctor’s appointment or even take a nap.
Robbie Schneider:
Yes. And oh my gosh, that’s game changing. Find and refresh and be able to do their best work. That small investment just pays off dividends. So communicating with ourselves is a big thing. Knowing our boundaries is another thing too. And, we don’t have to be online all the time just because we are digital communicators. This is something we’ve had conversations about internally and, and, you know, with, with others in my field is just because the news goes twenty four hours a day doesn’t mean that you may be tapped in.
Robbie Schneider:
So we knew going into election season and what changes with this administration, that there were going to be policy changes. And some of that could be quite controversial. And knowing that from a health organization, we made the unilateral decision that we would check our headlines and discourse a couple of times a day within our social media monitoring app.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah.
Robbie Schneider:
And then, of course, correcting based on the news of the day. That way we’re not constantly pinging in, oh my gosh, this has happened and this has happened and this has happened And then getting triggered by things that we’re seeing in the feed that we can actually take that step back and having strategic discussions based on it. So for example, you know, the discussion about some of the minority health research being taken off a website. Yeah. That pinged up in our feed and there were discussions. It’s like, okay. Well, we can take a step back because we’re taking that moment to not react in the moment and say, what does this mean for our content strategy? Are there opportunities? Are there things that we need to step up and do to bring to the plate? But being able to take that step back and think about it strategically rather than reactionary. And we’re not talking huge amounts of time, but just being able to have the sense of being able to step back and say, what does this mean for us before we just react Mhmm.
Robbie Schneider:
I think it is important. And, you know, that comes into planning and going back to that idea of basic communication.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. Well and really what you’re talking about is systems. Like, if you want systems and structure to help provide that space and sanity and those boundaries. Like, you can’t maintain boundaries without some sort of system in place because we will cave every time. Right? Somebody will come with the pressure or the guilt or we’ll just fall
Robbie Schneider:
into existence. Just, you know, hey. Did I put it in the work front or did I send the email or did I fill out the form? It’s really about having conversations at the right time. So it could be, Hey, we’re thinking about doing a campaign. What does this look like in a social media space? Are we doing organic content? Is it complimentary to us? Is it something that your team has the resources to do? Is it the right channel and the right time for it? And what else is going on in the digital space? There’s just so much competing for our attention, not only as professionals, but as people Yeah. That we’ve just gotta be mindful of that in the world that we’re working in right now.
Amy Vaughan:
It kind of reminds me of what I think to tell my kids oftentimes when they either say things to themselves or to others. It’s like, you know, before you open your mouth, before you communicate something, before you post something up on social media, I always think, is it helpful? Is it true? Those 2 things. And if it’s not
Robbie Schneider:
I tell people to practice the pause. Think about what you’re saying before you just
Amy Vaughan:
Get out there.
Robbie Schneider:
You know? And I think we’ve all had those moments where we forget to do that, but, you know, taking that step back and saying, okay, did I need to? And then either rectifying it or moving on. And
Amy Vaughan:
brand. You don’t wanna go out into the world and just step in a big old pile of you know? Because people have
Robbie Schneider:
for Wendy’s, but, you know, not not for my brand.
Amy Vaughan:
No. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I honestly kind of hoped because I was on brands where we were literally always on. We always needed to be responding to what was happening in the news in the world, and we were marketing for a fabric softener.
Amy Vaughan:
And I’m like, do we really need to be commentating on the entire world and all that’s happening? Like, is this really helpful for customers? Is this going to make them more likely to buy our laundry product? I don’t know. Yeah. But, yes, I love that step back and pause and, again, putting systems into place to protect everybody’s boundaries. Your book also talks a lot about building resilience. I’d love for you to walk us through 1 of your favorite stress management techniques that our listeners can take and implement.
Robbie Schneider:
I’m the big proponent of taking a walk, which I know that sounds very silly, but, whether it’s a walking meeting, it’s a, I’m going to take twenty minutes, go around the block and come back and then reassess, taking that step away from the screen is, is the biggest thing I think for me, and that’s so hard to do because we are so attached to our phones and our devices and you know, it might, my kids are like, well, you’re on your phone all the time. I’m like 1, I do work attached to a medical device that I work with. And so I need it for a living. So I can’t just, like, put it in the room and we’ll see it next weekend. So being, you know, mindful of all the things that you’re doing and what do you have in the realm of control? And so for me, the realm of control may be, hey. I’m gonna shut my laptop, and I’m going to go take a walk. The other thing I love the idea is closing your door of your office at night, and, you know, I currently work remotely and I don’t have a set office room with a door, but, you know, at a certain point in time, if I catch myself, if it’s 06:00 and I’m still online and, again, there’s no fire, I’m closing the door, I’m shutting the laptop off in the night, and you know that is done. I put it away, and we’ll revisit it in the morning.
Robbie Schneider:
So, you know, those really small things. Oh, absolutely. Building in rituals to start your day, to close your day. I think all of those things are so helpful. The other thing I do is, I think about, you know, what are my key goals for that day? You know, I, this sounds really hokey. I work, you know, digital space, but I found a little system and it was like a note card and I’ll just show, you know, it’s literally lines and I’ll write down here’s my meeting times. And here’s my top 3 things that I want to get done that day. And having that focus of like, here are my key things and everything else will get done, but reminding ourselves, you know, what I need to do to be the most successful for my organization that day, I think makes a big, big difference too.
