We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah Dowds. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah below.

Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

I definitely do wish I had started my business sooner, but truthfully, I really believe that timing happens how it should & I have zero regrets. I think if I had started any sooner, I would have hit a lot of bumps in the road & possibly quit too soon. I never had intentions to work for myself, but the way situations & opportunities aligned, at the time that I decided to do this, I had zero doubts that it was the right move. I had never felt that strong of a push to start my own business previously, so again I think if I had started earlier, it would have felt & been a little premature.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

When I was 21, I was kicked out of college & spent a semester managing a national chain shoe store, & I hated it.

I felt so isolated not being at school with all of my friends, so in an attempt to get them to start visiting me, I would post artsy edited photos of all the new inventory on Facebook.

It didn’t just bring in my friends, it also brought in quite a few other customers as well, this tactic was so successful that I was brought up at the annual conference & from there I taught the rest of the chain how to use Facebook to market their stores as well.

I didn’t know at the time but that was the start to my social media marketing career. Around the same time, I had a few different people tell me they thought I should go back to school for marketing, so I did.

Once I graduated, my first job was managing influencers & from then on all of my roles were in the social media & influencer marketing world. I started my own social media & influencer marketing agency because I felt like I would be able to accomplish more if I had full creative freedom.

I offer full-service social media & influencer marketing for brands & I support entrepreneurs by hosting content days & workshops to help them improve their own social media marketing content & strategies-which I love!

There are a lot of faux instagram gurus out there, spreading tons of misinformation that can end up being very overwhelming for a business owner to sort through. I’m the opposite. I keep it real & I teach people the reality of what it takes to market a business successfully on social-no BS.

You don’t need 10’s of thousands of followers to gain clients off of social & you don’t need to post 2-3x a day, you don’t even need to post everyday! It can & SHOULD actually be easy & fun! My goal is to help business owners see that side of it.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Oversharing!

The key to having your ideal clientele want to work with you is by getting them to Know, Like & Trust you. That doesn’t mean everyone has to like you, just the people that you want to hire you.

To accomplish that, I share 60% of my real life on social media which has allowed for people to gain a clear understanding about what I do & also find ways in which they can relate to me & ultimately trust me.

Some people will tell business owners that they need to share so much free value, tips & educational posts in order to gain followers & clients, but that’s simply not true. Sharing about yourself, your life & behind the scenes of your business will actually take you much further!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

That’s actually happening to me right now!

As a business owner, I tend to spend a lot of time with other business owners. People who are also ambitious, want to be better people & always working towards goals, which is not a bad thing! But I realized 99% of my life was revolved around working.

I was on my laptop for 10+ hours a day, constantly creating new offers, courses, & events. The conversations I would find myself in were all about work, & how we could all do MORE of it.

I just recently had this realization that that is crazy & unsustainable. I’ve spent way too much time working just to work, when there should be a balance.

After realizing this, I made an immediate pivot. I did a deep dive into what was working, what wasn’t working, what I enjoyed doing & what I didn’t. I immediately removed everything from my plate that I don’t enjoy doing. I spent time simplifying my offers & finding ways I could improve them without adding more work back onto my plate.

My goal moving forward is to create more impact in less time, & focus on finding a strong balance between working & spending time off of screens, just living.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sheer-influence.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/sarahd1217
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahdowds/