In this episode, discover how even when you are in the midst of new life transitions, it is still possible to build a life that you love, by creating community and a business that works for you.

Julia Bocchese is an SEO, Pinterest, and AI search strategist who helps businesses get found online and attract the right clients through search. She's the founder of Julia Renee Consulting, where she builds clear, sustainable strategies focused on real growth, conversions, and long-term visibility without all that confusing jargon. Julia and Teresa get into the importance of having a community, wherever you are — even if that means you need to start it yourself. They also discuss how Julia is helping her clients build long term growth with SEO, which allows them to match with the right clients for their services.

If you've ever built something from scratch with no plan, no roadmap, and no idea it would turn into a business, this episode is proof that you can figure it out as you go.

If you can’t find your community, maybe just make one, and invite a few friends, and then it will grow and change over time. — Julia Bocchese

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Human-first always wins — whether it's Google, AI search, or Pinterest, the businesses that get found are the ones that write clearly for humans first, not for algorithms.
• You don't have to have it all figured out to start a business.
• If you can't find community, build it — Julia's casual, low-pressure business hangout group shows that community doesn't need to be formal to be valuable.
• Consistency beats perfection in relationships — showing up to the same recurring space repeatedly, even briefly, builds real community over time.
• Business success and life fulfillment aren't separate tracks — building a sustainable business (through smart SEO/Pinterest strategy) frees up space to build the life you actually want.

Connect with Julia:

Website: https://juliareneeconsulting.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliareneeconsulting/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-bocchese/

Connect with Teresa

• Join the Becoming Obsessed Playground, the weekly email for curiosity-led women building a life they love.
• Instagram: @becomingobsessedpod and @teresaajean
• Leave a review on Apple or Spotify Podcasts. Reviews are the biggest thank-you, and reviews help ambitious women find the show.
• Website: teresaajean.com

Topics: community building, local connections, female entrepreneurs, creating a community, finding friends in a new city, SEO strategies, Pinterest marketing, utilizing AI in business, human-centered marketing, building a business, community meetups, navigating life transitions, creative business strategies, work life balance, building a life you love

Mentioned in this episode:

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That to me is the biggest unlock for community, is somewhere that I can go once a week, once a month, maybe once a quarter.

And I just know I'll see my friends.

It's so beautiful to just have that space.

I'm still trying to find people in our local area, people with kids.

I can't just drop the hat, go hang out at a bar at 7pm on a weeknight anymore.

So it's still something I'm trying to figure out.

So one thing I did is I did create my own community.

If you can't find your community, maybe just make one and invite, invite a few friends and then it will grow and change over time.

Welcome to Becoming Obsessed, where curiosity leads you to a life you love.

I'm Teresa Stasny and after over a decade of traveling the world, working with small business owners and creating a couple businesses of my own, I know a thing or two about playing by your own rules.

It's not always easy and it's often messy.

It can be hard, especially, especially if you're doing it alone.

I've seen way too many incredible women shoot for the stars only to burn out along the way.

Or worse, live on default and never chase their dreams.

We're done with all of that.

Together we're gonna challenge what keeps us stuck and figure out what it takes to live a life we truly love.

At Becoming Obsessed, we are building a life we love beyond the business.

But a lot of times that means we actually also need to work on making a business that works for us.

I'm so excited for today's episode because we're going to get into what it's like to build a life that you love.

Go through transitions and moves and also how to make sure that your business is working for you even when you're not actively working.

I'm so excited to introduce today's guest, Julia.

Julia Boccese is an SEO, Pinterest and AI search strategist who helps businesses get found online and attract the right clients through search.

She's the founder of Julia Renee Consulting, where she builds clear, sustainable strategies focused on real growth, conversions and long term visibility without all that confusing jargon.

Julia, welcome to Becoming Obsessed.

Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

So give me a little bit of the rundown of your story I know we've talked about.

You moved five times in 10 years.

You just are at the tail end of another move and you're running a business at the same time.

Tell me how you got here.

Yeah, so I moved to Philadelphia ten and a Half years ago.

I think this might be move number six that we just finished.

I have lost count.

When you live in Philly, it's really easy to kind of like hop from apartment to apartment and then just life circumstances.

My husband and I have moved to a couple of different places since we got married.

A few years ago, I moved to Philadelphia for a boy.

It worked out.

We got married, we have two kids, but we actually met studying abroad in Denmark.

In college.