Robbie Schneider:
So just putting that structure in place.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. In my daughter’s class, I think I might’ve shared this before. I was super thrilled to hear this. They have this thing called soft starts to their day, and the kids basically get in. And so between you know, kids get between, like, 08:15 and 08:30, and then the first bell rings, I think, at, like, 08:35. But they use that window of time, and it’s funny because now my daughter’s like, I have to get to school. I have to get there as early as possible, as soon as the door’s open, because she wants to be there for the soft starts. And, essentially, it’s you know, they can sit and do a puzzle.
Amy Vaughan:
They can draw or color or just journal for a few minutes. But the whole idea is that you don’t have to sit down and go from 0 to 60 and start to, like, work your brain and your body and all this at once. It’s really about those soft starts. And like you said, it doesn’t have to be anything huge. Honestly, it’s better off that you start with a small thing. So whether it is, like, saying, I’m gonna get up and take a walk because I got a meeting canceled, and I’m gonna use that time now. Or, again, come to your desk ten minutes early, but don’t get right onto the computer. Take a soft start.
Amy Vaughan:
I mean, I had another, a friend
Robbie Schneider:
soft start. Is it you know? Yeah. It does involve getting on the computer, but when I get up, I turn on my light therapy lamp. I grab something to drink and I read my emails. I know that, you know, most days because you know, that’s, I’m not going to have a meeting until 09:00. So I’ve got my time to kind of ease in. I could do my web edits, those low bandwidth tasks, and then I’m ready to go. So knowing that, you know, you’ve got that, that, that space and that ritual and and it makes a difference whether it’s whether you’re 8 or you’re a professional.
Amy Vaughan:
A %. When I heard her say that, I was like, I’m gonna start recommending that to every adult that I know. Because it could be such a useful thing. Even 1 of our live listeners, Corey, was like, I’m gonna start you doing a soft start to my work day. Absolutely. It does. It makes you think the reason the teacher had really implemented it too was because she actually learned that it helps you improve creativity and focus. And she’s seen it with the kids.
Amy Vaughan:
It’s been a difference. So I’m like, yeah. If it works for them, it’s gotta work for us. Absolutely. So we’ve already mentioned a couple times that pressure is always on. Mhmm. How did you develop and how do you stick to the boundaries that you write about in your book? Like, what is it that made them stick? Because like I said, without systems, sometimes it’s really hard. And when you’ve got a lot of people coming at you for different things, it’s hard.
Robbie Schneider:
Boy, I’m gonna say I’m a work in progress, and that’s maybe completely honest. Yeah. I would love to say that I am, you know, clear boundaries all the time. I realize that I’m human, and I text and I Mhmm. You know, get online or whatever. I think it’s recognizing when it’s okay to give yourself an exception as opposed to adjusting your boundaries to break the rules all the time. And so it’s kind of like, you know, what do we say with dieting? You know, it’s like 80% of the time and then you can have your ice cream. It’s kind of like that.
Robbie Schneider:
Not, not that ice cream works all the time.
Amy Vaughan:
Good reward.
Robbie Schneider:
But you know, it’s like, you know, realizing that it’s like, if this is the exception of the rule, that’s okay. Like Mondays tend to be 1 of my days that I may break the rule and I may work a little later. And that’s just because that’s how it’s working in my life right now. And I get some really great work and some long form writing done. And then maybe I will, you know, adjust on the back end later on, you know, maybe where I’ve got the time to do things like a podcast later in the week and that kind of thing. So, you know, making sure that you’ve got that flexibility and recognizing that that flexibility doesn’t just extend to your work, but it extends to the other aspects of your life as well. Yeah. You
Amy Vaughan:
just reminded me to have practice. I don’t even think about it anymore. Excuse me. I just do it. And that is, like, what my little Sunday night ritual of looking at my calendar ahead. I used to just let my week come at me. I didn’t know what was coming. I didn’t know what meetings I had on my calendar.
Amy Vaughan:
And so I just peruse through my calendar, and I will look and say, okay. I mean, I’m pretty meeting heavy on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays and Wednesdays are my deep work in meetings, like, in person meeting times and days. And I will look at my week sometimes, and I’ll be like, oh, how I have really done a good job of overbooking and overcommitting myself. So that means when people come to me during the week and say, hey. Let’s do something this weekend. I say, nah. You know? Because I know what’s ahead, and I know that I’m gonna need, like, the time and the energy to really recover from the week.
Amy Vaughan:
And I know that’s not always something you can do, but I do think sometimes we just like to, like, pretend it’s not all there, but it actually helps me to look at my calendar on Sunday night to see, like, what’s coming. And I don’t go down a rabbit hole. I just kinda take a quick glance, and then I say, okay. And, also, it helps because I’ll be looking at, like, a Wednesday, and I’m like, oh, I don’t , it’s not too terrible of a week. I’ve got a Wednesday. There’s somebody I need to hang out and have lunch with. You know what I mean? Like, you can be more intentional, not just about what you’re packing into your week, but where you’re placing moments
Robbie Schneider:
of rest. Absolutely. Yeah. That ruins me kind of what we do in our houses. You know, we sit down as a family. What do you need to do to be successful for the week? You know, are there things that we need to know about? Do you have activities going on, going through all of that? And then I do that from a professional standpoint and make sure that I’ve locked in and reserved time for me to do that deep work that needs to happen because I can be responsive forty, sixty hours a week if I needed to be. But the reality is there’s still the strategic work, the deep work that I needed to do.
