Authenticity in Social Media Marketing w/ Jera Bean
It’s hard enough to be vulnerable & show your true colors with friends & family. How the heck are you supposed to get comfortable doing that online with strangers?!
The word “authenticity” shows up a lot online—and especially in relation to marketing. But what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks does that even mean in a practical sense?! After seeing this Instagram post by the one & only Jera Bean, I asked her to join me for this very conversation. And OMG, she delivered in this episode!
Jera gets into showing up through the suck, things we need to normalize as entrepreneurs marketing on social media, and her Four Quadrants of Secret Sauce. If you’ve ever been on the struggle bus with social media as an entrepreneur—DO NOT SLEEP on this episode!
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
What it means to be your most authentic self as an entrepreneur
Things we need to normalize about showing up as our authentic selves online in 2024
How to show up as your truest, most authentic self in social media marketing
How to get comfortable with recording videos of yourself (like Stories or Reels)
How to share messaging that’s authentic to you
What it takes to “get good” at social media marketing
Difficulties even Jera has faced with showing up on social media in an authentic way
What The Four Quadrants of Secret Sauce are—and how they can help you be more authentic
Actual examples of types of authentic, “truly you” content to share
Meet: Jera Bean
Jera Bean is a social media expert, in-demand speaker, and seasoned content creator. Leaning into her extensive background in content creation and strategy, Jera teaches people and brands how to harness the power of their secret sauce and show up authentically on social—generating engaging content that converts followers and fans into customers and clients.
Mentioned Resources:
Related Episodes:
Connect w/ Jera:
Connect w/ Brittany:
This episode of The Basic B podcast is brought to you in partnership w/ Leah Bryant Co.! Help me reach more service providers like you by following the show & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify!
The unedited podcast transcript for this episode of The Basic B podcast follows
Welcome back to the basic bee podcast. I am stoked to have you here, and I think I'm a little bit more Stoker to have my guest here for all of us, because we are going to get into a topic that I was just saying. It's mentioned, but we don't ever really get into the how to, but we're getting into the How to today with Jera bean, all about how to show up on social media authentically as yourself, because, again, it's said, but we don't ever get into the steps until today. So before I bring her on, here's a quick intro. Jera bean is a social media expert in demand, speaker and seasoned content creator, leaning into her extensive background in content creation and strategy, Jared teaches people and brands how to harness the power of their secret sauce and show up authentically on social, generating engaging content that converts followers and fans into customers and clients. Hello, my friend. Hey,
Jera Bean 1:52
how's it going?
Brittany Herzberg 1:53
I am so excited that you're here. I'm so excited for this topic, and I cannot wait, actually, for it to go live either.
Jera Bean 1:59
Yeah, I love it. Well, thanks for having me on. I'm happy to be here,
Brittany Herzberg 2:03
Of course, thanks for joining me. And before we get into the juicy topic, I'm going to ask you the question I ask everyone SEO storytelling or social proof.
Jera Bean 2:12
It's an excellent question. And want to be like all three, because, of course, I mean, if we're being real, I would say, of course, all three play into sales. If I had to choose the answer that feels most authentic to me, like you put a gun up to my head and you're like Jerry, you have to choose one, I would go with storytelling, because to me, that is broad enough to capture storytelling about yourself, storytelling about your ideal client. Storytelling, to me, also includes messaging and evoking emotion and speaking to your ideal client and pain points and the transformations that you can provide so that one feels the most in line with me, my expertise, how I show up. That's why I'll zero in on that one, but I will say all three are important.
Brittany Herzberg 3:02
I like it. I like this, all of them, and crystal that's been coming up a lot recently in interviews. So I really like this answer, everyone. You're checking all of the boxes. This is great. So you and I are here because, well, one, you're amazing, and this topic totally fits on with the podcast. And you made a post, and I immediately was like, Jera, can I have you on the podcast? Can we talk about this thing? And you may not even remember which one it is, I'll send it to you and I'm gonna link it below in the show description. But basically in it, you were acknowledging that it's really hard for us to show up as ourselves on social media. And I was like, this topic, it said, totally, can we get into it. So with that, other than it being challenging, AF, to show up authentically as ourselves, what else would you like to normalize related to showing up on social media
Jera Bean 3:52
so much! The first thing like, do we have five hours? No, we can. We can. So the first thing that comes to mind with this question is the fact that showing up authentically on social media is not this inherent skill that we were all born with. And then if we even take a step back from social media and just talk about life, I think we can acknowledge that sometimes even showing up authentically in just our day to day lives is very challenging. We worry about people's judgment. We second guess what we're gonna say, or we ruminate on the thing that we just said for days, and we worry how we're gonna be perceived. And there's this internal monolog that, for most of us really takes up a lot of space in our head. I mean, I'm someone who deals with anxiety, so this is like, maybe I'm just describing myself.
Brittany Herzberg 4:43
No, I'm there with you. Yeah, yeah.
Jera Bean 4:45
And if we consider that and then go, Okay, we're already struggling to show up as this full, authentic expression of ourselves and our day to day life. But now you have to show up authentically on social media. Yeah, so wait. Now we have to take this, like struggling authenticity in real life, and then translate it to this digital version. So that, to me, is sort of the root of it. It's already challenging sometimes just to be ourselves and let our freak flags fly, and then to figure out how to have that come through video content, spoken content, written word, if we're writing captions or text overlays in our story or threads, whatever it may be, or we're using a trend like there's so many different components to social media, different formats, different way to express ourselves, that I feel like everything just gets really jumbled. So that is the root of it. I would say
Brittany Herzberg 5:39
I could not agree with you more. I remember when I first jumped on Instagram. I think it was 2019, my background is as a massage therapist. Talk about being in person and having, like, an in real life business. And I was like, Okay, this business is good, but I like being online. Maybe I can talk a little bit more about marketing on Instagram and help massage therapists a little bit more. And I remember one of my massage clients found the profile, and she was like, I watched your video and like, you kind of seen basically what she was saying in a very nice way. And I love this person, so I'm not coming at her at all. She was like, You were reserved. I wasn't smiling, I wasn't bubbly. I'm bubbly. Like, I have fun, I joke around. And she was like, You were kind of stiff. I was like, Yeah, I was I was like, you said that to me. I'm just gonna picture that I'm talking to you from here on out, and that helped me. I like that, yeah. But do you have any other tips? Maybe, I mean, even just in the context of that,
Jera Bean 6:32
yeah, I think that there's two things that come into play. It's a combination of what we share, as well as the energy behind it. And so if we zero in very specifically on video, especially talking to camera, which, if anyone's listening and they're like, I struggle with talking to camera, to me, that's one of the most challenging formats, because an easier format would be taking some B roll of you pouring a cup of coffee, you out with your dog for a walk, whatever it may be you're typing at your computer and doing text overlay that's for stories, that's for reels as well.
That, to me, is a good starting point, because you can share your message, but you're not necessarily having to face the vulnerability of talking to camera. So if we really go to the other end of the spectrum. Talking to camera, to me is the most challenging, because it's like, if I rewind back to early childhood, it's kind of the same thing of, like, listening to your voice on the voicemail recording, which I know like no one does anymore. So anyone who's like, I'm born to 1989 so anyone around that age or like prior like, you know what I'm talking about. It was, it was so confronting. Like, wait, that's what I sound like, and you'd recorded a million times.
So in a way, to me, video is that on steroids, because not only are you hearing your voice, but you're having to see yourself as well. So many of us deal with insecurities around our looks also too. Like there's so many ways that we can film ourselves, and if you don't really know how to find the natural light in your house or an apartment, and like I made a video once where it was like, Look how quickly the lighting and how I look changes. Here I am in front of my window, which is beautiful lighting, and then I turn and walk down the hallway, and it looks like total crap. But people who are beginning don't necessarily know that it's not obvious information. So all of this is to say is we are dealing with the messaging itself, like, what am I sharing that is authentic? And by the way, I have a whole framework for that, so I'm happy to share that.