I was in North Carolina at a school there and then he was at school in Pennsylvania and he was a year ahead of me and we met in Denmark.

So after we studied abroad, I came back and I still had two years to finish before I graduated.

So after I graduated, I moved to Philadelphia where he was going to med school.

So that's why I moved to Philly and I kind of took whatever job I could get because I just wanted to move up here so I didn't really have a network.

He was literally the only person I knew in Philadelphia and he was in med school, so he couldn't help me in the job world.

So I took a corporate job at a business publishing company doing editing of like HR manuals, which is as boring as it sounds.

I would finish my work in like two hours and then you just had to like sit there until 5 o'.

Clock.

And yeah, I was so bored.

So I started a travel photography site as a creative outlet so that way I wouldn't be totally bored out of my mind.

Learned SEO and all different marketing skills to help that website grow.

I still have it 10 years later.

I'm not nearly as active, you know, now, but everything that I've done with my website, with SEO and Pinterest and everything has helped it continue to grow.

Even though I might post like two blog posts a year now.

So it's still working.

But I actually wanted to quit my job to go to grad school to study the Viking age and I wanted to have a flexible schedule, so I went.

Wasn't working a full time job and then having to like rush over to school at night and finding time to fit in my homework, which grad school homework is no joke, I learned.

But I wanted to have a flexible schedule.

So I quit my job to become a freelancer.

I didn't know online business was a thing.

I thought everyone was just a freelancer.

You find whatever work you can get.

So I was doing all kinds of odd jobs.

I was doing like graphic design for an opera company at one point.

I was doing a lot of content writing one was for a sustainable, portable toilet.

So I was just getting whatever work that I could.

After a while, I started to realize how much I enjoyed the content work I was doing for small businesses.

And I was optimizing their content for SEO because that's what I'd learned how to do for my own website and realized that they didn't know what I was doing or why they were getting traffic from Google all of a sudden when they weren't before.

So I started to focus more on SEO to help their websites as a whole grow.

On Google, I was also doing lots of different, like social media, Facebook, Instagram.

Realized I hated them.

But I really enjoyed Pinterest because Pinterest is a search search engine, but then it also has that visual creative piece with the pins.

So I was able to combine, you know, my interest in search with also some visuals.

So I started focusing on Pinterest and SEO.

And then when I was in grad school, accidentally built a business, as one does, apparently.

And at the end of grad school, had to kind of choose if I was going to go Forward for my PhD, which was what I was planning on doing, or focus on the business.

And ultimately I chose the business, which I have no regrets about.

I've had my business officially for almost nine years.

I didn't have like a website or anything for the first year.

As an SEO person, I don't recommend that, but I was still kind of like, figuring things out.

So, yeah, I've been doing it for almost nine years and have never looked back.

Honestly, I'm such a fan of if people are paying you, just keep doing the business side and then you can figure out all the marketing and the website and you know what I mean?

Like, sometimes you can't get to it all at once and take the money and use it to help propel you forward.

I have a marketing agency that's specifically email marketing.

My online presence is so terrible, but it really is just if I meet people or referrals, then I'm like, yeah, let's chat.

But, like, I'm not out here trying to get everybody online to find me.

So I feel you.

Okay.

I'm very curious though, this going back to school for Viking history.

What was the intention there?

What was kind of the plan?

Did you just love it or were you like, I'm gonna go get work with my Viking masters?

Yeah.

So the plan was to either go for a PhD to teach or find some sort of job.

There is actually in Philadelphia, we have a Swedish history museum.

So there are some Museums in the general area that would be kind of aligned maybe not with Vikings specifically, but Scandinavian history.

They do actually have a Viking sword at the museum.

So a little bit of connections there.

One reason I wanted to be a professor was because of the flexibility.

Like, it's not a traditional 9 to 5.

You teach classes throughout the day, might have meetings.

But my dad was a professor, and he was able to still come to our, like, after school tennis matches and things like that.

So having that flexibility, not having to be, like, tied to a desk all day, that kind of appealed to me, especially because I knew I wanted to have kids.

So I didn't want to have a super strict schedule, kind of be able to make my schedule.

So that was the plan.

I'm really good at figuring out pieces and trying to make things work that don't seem like they should make work.

So I.

In my undergrad, I actually had five minors, and I created my own major.

I have a lot of interests.

So for grad school, I stayed in the Philly area for full time.

But I was also.

I took a class in Denmark for a summer.

I took a class at Fordham in New York City because they had an Old Norse class.