Amy Vaughan:
The actual work, people. It doesn’t happen by itself. No. That always drove me nuts as a creative director. I’m like, I would go to my project managers and be like, listen. You have me in 10 meetings today. Exactly how and when am I supposed to hit these deadlines if I am in constant meetings nonstop? Are these
Robbie Schneider:
And then
Amy Vaughan:
it also yeah. It goes back to communication.
Robbie Schneider:
You know? And I had somebody I ran into in a meeting. I’m like, I know I need to respond back to you. I’ve been in meetings six hours a day the last three days. I promise I’m gonna get it back to you, but maybe Monday. And setting those expectations that it may not be today, but Mhmm. I do see you. I do recognize your need, and I will respond to you as quickly as possible.
Amy Vaughan:
I challenged myself after a while. I’ll be honest, Robbie. Maybe I mean, I didn’t do it, like, a cockily or from an egotistical standpoint, but just knowing what I had ahead of me in the way of work, again, looking ahead at my schedule even before I truly owned it as a, you know, business owner, I I would often go to them and say, is this a meeting? Is this an email? Is this a hallway conversation? You know? Because it’s like, I need to be able to make time and space for me to get my work done. I can’t just be in meetings all day till five, 06:00 in the evening and then be able to start on my work. Like, that won’t fly for me or my family. And I have to say something else that we have to keep in mind is we’re not just doing this for ourselves. We are doing this. We’re modeling something for our coworkers.
Amy Vaughan:
We’re modeling something for our children. You said, your kids, they notice how much we’re on our phones. Mhmm. And I’m not trying to guilt you all to put them all down, but they want to see they want to have your attention. And it’s like when we were just talking about teenage years and moving bedrooms, and I’m like, listen. I have got maybe eighteen years with you guys in my home, and I am going to make the most of that. And that’s going to require me to make and create some boundaries. And, again, I think the earlier and the more often that you can reinforce those, the better.
Amy Vaughan:
But, yeah, just know, like, your team is watching. You, you know, your family is watching. And so that I remember that whenever I get an after hours email or text or message that’s related to work. I really do work hard to be like, it I mean, I might read it, but then I’ll set a reminder 09:00 tomorrow
Robbie Schneider:
because if you do better. I don’t even have Outlook on my phone. That’s smart.
Amy Vaughan:
That’s smart. I mean, do it.
Robbie Schneider:
I literally only, you know, look at social media account content through my monitoring.
Amy Vaughan:
That’s great. Oh, I love it. That’s so smart. You know, otherwise, you’re stuck in
Robbie Schneider:
a horrible thing of scrolling and, you know, reading
Amy Vaughan:
and
Robbie Schneider:
unfortunately doom and scrolling. And then, you know, that just like resets your brain in a way you don’t need to be informed, but you can be over informed and over
Amy Vaughan:
informed. Get your life back. Yeah. Get your time and your life back.
Robbie Schneider:
Exactly.
Amy Vaughan:
We got a question from 1 of our live listeners. She wants to know what she’s like, I know that managing time is important for wellness. This is kind of on the topic of what we’re discussing, so good timing there. But managing time is often very difficult with social media. Do you have any advice on knowing what’s happening in social channels without having to stay connected and read all the things on the channel yourself, although I think you might have just answered that with the monitoring. Are there any resources that you can recommend so maybe we get a little more specific for her on how to track those trends, for example? She’s all about looking for ways to work smarter, not harder. Amen, my friend. And I know that you all are too.
Amy Vaughan:
What do you get for her, Robbie?
Robbie Schneider:
So I’m not sure if we’re talking about trends as far as what they’re seeing as far as content or trends in social media apps and how things are working. So from this, I’ll just touch on the social media apps. Definitely tie into your network. You do not have to be expert on all the things, but you can curate and figure out who the experts are and let them do the heavy lifting for you and then kind of digest that information. I spend, you know, a couple hours each week just catching up on trends and knowing what’s going on. It’s also important to know what makes sense for your brand. If your brand isn’t on a certain platform, it’s okay to keep aware of it, but that’s not your primary area of focus. And it’s okay to kind of table that And then just look at the bigger industry trends and the reports.
Robbie Schneider:
When you’re taking a look at content that impacts you and your organization, that’s where it gets tricky. And, you know, I mentioned earlier, you know, we are, we do a lot of monitoring through Sprout Social for our app. You can use Hootsuite or other platforms. But 1 of the things that I know is, is it easier to monitor an aggregate that way filtering for your keywords, key phrases, that kind of thing. And then just checking in periodically on, on the headlines and the trending topics to course correct. Because everything happens so fast in, on social media. Things can turn on a dime, you know, just based on 1 person’s comment. And, and, and we see that all the time and, you know, it’s just easier on you to kind of keep your focus primarily on your brand and your audiences and their needs.