But in addition to what you're saying and what the message is, it's also how you are presenting it. It's your energy, it's your voice, it's how you're filling the frame. It's the esthetics of it. It's the quality. So these are all these elements that come into play that make this so challenging. So in order to, like, actually give advice around this, I'm like, explaining why it's hard. I think so much of it is just practice. However, we are so hard on ourselves. We record our first video, and we go, oh, that freaking sucks. I suck in what other like modality do we do this to ourselves? Do you have zero experience drawing? And you draw your first drawing, or paint your first painting, and go, Oh, my God, I'm the worst at this. Well, yeah, you just started. You've never done it before. You're a beginner. Same with learning a language. There's so many parallels we can draw here. But for some reason with social media and content, we expect it to be this instant thing. So I think it's really understanding that and knowing that if you make D level content, then C level content, then B level content, that is how you are going to progress to looking more natural, feeling more natural, sounding more natural, and so on.
Brittany Herzberg 9:46
I really wish I had had that advice way back when, because I immediately jumped into video, and I was like, This is what I'm seeing people doing. I must need to be able to do this. I'm also into astrology, and I have some like, Aries stuff and tourist stuff. So I've got, like, the gopher. First, and the I'm going to be stubborn about it, yeah, yeah. Very much came through. But I love the idea of step stoning up to the more intense stuff, the more really vulnerable content shelter. Yeah, absolutely, it's intense. So I've always seen you interacting with camera and sharing content. And I'm sure anyone who is familiar with you, it looks so easy, but I am not an idiot, and I know it must not be, and I also know that you and I have some shared life stuff that has happened, and you've shown up through that or after that. So what would you say if someone was like, how have you always shown up and made it look easy to be like your goofball? Go get herself.
Jera Bean 10:40
And how can I do that? Well, it's been nine years, which honestly blows my mind, because I remember my very first post of the account that I use now. I had a personal account that I, like, barely posted on, starting in 2012 but I really think of the first day of what I do now as April 4, 2015 and that nine year anniversary just passed, and I'm like, like, almost makes me want to cry a little bit. It's like, so confronting that nine years has gone by. But I say this because I have been showing up on social media for nine years straight. Sure, there's been a few breaks here and there, not really that many, being honest, couple days here and there.
The other thing too is, not only has it been nine years, but I feel it's almost as if I have grown up with social media. I don't mean from childhood, but what I mean is social media has developed at the same speed that I have developed with social media. So because I was on it in 2015, you know, I was on it before any video content existed. Then 15 seconds we could post to our feed. Then stories came. So everything that was new was new to me at the time. It was new to everyone else, versus, let's say, someone starts now and they haven't been showing up consistently for nine years, like, holy cow, you have reels, you have all the things that come with reels and Tiktok and stories and broadcast channels and threads and close friends lists like, Oh my God, how unmovably overwhelming. It's so much. So I'm not trying to, like, downplay my comfort level with it, but I do think context is important, because it's so easy to look at someone else actually.
My client just said this to me the other day. She's like, I'm scrolling through and it looks like it's so easy for everyone else. Well, two things. One, it either is easy now, but it wasn't easy for them back in the day, or it looks easy, but it's not actually easy. They're just so good at it that looks easy, but behind the scenes, it's not actually easy. So that's just something to keep in mind. And going back to what I mentioned around this concept of like D, C, B level content, I think so many of us feel that we have to have this perfect content. It needs to be edited.
We need to have the messaging right, but the only way we're going to get there is with time practice consistency and really showing up through the suck. And the suck can be a wide range of things. It could be not getting any followers and you're posting for weeks and months. It could be decreasing followers. People are unfollowing you. It could be not getting any comments. No one's responding to your polls. You don't like your content. Like people say something mean to you. Like, the suck can mean a lot, but the only way that you are going to build that social media tenacity is if you post and show up through that suck, which I think I've done a lot of over the years. So there's that too.