I was, like, talking with a professor at Yale who specializes in the Viking age.

So I was, like, gonna make it work.

Even if the university didn't have exactly what I wanted.

I was gonna, like, kind of piece things together.

I mean, that's such a great skill to have to be like, yeah, this is what I wanna do.

And they're like, we don't have that.

And you're like, okay, this is what I'm doing.

What do you mean?

Yeah, I was gonna figure it out.

So I have also moved around a little bit.

I went to school in Oklahoma, and then I traveled around.

I actually met a boy when I was studying abroad in Ireland and moved to Ireland for a minute.

So I feel you on that, even for a man.

We're no longer together, but I understand this, like, moving to a new city and not necessarily, like you mentioned, he couldn't help you with a career, like, with a job, and you found something.

But what I think of is that community piece of finding friends in a new city.

How has that gone?

What have you learned through the journey of being like, okay, great.

How do we do find people to talk to and hang out with?

That was definitely hard.

I think probably one of the first communities I joined was for photographers, which worked out because some of them became my very first clients when I, like, started the business.

So I Was trying to find people with similar interests.

I joined a blogging group.

So there were like some groups that I kind of joined, made some connections.

And then Covid happened, which, like, really messed things up.

Especially photography.

Yeah.

So no longer met up in person with things.

Although Zoom hangouts were popular for like a hot minute.

And then everyone's like, I hate zoom.

So a lot of people, and myself included, moved away from Philly after Covid because being in a major city during COVID was such a crazy time.

Like you couldn't walk outside.

You were just holed up in your tiny apartment with like your neighbors yelling at each other because everyone was going insane.

You would have to go to the grocery store at like 5, 5am to stand in line 6ft away from the person in front of you before the grocery store opened at 7.

And my husband is a doctor, so he had to go to work.

And then a lot of my friends, a lot of people I knew if they had a business, they may have changed businesses.

Photography, you kind of do that in person.

And a lot of my friends just moved away because everyone was kind of going crazy, couldn't do anything.

So I had to like refine the community.

And then also having kids, that totally changed things.

And then we just moved again.

So I'm still trying to find people in our local area, people with kids, because that kind of changes the dynamics of relationships.

I can't just drop the hat, go hang out at a bar at 7pm on a weeknight anymore.

So it's still something I'm trying to figure out.

So one thing I did is I did create my own community.

It has changed a lot.

And then obviously Covid happened.

So we went online for a bit.

And then after we were kind of able to meet in person, it changed to more of like a casual business owner hangout for female entrepreneurs.

So it wasn't like a strict mastermind.

It was just come hang out, talk about different business topics.

Sometimes we had like a specific topic that we wanted to address, especially close to tax season.

Talk about taxes and finances.

And sometimes it was literally just come hang out, vent about some business problem you have, or just drink coffee and listen in on conversations.

One thing that we had a hard time with after Covid was a lot of restaurants and coffee shops closed.

Down.

So a lot of the larger ones where they had a large table for five to 10 people to hang out, they closed.

So it's still something I'm trying to figure out is finding a good place where you can drop in and you're not taking up the entire coffee shop, because a lot of the coffee shops in Philly are small.

So we're experimenting still.

But now it has turned into rather than a monthly hangout, it is a quarterly hangout still.

Kind of like the same vibe where just come drop in if you want, bring some friends.

I'm switching up experimenting with going to a coffee shop.

We just had our quarterly meetup two days ago, so this one, we went to a new food hall that opened up fairly recently for lunch.

So that worked out pretty well.

So if you can't find your community, maybe just make one and invite a few friends, and then it will grow and change your over time.

Let's do a rose and a thorn type of vibe where it's like, what has been the, like, most beautiful outcome or piece of having that and doing that and taking the leap to be like, let me be the one.

And then also, what has been one of the hardest parts of being the one to step up and be like, okay, I'll create this rose for me,.

Definitely, is I am a huge introvert.

So, like, walking into a networking room where I don't know anyone and, like, trying to work my way into someone's conversation.

I hate that so much.

Side tangent.

When I was trying to find a job in Philly, someone connected me with some networking group, and I went, not knowing anyone, fresh out of college, super shy and introverted.

And I slowly got trapped into a corner with no way out.

And I'm not exaggerating, A nun came to save me.

She saw me hiding in the corner.

Thank God for that.

Yeah, God had to intervene because I was so bad at networking.