Amy Vaughan:
Yes.
Robbie Schneider:
But then just checking in on the status, you know, kind of thinking back to back in the day when the news was only on at eight, five, and ten. You know?
Amy Vaughan:
You know, there’s another idea too, Robbie. We talked about this in the goal setting workshop, right, of, like, time batching and time boxing. So I started boxing times in the day when I would check my email because I would find myself having, like, a context switching moment between 1 task to the next, something that needed to be done, especially on my deep work days. And I would see an email, but most of the time, email, Slack messages are incoming to dos and or need thoughtful, intentional responses. And I would never get that. I would miss things. They would get, like, pushed down in the feed or in the email inbox. And then I wasn’t answering thoughtfully and intentionally because I was trying to do it between a million different things.
Amy Vaughan:
So I time box in the morning and in the afternoon when I will check my emails. And it takes some discipline and it takes some time because I know we’re all afraid that, you know, people will die if we don’t check our emails, but I really do try to minimize email time and time.
Robbie Schneider:
Real time and decisions are being made real time over email.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. Right.
Robbie Schneider:
It’s convenient, but not so convenient. Case when I get
Amy Vaughan:
up and walk to
Robbie Schneider:
them. What?
Amy Vaughan:
That’s when I’ll get up and go walk to them or be like, do we need to jump on a Zoom call? Because we should be talking.
Robbie Schneider:
Exactly. Exactly. So it’s okay. Again, those work rules, you know, if you’re gonna give me an assignment over Slack, I don’t do a project. Fill out a work prep request or, you know, send the details over email. Do not piece mail it. I’ve kind of trained team members that if you send stuff to me in piecemeal, that’s fine, but just understand it’s gonna take me longer to get it together because now I’ve gotta go and curate all the information as opposed to you providing me all the details.
Amy Vaughan:
Great. And I loved your point too. That collective knowledge is such a powerful thing. You don’t have to be the 1 always on with all the answers. You know? I’m sure that you get a lot of this from the other community that you sit on the board for, but Together Digital, we have an ask channel where you can literally just drop in. It’s like your bat phone. You’re like, yo. I’m trying to figure out this thing.
Amy Vaughan:
I need help, and people just really come to your rescue with lots of thoughtful, intentional, sometimes bulleted lists, links, their calendar to offer to spend a half an hour talking with you about it. So don’t ever think that, like, you have to be the 1 to know all the things and figure it out. I think that there’s a lot to be said for, you know, leaning on the collective knowledge of others. You can still walk into the room and look smart. And because it’s like you’re surrounded by smart people. That’s totally fine. Exactly. That’s totally fine.
Robbie Schneider:
Reached out to me and said, hey. Let’s have some conversations about these different social media topics. I said, well, yeah. I could talk about it, but this person is even better about it. And being able to proactively share that, not only are they getting the best information they can, you know, I’m helping this other personnel too. And that’s the beautiful part about community, I think. It is.
Amy Vaughan:
It is. It is. Yeah. And these guys, everyone here, all these amazing women make me smarter every day. People like,
Robbie Schneider:
you know so much. I’m like, it’s
Amy Vaughan:
just because I get to sit here and take it all in every single day. So I also wanted to make note of where folks can get your book. So if you wanted to tell them their website, we’ll obviously include it in the show notes too. Where should they go to get
Robbie Schneider:
your book? So you can, check out social media sanity and you at robbieschneider.net. I also have a couple of other books out there that are related to caregiving resources just based on some previous experiences and some needs that I’ve seen. So, you know, I’ve been really blessed to work in the health care space and have some experiences that kind of have helped me inform things and and being able to help share and bring it forward to others.
Amy Vaughan:
So that’s wonderful. I love that. And also members of those of you who aren’t aware, we do have a caregiver channel as well because that is another very, lonely endeavor sometimes when you’re working with, like, aging parents or aging family members and you become the caretaker. Alright. Let’s talk a little bit about your process and how you got here. You kind of came in, like you said, to the goal setting workshop. You had all these post it notes, and now you’re a published author. We know that didn’t just happen overnight.
Amy Vaughan:
Right? But I am curious. What surprised you the most about the process of turning this expertise, that you have gathered through just lived experience into guidance for others.
Robbie Schneider:
I think what surprised me the most was that nobody was connecting the dots on research. And, you know, I’m I see pieces from PRSA and organizations overseas and research on communications and and this small element, but and everybody’s having conversations who work in the social media space about, like, we’re tired or burnout, you know, don’t push our people too hard, but nobody’s saying, hey, you know, we’ve got that larger conversation. So me being able to help bring some of that data together, hopefully can help other communicators have those conversations with their teams and their leadership and say, how can we do things better and smarter? I’m not saying that I have all the answers. I’m not saying that I’ve got all the research, but it’s a starting point for a deeper discussion about how we can make things more effective for your organization and to make things more balanced for your team members because, you know, we don’t need people to be tired and burnout and, you know, ready to quit. You know, I’ve seen studies about how sixty percent or more of communicators are ready to quit because of mental health concerns. Absolutely. That’s ridiculous. That’s losing its attention on that is a tremendous issue for any organization, let alone somebody in healthcare.