Brittany Herzberg 13:31
You totally have, and I know exactly what you mean, and I still remember the moment that I decided to open that Instagram account. Like you said, I have a personal one. It's private. I don't really post anything on there anymore, because one is enough. So I'm over here on my business profile, and even since November, I decided not to post a whole lot of stuff. I'm showing up in stories and I'm having conversations in the DMs, because that's where my connection points are. And I'm still able to show up as me and be myself and make those connections with new people and with existing people through my stories.
But when I first opened the account, like I said, I had the massage therapy background, and I was just trying that. And then at one point I was like, Uh oh, I'm hard pivoting into SEO copywriting, into an online business, and that is a very different identity to take on. And so here is this massive transformation, and I'm just going to be like, Hi, I do SEO copywriting now I know you know me for, like, massage, cupping, but like, we're doing this now, and I did. I had to show up through the suck. And I love that phrase, and I'm so using it because it's so true. It's like, true, it's uncomfortable, and yet it's like, all right, I'm just gonna do this anyway, because I know long term, this is gonna help me get where I wanna go.
Jera Bean 14:38
Yeah, and that's very much in line. Once again, a conversation with a client the other day where she said, I'm feeling resistance. I'm like, Okay, tell me, where are you feeling resistance? Get specific, and she's like, everything. I'm resisting coming up with content ideas, filming, editing, posting, but she also has resistance around the idea of not showing up. And so it's like a. Lose, lose situation, because you don't show up, and you feel awful, because, you know that is a goal of yours, to show up to support your business, but you are judging yourself about the ideas that you come up with. You're pre sort of worrying and anxiety about how people are going to perceive it. And then you finally do post, but then you're just so stuck on the numbers, and you see, you know, some followers decreasing.
And I'm like, at this point, like, we need to have a serious talk, a little dare tough love. Because at this point, your commitment to your goals and why we are doing this together, and why you want to work on this needs to be bigger, louder, more significant than the resistance that you are feeling in the day to day. And if that is not louder, if that isn't going to be the North Star that really guides you, and you're zooming out to understand why we're doing this, then you're just going to get stuck in all of this resistance that you're currently feeling. So to me, that's a perfect scenario of you really got to show up through the suck, through the resistance, and identify the bigger long term goal that is the North Star, even if it's feeling challenging in the day to day like that's the only way that you're going to take steps to get there and work towards that.
Brittany Herzberg 16:22
Yeah, and I can't remember the quote right now. It's like, the only part of the quote that's sticking in my head is action. But like, action is the answer to something. What's the thing I can't remember...
Jera Bean 16:31
Is it action breeds confidence?
Brittany Herzberg 16:35
We're gonna go with that! I think it's a cousin.
Jera Bean 16:37
Cool!
Brittany Herzberg 16:39
It's like the doing gets you out of the funk. It gets you out of the suck, but it's the one thing that you don't want to do, and yet it's like you got to take door number one over there, my friend. You have to it's the only option. The other one's locked.
Jera Bean 16:52
And you know what I mean, in full transparency? Because, you know, authenticity is a big thing that we're talking about. Like, this is something I'm currently dealing with myself, and it's such a mess up of the head, because here I am, like, this is what I do.
Like, I'm a social media coach educator, like I can spew content ideas left and right and strategy for my clients. But I've actually been in a phase recently where I am stuck and I'm uninspired, and the interesting thing is that it's actually really fueled by a lot of personal and business development that I've been doing for all of 2024 and what I realized, and I had a big talk with my mindset and life coach the other Day, is that we can be the reactors to our circumstances. We can be the victims of our circumstances, or we can take action.
We can take control. We can be the creator instead of the consumer. We can be the victor instead of the victim. And like, instantly that every time I think of that, like, just right now I got like, chills in my body, because it literally completely shifts my energy to go, Wait a second. I can sit here and go, I'm stuck. I'm blocked. Haha. Like, how annoying. Like, poor me. Or it's like, wait a second, I can actually take a moment and jot some ideas down, and maybe it's like about how I'm feeling and what I've been going through. It doesn't have to be some idea about social media, because I share about myself.