Was it like somebody was talking to you and you're, like, packing up and then all of a sudden there's nowhere else?

No.

No one was talking to me.

I was, like, trying to work my way around the room to, like, find people, and no one was letting me into their conversations or, like, looked friendly where, like, I felt comfortable going up to them.

And I slowly just kind of, like, got backed into a corner.

But a nun was there because she worked at a school that had a connection with this nonprofit who was there.

So thankfully, she saw me just with my drinks, hiding in the cor to talk to me and introduce me to people.

But that's how bad at networking I was.

I've gotten better, but I still don't love it.

The rose is definitely like, I have created a networking.

It's not even like traditional networking, but, like, a group of people on my own terms in a space that I'm, like, more comfortable with.

So, like, hanging out in a coffee shop, sitting at a table is way more comfortable than having to go to a bar where everyone's mingling and standing around and you have to, like, squeeze your way to find different people to talk to.

So that has definitely been my favorite part, is creating my own space that I'm comfortable in.

And a lot of people who go are introverts because this is something they're more comfortable with.

But it's still nice because I get to meet new people when people bring new people or, like, someone connects me on Facebook and I invite them.

So it's still like a mix of new faces and then people, you know, I've already known.

I would say the thorn is since it's free and it's casual, sometimes getting people to RSVP is really hard.

They're not paying for it, so they don't feel as committed to going.

They're like, oh, yeah, if I feel up to it, I'll go this day.

So the RSVP's change day of it's like, five people who said they were going all of a sudden aren't going.

It's hard to plan for.

So then I can't really reserve a space because I don't know exactly how many people are going to come.

So that's been kind of the struggle with having a free group like that.

It reminds me there's one in Omaha, Nebraska, and probably was it four or five years ago, I was helping a woman run it.

I had just stepped in to help her a little bit, and then her family just got an RV and like, went off the grid for a while.

I also was heading to Europe for a while, and so another woman took it over, and she has kept it going this whole time.

And now I'm have been going back to it again.

And it is.

It's like we all sit around one big table.

Luckily, we have a coffee shop that has, like, a basement, and the basement is just.

We can mostly fit everybody down there.

And it is nice what you were saying, where it's like, I don't have to go, okay, let me go introduce myself in this little Circle and now shimmy over to this.

This one.

And I'm very much an extrovert.

But what I've learned is I don't really like networking events either.

I prefer these communities where it's like, yeah, if you show up, you're gonna probably meet new and different people, but if you show up a few times, you're gonna also see the same people.

And that, to me is the biggest unlock for community, is somewhere that I can go, like once a week, once a month, maybe once a quarter.

And I just know I'll see my friends.

I'm like, I'll see my people.

I don't have to talk to them and, like, plan it.

It's so beautiful to just have that space to be able to be like, okay, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna see some people.

And the last time that I went to this group, I don't remember exactly what was going on with me.

I think I was like, full luteal phase.

I just was not in the mood to talk, to socialize.

And then being there, I just was like, I gotta just be in the energy and hear all these people.

And even if you're not fully participating, it is nice to just be able to be around your people.

So even though I'm not in Philly, I thank you for the work you're doing because it helps women.

Specifically women, but everybody so much.

Speaking of Philly, though, I don't really have any idea about what Philly is like or what the creative small business world or anything, but I have two friends who they just this week left, and they're gonna stay in four different cities in the US for three months each to test drive where they might wanna move.

And Philly is one of them.

And so I might be going, oh,.

Yeah, let me know.

But give me the lowdown on what Philly is like.

I will say Philly takes some time to adjust to what you see in the news about the, like, sports fans beating up robots and.

And throwing batteries at Santa Claus.

That's true.

That happens.

We're proud of it.

So you kind of just have to, like, embrace Philly with open arms and, like, lean into the craziness.

It's a really supportive city for small businesses.

The food scene here is amazing.

There are very few large franchises.

TGI Fridays, they closed down because they were in, like, a major tourist area.

And they just couldn't stay open because people weren't going there because they choose all these other amazing restaurants.

But the small business food scene, small coffee Shop is amazing.

People love unique businesses.

The unique cafes and art galleries and things like that.

It's very artsy, very supportive of small businesses and creators and things like that.

So it's great for small business.

I mean, all the groups that I've been to, other than that first one where I didn't know anyone, they've all been really helpful.

Like I said, I got a lot of my first clients from that photography group that I went to.

So there are lots of different niches that you can get into.