Robbie Schneider:
And, you know, taking that step back at how we can do things better, I think is good, and I think it needs to be something that’s an ongoing conversation. I mean, I even got called out on it yesterday. My team members are like, okay. You sound tired. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. And I’m like, well, why don’t you take a step back and we’ll regroup about it tomorrow. And I’m like, oh my God, you do listen to me.
Amy Vaughan:
Oh, look at that. I’m reflecting what you have taught back
Robbie Schneider:
to them. Yes. That’s such a good moment. I love that. Yes. Definitely.
Amy Vaughan:
Good for you. I mean, that’s how you know you’re doing it right. Right? It’s when your team shows back up for you and the ways in which you’ve been modeling showing up for them, which again is why I think all of this is so important. So I love it that, like, you know, the majority of our members within this community have, like, fifteen to twenty years of experience. So and you’ve been in it for a while now. You know? Social media is not something new. It’s something that a lot of people are kind of in and then they’re right out of. But you have really managed to stick with it.
Amy Vaughan:
So I would love to hear some advice from you about sustainable career growth and how you recommend staying current with digital trends without sacrificing that mental wellness that we all are really holding so near and dear.
Robbie Schneider:
Yeah. I think 1 of the biggest challenges working in this kind of role is that there’s very much a sense by non communicators that this is just easy. I can take a picture and snap it and throw it online. I can take a video and stick it online, but really take diving into that strategic messaging and how you can be a good partner for your business to tell the story and not just be, you know, putting a pithy quote or a meme on a on a brand that you are here for customer retention, you’re here for education, you’re here for, you know, leveraging your organization to really help your customer base or potential customers. It’s really about growing and defining yourself within your organization. It’s about not being afraid to try and even if you try and fail, that’s okay. You know, we decided that after many years of saying, hey, we need to do more social video, this is the direction they’re going and we weren’t getting resources, we just said we’re gonna do it and it’s going to look terrible. And, you know, I was okay with it looking terrible because we were getting out there and we were trying and we learned from that.
Robbie Schneider:
So not being afraid to get your hands messy, not being afraid to try. I’m a print journalist by background. So, you know, the video side is all new to me and it’s a little nerve wracking, but it’s fun and it’s, it makes things interesting and it makes things, you know, exciting to try something new for a good day. So not being afraid to try, I think, is just 1 of the important things, especially if you’re determined to stay with a particular field within the social media space, you know, never being afraid to try, I think, is the biggest thing.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. I love it, and I love that you haven’t lost your passion for it. And I think it is a testament to your ability to kind of be mindful and intentional and acknowledge, like, the mental toll that it can sometimes take on you. I think that helps for the sake of resilience and longevity as well. Right? Because it’s not always about jumping on and following every trend because, you know, guess what? You’re jumping on a trend and you’re putting a ton of money towards, you know, I don’t know, a TikTok, and then all of a sudden it’s gone, and then it’s back, and then it could be gone again. You know, we had a great conversation this week with some other members really about, like, you know, as 1 of our amazing members here in Cincinnati said, your social media platforms are, like, building a house on sinking sand. Like, own your properties, be conscientious about your lists and how you reach your people because you don’t own social media. You know? You’re playing in someone else’s yard.
Amy Vaughan:
And I think that that’s such an important mindset even to kind of help you sort of realize that, yeah, there are certain things, you said it before too, that are out of my control. What can I control? Where can I pull the levers? Knobs I can turn to, like, test and learn. And I do love that curiosity. Digital and social are a great place to kind of just put things out there and see how it works and how it evolves, and then maybe blow it up into something bigger. Exactly. Yeah. You don’t need to make it an all in every time.
Robbie Schneider:
Exactly. And I think I’m lucky. I work in the health care space. We are about helping improve people’s lives. I mean, how do you get a better mission than that? You know, so I feel like I’ve got a very special place. It’s a very serious place because, you know, we are walking alongside people sometimes during their most difficult times in life, you know, and, you know, some of the messages we get, we’re trying to direct people to get care or answer questions about their loved ones. And, you know, we’re really here about helping connect people to care wherever they are, whether it’s a, Hey, I know I need to eat better or it’s a, Hey, you know, my loved 1 has cancer
Amy Vaughan:
and we
Robbie Schneider:
I wanna walk alongside and, and, and tell those stories and help educate. You know, it’s kind of a gift actually.
Amy Vaughan:
It is. And I wonder, has that really changed? Like, I don’t know if you’ve been anywhere outside of the health care industry, but do you feel like that’s changed your perspective a lot on social media and how you guys show up since you are dealing with such delicate things?
Robbie Schneider:
I think so. You know, I think early in our career it was social that it was, it was very much a, what is this space about? And it was more conversational, you know, but really leaning into, you know, like how we can do this to not only work for our organization, but work for the people who read our content or watch our content. And, I think that that shift definitely took place during the pandemic where we’re like, okay, we are real. I mean, I’ve seen it before, like, okay. You know, I’ve had people post, you know, there are road conditions and we can’t, they say that don’t travel, but I broke my arm. Do I go to the hospital? Literally I’ve come to that house before. And you know, so you’re trying to help them. And it’s like, yes, that’s a medical emergency.