That's what I've been doing for nine years, in addition to social media. And I can go out and film something, and I can actually decide to completely shift my situation and say I'm the one in control. I'm the victor. I'm the creator. I'm not the consumer, the reactor, the victim, and I can completely change this energy, not tomorrow, not in a week, like, literally, right now. And so that's been very profound. And this is, like, a recent conversation and a recent realization that's been incredibly helpful for me on, like, deep cellular level.
Brittany Herzberg 19:01
Yeah, that's huge. I'm glad that you shared that, because we do have control. We do have power to change things in a very short window of time. We just have to decide, yeah. And then go, do.
Jera Bean 19:12
You literally just have to decide! And the thing that's so crazy about, because you're right, it's like, we just have to decide. And that sounds so simple, and people think that it's not that simple. And so they hear that, and they go, oh, like, just have to decide. Like, no, like, obviously it's so much more challenging than that. No, it's literally that simple, and it's our problems in our head and the stories and the narratives that are making it seem complicated in order to keep us in our place and keep us small and unchanging. So it literally is that simple, which is crazy.
Brittany Herzberg 19:41
And you made such a great point that it keeps you small, it keeps you stuck. And historically, yes, it has kept you safe, but you're in control now. You got your own back. You have a support system like this has been a really big lesson for me, even just in the last 18 months, is like, holy crap. I really am supported if I ask. For help. It shows up. Oh my goodness, because that wasn't always the case, but I get to change the narrative. I get to change the story, and it literally does just start with deciding that it gets to be different, yeah, oh my gosh. I love that, right? We could just stop there, but we're not going to. I want to break this down a little bit and get your advice and maybe some practical, tactical steps. Sure, what does it mean to show up as our full selves? And I am thinking of this, you've hinted at this in the context of balancing personal and professional, and how do we do that?
Jera Bean 20:31
Yeah, great question. And I love to talk about this because it took me, like, three years to actually develop a framework for this. And what I found originally, when I launched my group coaching program and first had my first round of clients, was that I would say, show up authentically as a piece of advice. And that's something that we hear all the time, like, to the point that we start to roll our eyes, because it's like, okay, get it, yeah, we gotta show up authentically. Like, okay, can we hear that like, 10,000 more times. Yes, please. Thank you.
But the issue with that, and I used to say it, so I'm not talking down on it at all, is that it's incomplete advice, because you hear, show up authentically, and then you say, okay, like I want to, but then you go off to try and do it, and then it's like, your brain goes blank, or you're just frozen. It's like, well, how do I do this? And so I saw that so many times with my students and clients that I was like, All right, there has to be something more tangible here. And I'm a very like tangible person. When it comes to learning things, I need to see and hear the concept, and then I need to see it like, actually broken down to be specific, and then applied to certain things. So that's how I created this framework.
So without further ado, this is called The Four Quadrants of Secret Sauce. And to me, secret sauce is a phrase I use for showing up authentically same type of thing. And the four quadrants of secret sauce are as follows. We have foundational professional, present and light hearted, and I'll explain what each of these are, but just first, before I get into it, these four quadrants as a whole represent your entire authenticity, your entire secret sauce. But what we're doing here is we're breaking that down into categories to talk about different types of authenticity, which then makes it more tangible and also give you choice for how you actually want to choose to show up.
So to explain each one, a little bit more Foundational Secret Sauce focuses more so on your past. So think about the chapters, your pivots, the moments, the achievements, both the good and the bad, that have brought you to where you are today and that have really defined where you are today.
Then if we flip that, we have Present Secret Sauce, which, as it sounds, is very much focusing on you in the moment. So who are you? What do you like to do on weekends? What are your hobbies? What are your interests? What are the things that make you laugh? And in addition to the things that you're doing and feeling in real time, it's also your energy, your personality, your values. So some of it is tangible, like, for example, I'm gonna go play pickleball, like that's part of my present day secret sauce, but the personality and the energy is a little bit more intangible. But that's the beauty of video content, especially talking to camera, that allows some of our present secret sauce to come through that isn't quite quantifiable into like, you know, share this exactly. So that's our present secret sauce.