But everyone has been very supportive and welcoming.

There's, like, this huge Philly.

I think it's called Philly Queens Facebook group.

So if your friends are, you know, women, like, definitely check out the Philly Queens group, because you can ask literally anything in that group, and someone will have an answer for you.

No one is attacking you or being, like, judgmental.

So there's a lot of really supportive, nice people, along with the, like, crazy sports fans who are climbing the greased poles after super bowl wins and things like that.

I mean, honestly, that's kind of fun,.

Especially when you have a team like the Eagles.

You might as well get into it.

Yeah, you got to lean into the craziness and kind of accept it.

I will say driving in Philly is the worst.

We don't have a great public transportation system.

It's not like D.C. or New York.

When I lived in Center City, I rarely took public transportation.

I would either walk or, like, Uber if it was too far.

So parking is also a nightmare.

It's nice because it's made up of neighborhoods as well, so you can easily find a great neighborhood that you live in, and then you can just walk to your grocery store, to the park or whatever.

But that's my biggest qualm with Philly, is the public transportation is not great, and then parking and driving is a nightmare.

I could see that.

I have honestly been complaining a lot about parking in Omaha, but it's like, the problem that most people don't have.

You can always find parking.

You might have to walk in two blocks.

But what I've been complaining about recently is that we used to have so many free lots that you could park in.

And now we have this new company that's partnering with our city's parking department and just privatized all of that.

And so now I'm parking in neighborhoods just to not pay the, like, few dollars.

Because I'm like, no, this was a free lot.

And so, yeah, I get to be a little bit spoiled, even in what I complain about when it comes to parking in Omaha.

But I want to switch gears a little bit because talking about search and Pinterest and AI search, for like four or five years I coached wedding pros.

I was a photographer for my first business.

So I see you there.

And one of the things that did work for especially visual anybody who had good visuals for their wedding business was Pinterest.

And I have sung praises of Pinterest for a long time.

I'm curious in today's world where AI is flooding, everything was slop.

And also what I've seen from a lot of people is just business is a little bit harder right now.

You gotta, like, figure it out a little bit more right now.

I'm curious what you're seeing with AI and with just the state of the world and how everything feels a bit tougher.

Like, what are you seeing with your clients?

What's still working?

What's your take?

Yeah, so I think always being human first is going to be what helps you the most.

So a lot of the SEO and AI strategies that I focus on with my clients is also helping them convert people and just help people know what they do.

So a lot of times I love wedding photographers, but they will have like very fluffy website copy.

Like, I help capture your dream day, things like that.

But I'm like, no, you need to tell Google AI people that you are a wedding photographer in Philadelphia.

You gotta get straight to the point.

So a lot of that is what I am seeing is helping the most.

Because I mean, Google and AI are relying on copy to understand what to do, what to recommend you for.

And even sometimes they are able to kind of quote, see an image.

I'm sure it's going to get better, but they aren't going to understand the context of an image.

So if it's like a picture of a bride and groom, who knows, Google might think that it's an advertisement for the wedding dress, not advertising the actual wedding photographer.

So there's a lot of things with images obviously help show off your work, but you do need to make sure you have website coffee.

I actually see this the most with interior designers.

I love them, I work with a lot of them.

But they will have their homepage as just a slideshow of images with no copy.

And I'm like, people can't find you if you don't tell these platforms what you do, where you're located, who you help, what your expertise is, what your experience is.

So a lot of these strategies that I'm working on with my clients are Also designed to help them convert people when they land on their website and just understand what they do.

I will say for like AI, they're also really looking for kind of these trust signals to make sure that you are an expert or you have experience in your industry or you have credentials.

So a lot of times you do need to be adding those things to your website or adding like case studies to show the data behind projects that you've done, how you've helped your clients and things like that, which also helps potential clients when they can see some actual data of what you do and what you've done for past clients.

So I would say focusing on humans first is really going to be beneficial for SEO, AI, search, any general marketing.

But making sure that you are just telling people what you do, where you're located, if that matters, who you serve, your expertise, your experience, any related credentials, adding testimonials to your site.

So all of these things are going to like, overlap and help you in a lot of different ways.

It's funny because when I was coaching wedding pros, it would always be like the example where somebody would be like, I'll help you capture these moments for life or like, cherish these memories for the rest of your life.

Yeah, yeah.

But it's like a version of this phrase is on every wedding website ever.

And we would always be like, okay, see how you see it everywhere.

But then somebody would be like, light and airy photography for the matlie in love couple.

And it's like, again, now I'm seeing.

I don't want light and airy.

And you.

If somebody can't say no to it, they can't say yes to it.

You're not actually standing out.

And so I love that you're saying, even as we're like, okay, AI, AI.

And I'm like deep in the AI space because one of my clients is a data science and AI consulting firm.

Literally, they're building AI for enterprises.

It's still human first.

Even if AI takes over the world, great, they can have it.

We'll go create our own little world in the woods where we talk to each other.

You know what I mean?

We still crave that human interaction.

And AI is being trained.

Like you're saying you're a website.

If it works for a human to understand what you do.

That's what an AI is trying to be trained to also do.

And so I love your take on that.

That makes so much sense.

Yeah.

Because funnily Enough, the number one website that ChatGPT will crawl when they're trying to come up with answers for people is Reddit, because that is where people are talking about businesses and products and brands and things like that.

So they are looking for that human experience in order to be able to recommend it to other humans.

And I always tell my clients, like, at the end of the day, it's the humans that are going to be giving you money for your services or products.

So, like, make sure you are focusing on the humans and don't worry about the bots crawling your website as much.

Don't worry about keyword stuffing and using your keyword five times in one paragraph.

Just making sure you're writing for humans because that's who's going to be hiring you.

Yeah, hot take, guys.

It's not that hard to grasp, but I think so often in business, it's like the straightforward, easy thing.

It also takes time.

Feels like, okay, well, yeah, I'll do that.

But also, what's the quick hack to get me there?

And sometimes it's like, okay, start with the basics.

Make sure you actually have a website that converts humans before you worry so much about generating all this traffic or getting AI to recommend you.

Honestly, I love Pinterest, and I just saw on your Instagram, you're like, don't push your Instagram pin to Pinterest.

Oh, my God.

Okay.

I'm not really posting anything of my own on Pinterest.

I have all of the trends.

Anytime I go on a trip, anytime I do a photo shoot, I have the inspiration boards.

I'm not posting anything that points to the podcast specifically.

And so I was like, yeah, it can't hurt to just push these through.

Is it worse to do that or.

To just leave it empty?

It depends.

I'll also say there's so many different ways that you can use Pinterest as a business.

I have a lot of interior design clients who use it as their portfolios.

So that way they can have different boards for, like, kitchen designs they've done and living rooms, things like that.

I've worked with someone who, like, just wanted more brand visibility.

Like, she didn't even really care about the traffic to her website.

She was an artist, so whenever someone searched for a particular style of artwork, she wanted to make sure that her artwork was showing and that her name was connected with it and any copycats weren't getting the brand visibility that she deserved.

Things like that.

So if you are in the building stage on Pinterest, where you don't maybe have a lot of content on your website yet, or, yeah, you have a podcast.

We have, like two episodes out.

You can definitely pin from other accounts.

It's not going to hurt you at all, but it's not going to drive the traffic to your website or to your podcast.

So you can definitely pin from other people.

Also, if you just want to support other businesses that you like, you can definitely do that.

It will build that trust with Pinterest and show Pinterest that you are an active account, which, when you start pinning your own things will help.

So it doesn't hurt.

But, yeah, you're just not really driving the traffic to your website and pinning to Instagram.

This is a hill I will die on.

So if you just, like, pin something that goes to Instagram, when someone goes to Instagram, it might open up in their browser and set up the Instagram app.

They might not have Instagram.

The link may have broken.

You can't actually track to see what people do when they go to your Instagram account.

You can't tell if they follow you, if they like that photo.

If they go to other photos, you have no idea what they do.

You can track all these information on your website with, like, Google Analytics, but once they go to Instagram, you can't track anything.

And then also when you are, like, linking Instagram to Pinterest, the strategy and the audiences are so different.

With Instagram, it's you're posting for your followers mostly and, like, people who may be familiar with your brand, who may have a basic understanding of what you do.

On Pinterest, people don't know who you are, and they don't care.

They are a cold audience.

They want the information.

It's like 97% of the searches on Pinterest are unbranded, which means they aren't looking for, like, Nike running shoes.

They're looking for, you know, running shoes that solve this particular problem.

Or, like, what are 10 great running shoes for women?

So they don't care if that content comes from Nike or from a small fashion blogger who has an interest in running shoes.

So when you have your Instagram caption, it was like, oh, you know, look at this great design that I've done recently.

I loved working with this client so much.

When you post that to Pinterest, that's not, first of all, telling Pinterest what this actual pin is about, what it should be ranking for in order to be seen by more people.

But then also when people see that caption, they have no idea what you're talking about.

They don't know who your clients are.

They don't know who you are.

They want the information.

They want the inspiration.

So if you have your Instagram captions that are going directly to Pinterest, that is not going to help your Pinterest strategy.

If you're a visual business, like wedding photographers or interior designers, people might like that photo, but you're not getting the them any context behind it.

You're not getting them interested in clicking over to Instagram or to your website to learn more.

So they might just save the photo because it's pretty, but they might never visit your website or anything.

So there are lots of reasons why I don't recommend pinning from Instagram to Pinterest.

For the majority of businesses.

There might be like one or two exceptions, but that is a hill I will definitely die on.

That makes so much sense.

Okay, I have one more Pinterest question, because back when I was still coaching wedding pros, specifically, I remember there was like some type of Pinterest update, and it was like, let's say you have one blog post.

You shouldn't be pinning five times to that same blog post, the same link, like, back to back to back or something.

And so that's in my head where I'm like, okay, well, I don't want to like, pin all of these things that lead back to.

I mean, obviously all of them are leading back to Instagram when I just have it push automatically through.

But even if I'm like, okay, I'm going to do more Pinterest for the podcast and I have all these quote graphics and things that like, okay, I could post.

Is it worse to post multiple things to one link?

Or is it like, okay, if you're just getting started, don't worry too much about posting five times to one link back to back, or scheduling them out for the month or however you do it, is it better to just be like, I'll post a couple or I'll do all five graphics or whatever to the one?

Yeah.

So you can definitely create multiple graphics for one blog post.

Probably the update that you're thinking of from a few years ago, it was people creating like 50 different pin graphics and pinning them like within an hour.

So Pinterest is really.

They were trying to get away from like, scammy Pinterest accounts that were just generating essentially AI slop before AI slop was a thing.

So a lot of people were pinning like a hundred pins a day and just creating garbage, essentially.

So they Were really trying to focus more on quality over quantity.

So you don't need a pin a hundred times a day.

You might actually get shut down if you pin too many times back to back.

I typically recommend, like, five to ten pins a day.

If you can just start with one pin a day, because you don't have a lot of content or you don't have a lot of time, that's definitely better than nothing.

So you can create multiple graphics for one blog post, but I would space them out by at least a day or two.

I wouldn't pin, like, all five within an hour.

Also, just because when people go to your Pinterest account and they see your most recent pins, if all of them are the exact same, like, it might look like your scammy account, or they might just not be interested in that one blog post that you have pinned 10 times.

So trying to mix things up, space things out a little bit.

Like you said, you can schedule things out so you don't have to, like, manually post pins every day.

You can schedule things out for like a month or two and then not even have to look at Pinterest.

Another reason why I love Pinterest.

You don't have to show your face every day if you don't want to.

So it's definitely the introverts platform with things like that.

Yeah, you can definitely create multiple graphics.

Don't just, like, pin them a hundred times in a day.

That makes sense.

If somebody's listening and they're like, like, okay, yeah.

Actually, I think doing more of this is something I should look into.

And also, I don't want to do it.

Julia, can you do it for me?

How can somebody work with you or just even connect with you?

Yeah.

So My website is juliarenae consulting.com.

You can see my Pinterest pricing and services and everything there.

But I offer two main services with Pinterest.

One is Pinterest management for people who, like, don't want to touch Pinterest at all.

Don't want to have to, like, figure out the strategy.

Because.

Because I get a lot of people who like Instagram and they just can't wrap their heads around how Pinterest works because it is so different.

So I do Pinterest management where I totally manage the account, create all the pins, do all the strategy, create boards, do keyword research.

So you don't have to touch Pinterest.

You just have to focus on creating content with blog posts or podcasts or YouTube videos, things like that.

And then I offer another one like a Pinterest setup, slash cleanup service for people who want to do their own Pinterest page but are again, overwhelmed with just getting started.

So I'll go in and get everything set up or cleaned up if they have any boards, get pin templates created, do the keyword research, and kind of like, manage things for about six weeks, and then at the end of the six weeks, pass everything over to them and do a training video to show them how to manage things, answer any questions that they have, so that way they can hit the ground running and don't have to start at a blank screen.

Amazing.

Now, I have a couple last questions for you before we wrap.