Robbie Schneider:
I’m
Amy Vaughan:
on Facebook right now. I don’t know how you’re typing this.
Robbie Schneider:
But, People are talking about that, talking about, you know, we are here as a public health organization as somebody to help reach out, and being able to see that not only from a data perspective of, oh, yeah, we reached numbers, but being able to hear it from the emotional perspective of like being able to tell somebody, that thank you for sharing your story about getting your, your colon cancer screening, because, 4 people just posted in the comments that they’re going to get their schedule because of you. That is crazy powerful. I mean, that, that, that whole word-of-mouth and that’s what we’re about. We’re here to, you know, set those examples and, and help lead people towards positive change and, and be able to share that. It’s amazing. So I
Amy Vaughan:
I love it. Mhmm. Yeah. That’s so thoughtful. So, obviously, like, you’ve not just touched professional lives and, you know, personal lives with those that you’ve kind of created and set these boundaries and had these conversations with, and now you’ve got your book. I’m kind of curious. I know it’s early days with your book and everything, but I’m kind of curious as to what sort of feedback you’ve received about your approach to digital well-being, and has anything out of that been sort of surprising?
Robbie Schneider:
Boy, that’s a great question. I think people are just pleasantly surprised that we’re actually bringing it to the forefront and we’re, we’re starting that conversation. You know, we’ve talked about mental health and we’ve talked about depression and anxiety, and those are all very valid. Sure. But when we’re really bringing those concerns to the table and then into the workplace and then onto the demands of digital, that’s a lot. It is. And so being able to leverage that conversation and start that conversation within the digital industry, I think it’s a great thing. I’m glad to be, take, and play a small part in that.
Robbie Schneider:
And hopefully we work to improve everybody’s lives. So maybe we don’t become that study that says, Hey, you know, social media professionals are more likely to have chronic health issues because they’re not taking care of themselves.
Amy Vaughan:
Right. Oh my gosh. So true. Preach to that. Really quick, little oh, then I forgot it. I had a little bonus question for you. Oh, actually, yes. It is a bonus question for you.
Amy Vaughan:
Because this is such an important topic, because it is so timely, and because you have a book, I kinda wanna know, my friend, are you applying to be a speaker across the board at different conferences?
Robbie Schneider:
I would love to. I’m okay.
Amy Vaughan:
Been working on that together.
Robbie Schneider:
Conversations locally. Yeah. And I love talking and writing and sharing tips with others. Yep. Definitely, that’s something that Yeah. That we need to keep that conversation going.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. No. Definitely. I think you should be looking at things like, marketing props with Anne Hanley, the b two b marketers. You need to talk and apply for the content marketing world. They have their applications open. Now’s a good time, Robbie. This is there’s a lot of speaking engagements for everybody’s conferences in the fall that are open.
Amy Vaughan:
So I’m happy to share with you even my list. And then I’ll also recommend to you innovationwomen.org is a great website if you’re not already on there. It’s, like, a hundred and $20 for the year for the profile. Well worth it. You can create your speaker profile, and then it’ll aggregate. You can search and find and filter different types of conferences that you want to apply to. So then you’re not having to, like, scour the Internet trying to find all these places to speak. You just kind of build your bio, and then you put in some keywords, and it’ll give you recommendations, actually.
Amy Vaughan:
And it’s another women led organization. And, yeah, I really enjoyed being a part of that. I have also found some amazing speakers from there. So if you’re a person looking for speakers, innovationwomen.org, they have never ever let me down. Alright. I’ve got a couple more questions, and then we’ll go into the power round at the end, our little rapid fire questions. But, again, you know, our audience, our live listening audience has done a great job of engaging and asking questions. So keep it coming.
Amy Vaughan:
If you’ve got more questions for Robbie, please please don’t be shy about using that in the chat or putting them into the chat. I would love to bring it back to kind of where it all started. You know, we’ve launched our authentic ambition goal setting cohort for this year even though there’s still time to join, watch the first workshop, and then get in our spring check-in because we do quarterly check-ins to keep each other accountable. But I’m curious to also our for our members who are already within that group and just kind of starting out on their goals for the year. What advice do you have for them? Because, you know, who you are and where you were a year ago, you know, that’s been a big step. And if they’ve got a big goal that they’re kind of working towards, they probably are feeling a little bit of uncertainty. So I’d love to hear some of your advice for those that are kind of setting these big goals and about to chase them down
Robbie Schneider:
for twenty twenty five. I think, you know, the phrase about, you know, eating the elephant, you take it a bite at a time. And that sounds really
Amy Vaughan:
Gross, but yeah.
Robbie Schneider:
Gross, but
Amy Vaughan:
you get it. Accurate.
Robbie Schneider:
You know? So 1 of the things it it’s it’s overly simplified, but I literally had a Google Doc and I said here are my 3 goals or whatever that I was gonna do. Writing the book at the beginning of 2024 was not 1 of them. I’m just gonna use my voice. And I started listing down ideas and here, you know, the steps towards the goal. So it started out very small like, hey. I’m gonna pitch a friend about writing an article for their blog, and I’m gonna do this. And, you know, some of the things didn’t come to fruition. Not for lack of trying on my part.
Robbie Schneider:
It just wasn’t the right time or got lost in an inbox or what have you. But having those checkpoints, checking in quarterly, not only with, the larger together digital group, but I, met weekly with, a couple of women just checking in on their goals and their, their experiences and not giving up when times are hard and just saying, it’s okay to take a pause when life happens. I had major surgery in the middle of this and I was out of play for like eight weeks and that was okay. Yeah. It was going to get done when it was going to get done. And you know what? I came back and made things happen. Right. But giving myself the grace of being able to say, okay, there are bigger things going on in my life right now.
Robbie Schneider:
Mhmm. You know, having a loss in my family, you know, that is bigger than whether or not I promote a book. So if it’s meant to wait till Jan. 0, it’s meant to wait till Jan. 0. And being able to say, you know, what’s the most important thing in my life? Not just am I hitting my goals and my metrics, but am I taking care of myself in the process? Is it really 1 of the things that was important to me too.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it. And you really took that away. I think you took that you said it so well. And it’s it’s always interesting because when we’ve been doing the goal setting cohort for, gosh, five, maybe, almost six years now. And it is funny because I feel like a lot of the women will come in and they’re so young and ready to, like, set big goals and, like, nail it down. And, you know, and we do talk about making smart goals and looking at your productivity style and really figuring out the best way to actually make this happen. But I always feel like the thing that we really try to overemphasize is exactly what you said there is life happens, and it’s going to happen whether you like it or not. And so it’s not so much brain.
Amy Vaughan:
Right. Exactly. It’s so it’s like, you know, it’s not always even it’s like not even planning for the worst hope for the best. It’s just to allow these things to happen, but don’t let it be the thing that stops you from picking it back up and finishing it. Exactly. You know? And I’m so glad you did things.
Robbie Schneider:
We get challenges and, you know, what do we tell stuff? You know, my, my son just went through his Eagle Scott project and there were delays. And I said, what did you learn from this? He’s like, well, don’t always rely on this or things won’t get delayed or this will happen. And, and having those experiences of, you know, even when you stumble, even when you have to hit pause, it kind of helps create the you that you are today. So, you know, dust off and say, okay, you know, here’s what I can make happen and make the most of it. You know, I suppose, you know, I self published. I mean, I’ll be honest with it. You know, I could have gone through the process of finding a publisher and that kind of thing. And I was like, that was not something that I was ready to do at that point in time.
Robbie Schneider:
And that’s okay. It meant enough for me to get the message out in the world and then we’ll build from there. And, you know, kind of knowing what your goals and your expectations are, I think. Yeah.
Amy Vaughan:
Being realistic with those, I think. Yeah. Deb in our workshop does a fantastic job of breaking that down and being like, is this realistic? Is this the right time? Do I have the right support? Because there are just so many things we don’t think about when we start to set these goals. We don’t break it down. Like you said, take it bite by bite. We sort of just go for the goal, the whole, like, enchilada, and then we’re like, I can’t do this now. And then you just shut it down and you don’t. And I also wanted to say too, I noted when you said it, you stated your goal not to write a book, but to use my voice more.
Amy Vaughan:
I love that because that opens up opportunities for you to see throughout the course of the year. The goal was never a 1 and done thing. Right? So, yeah, how can I use my voice more throughout this entire year? And it might manifest in the form of a book, and it might manifest in the form of more speaking engagements. You know? It might manifest in being a champion for social media sanity. You know? Yes. It could just evolve into so many things. And so I think almost when you get broader in that respect, it really opens up your mind to opportunities too. Right? Because you kind of never know when something good could be really coming your way.
Amy Vaughan:
And unless you’re really in tune with your values and your goals that align with those values, it’s hard for you to see those opportunities and know when to go. You’re just gonna kind of question everything.
Robbie Schneider:
Absolutely. The third goal I had on my, you know, we don’t need to get into all my goals, but I think it’s kind of important. I included that. I’m keeping it for this year too. Yeah. Considering it the year of yes. And I was at a place in my life where I was like, I could take a step back. My kids didn’t need me quite as much. My husband’s health is stabilized, you know, to where maybe he didn’t need me quite as much.
Robbie Schneider:
And what could I do and what opportunities could I be open to? And I literally kept a list of opportunities that came my way that I took advantage of and being able to say that it’s like, wow, that was kind of cool. You know, and not because anything was particularly big, but it was great just to say, hey, I’m gonna be open to trying new things. And I think that’s just, you know, allowing yourself the grace of being able to be able to try those things. I think, you
Amy Vaughan:
know Yep. You never do it. Say it, like, once a day. It’s like courage comes after the action. Like yeah. You know, confidence, courage, it all comes after the action. It didn’t come before. We’re all scared.
Amy Vaughan:
We’re all nervous. We’re all worried about it. We all got all these things that were holding us up. But, yeah, it’s really just those barriers of your own limiting beliefs. Alright. Let’s go into our power on questions. We’ve got a few minutes left. What is your go to anxiety busting app if you happen to use any apps for helping
Robbie Schneider:
with anxiety? I do use Calm mostly for the music at night. I don’t do a lot of things. I always have great intentions. I’m like, oh, I’m gonna do the exercises, and, frankly, I just usually just go for a walk. But I sometimes hear that music in the middle of the night when I need to kind of just decompress as well.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it. I will recommend it to you if you haven’t seen them there. There are walking meditations. You said you like to go for walks to decompress. I had trouble for a while during the pandemic sitting and meditating even though I’ve practiced meditation since I was 18. It was just being still in a home so much. I mean, the getting outside and walking, the walking meditation, I almost have it memorized now that I don’t even need to really listen to it because I know all the cues now. But, yeah, I would recommend that as well.
