This week, Samantha talks with social media guru Karlyn Ankrom about being a dance instructor, the nuances of impostor syndrome, and the benefits and pitfalls of today's social media scene.  

Karlyn's passion comes from her ability to help people tell their story in a micro-moment.  Today, this is done through social media.  When she pairs her passion with her love for writing, she is able to help anybody increase their presence on social media for any application, whether for a business or for personal uses.

Impostor syndrome wasn't something that Karlyn was familiar with until she became a little bit older and more mature.  When she was a young dancer, she was brought up in an environment where everybody was treated equally, but she realized that she had limitations in what she could do.  Rather than force herself to do the things she wasn't physically able to do, she decided she would lean more into where her talents showed up.  This carried over into her business career in social media, which has a very subjective nature.  She hasn't struggled much with impostor syndrome overall because she has tended to lean into her strengths, even as an adult.

When it comes to social media, she believes there need to be limitations based on each individual person.  For those of us that feel like social media can be a maze of ugliness and negativity, she says, "mute the people that make you feel like crap."  She once beat herself up about not being "as good as" another person for a bit.  Eventually, Karlyn came to the realization that there wasn't a problem with what she was doing on social media herself, but that different things work differently for different people.  It was through this experience that she was able to realize that comparing herself with another person was the problem.  Eventually, Karlyn became this person's cheerleader rather than being bitter about what she had considered a better approach.  It was simply different.  This, again, led her to examine her own limitations and lean into the strengths and talents she had herself.  

Karlyn provides a couple of tips for youth on social media: 

• you can’t ignore social media because it’s woven into every aspect of life in the world today.  Everything has a hashtag now.  If we as adults have problems with the things we see on social media, imagine how hard it is for our kids.
• It’s important to know, as a parent of a young person who wants to get into social media, that they need to be able to handle what’s on the other side of the screen.  TikTok is like the ‘wild west” of the social media scene right now.  It, and any other social media platform, can be a bit overwhelming for some young people.

Overall, Karlyn's message is that she would like to help everybody be their own authentic selves online.  This includes understanding our own limitations and knowing ourselves and our workflows.  For business owners, she says that people should step out from behind their logos, show the faces behind the business and show up consistently.  Your audience needs and wants to know who you are.

Karlyn Ankrom and her business can be found at:

ohsnapsocial.com

and on social media: @ohsnapsocialkarlyn