Up.

Up.

We were talking about Philly and the food scene.

So when it comes to food, either that you make or take out or a restaurant, what food are you currently obsessed with?

I mean, all food.

My husband, his family's Italian American.

That's where Bochesi came from.

But there are lots of Italian restaurants in Philly that are amazing.

There is one.

They, like, literally sent everything from a restaurant in Italy over to Philly because I think their restaurant was, like, destroyed in an earthquake.

So they just shifted to Philly.

Italian food in Philly is great, obviously.

Cheese steaks in Philly are great.

But probably one of my favorite is Thai food.

I love drunken noodles and, like, spicy curry and things like that.

There's a Thai restaurant in Philly that I think is, like, the number one restaurant in the country or was last year or something.

Talia.

So that one is, like, a really popular one.

But even just the mom and pop, top corner restaurants in Philly, they're all great.

Amazing.

Okay.

And then when it comes to either entertainment or education.

What are you listening to?

Watching.

Reading.

We're like, re watching the Office for the thousandth time.

So there's a lot of, like, new TV I need to catch up on reading.

I read a mix of business books or historical fiction.

So there's one I'm reading right now.

My husband got it for me for Christmas, and it's.

It's April, and I'm still reading it because it's super long.

It's called we the Drowned.

That one's a little bit different.

I do love Agatha Christie, actually.

One show that I'm like, re watching again is Murder, She Wrote.

Every episode's the same, and it's just, like, fun and kind of goofy 80s TV.

So that's kind of Like a.

A comfort murder show.

Last one.

When it comes to playing, creating, or slowing down, recharging, what are you currently obsessed with?

So I have kind of two.

So right now it's April, it's gardening season, so I'm really getting into gardening.

And we're at a new house, so I'm like trying to figure out where everything's gonna go.

It's also tough because since we've moved so many times and this one is also going to be a temporary house for like a year or two before we get the permanent, permanent house because I'm never moving again.

So I have a lot of plants, pots, I need to organize them and then get raised beds for vegetables and things like that.

And then at night, I just recently got into embroidery, so I'm like learning how to do that.

So while we're watching the office, I'm trying to do some embroidery instead of like looking at my phone to keep my hands busy.

So that one is fun.

I'm still learning, so it's not as relaxing yet, but hopefully I'll get better.

That's one of my favorite hats to stay off my phone is to do something creative with my hands.

And a lot of times lately I've just been in a coloring book watching alone.

I don't know if you've ever.

No, I haven't seen that one.

It's basically like 10 people get dropped into the tundra with camera gear and it's just like, okay, survive for as long as you can.

Call us if you can't.

Bye.

And you don't see anyone.

And then whoever stays the longest wins like half a million dollars.

And so I've just been watching that and coloring as a hack to stay off of my phone because at that point in the night too, you're just like mindlessly doom scrolling.

There is nothing on your phone that you're actually like looking up or like reading with the TV on.

So I'm with you on that one.

Yeah, it's just like doom scrolling.

I'm like, why am I doing this?

This is not helping me at all.

And if your hands aren't busy, it's like you just pick up the phone without realizing it.

So, yeah, I got a lot of watercolors for Christmas.

That's what I asked for from like, like everybody.

So I have all of this stuff to start doing watercolor, but I haven't yet because of what you were saying where it's like, you still have to learn.

And lately I've been like, I don't Want to.

I don't want to think.

Yeah.

Well, this was so much fun.

Thank you for coming on Becoming Obsessed and just sharing your obsession, talking all things Pinterest, and I'm like, okay, let's go to Philly.

You made it sound great.

I want to go.

Yes, it's really fun, especially in the spring and summer.

Pop up beer gardens everywhere.

Like, people love being outside in all the parks, and we have lots of walkways on, like, the rivers, and there's a park that has a bunch of hammocks that pop up in the spring and summer.

So it's a really fun time to be in Philly.

Lots of great cherry blossoms, and you don't have to fight the crowds in dc.

That's amazing.

I wouldn't have thought that hot takes.

Well, you're still listening and hanging out with us, so go find Julia, Connect with her.

If you're interested in search Pinterest, any of that, Reach out and and send this episode to a friend if they need a little nudge to build a life that they truly love.

And then send me a DM on Instagram Becoming Obsessed Pod.

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All right, y', all, let's go get obsessed.

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Send me a DM on Instagram Becoming Obsessed Podcast Pod.

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All right, let's go get obsessed.