Amy Vaughan:
Alright. First thing you do when you feel digital overwhelm coming on.
Robbie Schneider:
Disconnect. Right. Which is crazy because it’s like, I’ve got meetings or whatever when I can. It may not be at that moment, but it’s recognizing that. Yep. And I think having that reality is like, okay. I’ve got too much going on. I have a little bit of time, you know, between four and 04:30.
Robbie Schneider:
I’m going to just take my break now. I’m going to, you know, walk. I’m going to read a book. I may talk to my kids who have walked in from school today. Yeah. I’m going to take a few minutes because the work will still get done even if I have to postpone it by half an hour.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah.
Robbie Schneider:
I will make it happen and be able to just take that break to breathe. Yes. It’s just so important.
Amy Vaughan:
Helps you come back stronger and more capable and focused. Yeah. And when you take that break, I think sometimes we think if we just keep pushing, keep pushing, I’ll get through this. It’s like, oh, actually, no. And there is a
Robbie Schneider:
a lot in my brain that is valid when you’re when, you know, you’re working in an actual true crisis. Yeah. That’s fine.
Amy Vaughan:
Sure.
Robbie Schneider:
But staying at that high crisis level, it’s not doing your body or your mental health any favors.
Amy Vaughan:
Agreed. What’s your favorite non-negotiable boundary that you’ve set for work life integration? I won’t use the word balance. I don’t like it.
Robbie Schneider:
No. That was just kind of a misnomer, I think. It’s setting up for not, my non-negotiable. I think it is, you know, when I’m offline, it’s offline and that’s, you know, whether it’s the hours of the day, certain hours of the day, or when I’m on vacation, if you text me and I’m on a hiking trail, I will text you a picture back and say, this is where I’m at. I can’t help you. Yeah. This is
Amy Vaughan:
I like the mountains in the middle of nowhere because then I don’t get phone service or Internet, and people think that’s gotta be a scary situation. I was like, you have no idea. You’re actually gonna be so freeing. Once you allow for it and just be present and realize, like, we’ve gone back in time. You know? We all survived several centuries, more than a millennia of, like, not 2 of not being always on and always reachable. It is. It is possible, my friends. You can do it.
Amy Vaughan:
Alright. We’ll wrap it up with this last 1. What is 1 self care practice that you wish you had started sooner in your career?
Robbie Schneider:
You know what? It would be boundaries and communication. And I always thought that, you know, speaking up, speaking up isn’t necessarily about complaining and saying I have so much work to do, but it’s like, okay, this is not effective. This could be done better. And I think that just took maturity in my career and maturity and understanding me as a professional. The people who are coming up in their career and they’re able to speak up for that, I love it for them. Yeah. But being able to set those expectations and saying, hey. These are best practices or this would be better if you know, having your voice in the workplace, I think, you know, I wish I had found it sooner, frankly.
Amy Vaughan:
Advocate for yourself and advocate for others with these conversations. Yeah. I think this would be a great team book for people to buy for their team and read as a group as, like, a book club type of thing.
Robbie Schneider:
That’d be great. Thank you.
Amy Vaughan:
But yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Robbie. I know we’ve been waiting a minute to do this, but I’m really glad that we have this conversation again. It’s such an important 1.
Robbie Schneider:
So glad we got to do this 1. Yes.
Amy Vaughan:
Everybody, please check out her book, Social Media Sanity and You by Robbie Schneider. We’ve got the link in the chat. We’ll include it in the show notes. Yes. Again, just thank you so much for all the amazing work you’re doing, for showing up. You know, that’s sometimes the hardest part, being a part of this amazing community and just really adding to it. I know that there’s a lot that you get out of it as well too. So I’ve been really happy to see that balance of that give and take, and I just can’t wait to see what you’re up to next.
Robbie Schneider:
I can’t wait. So thank you so much, Amy.
Amy Vaughan:
Of course. My absolute pleasure. Alright, everybody. Thank you so much for being with us today. I hope you found a moment to just pause and start to look at your days and find ways in which you can create more balance, more sanity in dealing with all things social media, digital life. We know it’s a lot. We wanna do what we can to help you get through it and continue to be the strong, amazing people that you are. Next week, we are going to be joined by Adrienne Garland.
Amy Vaughan:
She’s a trailblazer for women’s entrepreneurship, and she’s gonna share her incredible journey of building a business, creating community, and reshaping the entrepreneurial landscape through the idea of doing it with heart, which again, feels all soft and fuzzy. But when you look at her, she leads a media company, you’re gonna be impressed. She’s succeeding by leading with heart. So excited for that conversation. Thank you again, Robbie. Thank you again, listeners, and our amazing production team. We’ll see you all next week. Until then, keep asking, keep giving, and keep growing.