Then we have Professional Secret Sauce, which focuses on you as the business, the entrepreneur, whatever it is that you may be, and it's not tips, it's not tricks, it's not hacks, tutorials, but instead, it's really zeroing in on how you are, unique in the field, in the position the profession that you are currently in, or have created for yourself. So what are your values as a professional? Have you see things in your field? What are your processes, your frameworks? Why is someone coming to you over someone else who might be very similar to you? That's professional secret sauce.
And then lastly, we have Light Hearted which spoiler alert is, as it sounds, it's the funny, the goofy, it's also just like the random and off the cuff. So some moments of light hearted secret sauce. I have a secret, not so secret, hidden talent, armpit farting. I love choosing crackers. I have, like, a fiddly fig tree. And, like, there's all this inside jokes about fiddly figs, and like everyone's talking about, you know, telling me to be quiet around the fig tree, don't play music, and you need to shake it. Like these are all random little things that so oftentimes we think are mundane. Why isn't anyone going to care? But I kid you not, one day I shared the I love cheese and crackers, and I don't know why people went nuts for it. It turned into this huge inside joke, and now I share it all the time.
So oftentimes people think that our secret sauce and authenticity needs to be groundbreaking in order to be effective, in order to create relationships. And sure, there is so much that can come from sharing those bigger things in our lives or in our past. But also the beauty is in these small moments where people go, Oh, me too, or I never knew anyone else thought about that or laughed at that or liked that, and that is where so much connection comes from my community is in those light hearted secret sauce moments.
So that is the four quadrants of secret sauce, foundational, present, professional and light hearted. And the last thing that I'll say about this to wrap it up, is that not only does this make the concept of authenticity more tangible, but like I hinted, it also gives you choice, so you do not have to show up in all four quadrants in order to show up authentically. So someone might go for whatever reason Jera, foundational and professional that feels aligned, that feels appropriate. For example, maybe it's a lawyer like a lawyer might not want to share lighthearted and present secret sauce on their social media, but foundational makes sense, and professional absolutely makes sense.
So you could choose two, you could even choose one. You got to choose at least one, but you could choose one, and you're still showing up authentically. So that allows us to create boundaries and not have this pressure to reveal every milk and cranny of our life in order to show up authentically. It's just not required in order to do so, right?
Brittany Herzberg 26:49
And I know I have a lot of friends who have become moms recently, and they're doing this whole do I show my kids? Do I not show my kids? They're like figuring this out in the moment. That's a heavy one. My boyfriend doesn't like being on camera, so I used to show his face, and he's like, I really hate this. I'm like, Cool, buy. You're out. Like, I don't need you. And here I can. There's another way that I can build the connections I love too, that the light hearted serves as a catch all. Because for me, with my brain and how I operate, I'm like, But what about like, the extras? Like I joke all the time with my clients. I'm like, you're gonna see this in the loom. This is my messy notes document. You are not getting this. This is, like, where I get to make my mess, and then I give you the pretty version of things I want, like the messy spot where I can just be, like, here's this.
Jera Bean 27:34
I just had to jump in really quick because this content might be really helpful for you and also someone else. I haven't taught this in a while. But what I used to teach, I think this was before I had the four quadrants, was this idea of the kitchen junk drawer in relation to your authenticity. So we came up with all of these, like big pillars of who you are and what you stand for, and all these things that make up you, but everything else that doesn't perfectly fit into that goes into the authenticity kitchen junk drawer. So that seemed perfect for what you need. And anyone else listening who might resonate with
Brittany Herzberg 28:09
that totally perfect. I love a good kitchen junk drawer. We don't currently have one, and we have like a corner that's the kitchen junk Yeah, yeah. We
Jera Bean 28:16
have, like a shed, yes, yeah. You
Brittany Herzberg 28:18
just like, tuck that away. No one has to see it. I love that idea, so I was going to share, though it was recent. It was on threads, and my boyfriend and I are house hunting, and it's like not so out here, to the point where there was a kitchen. And he sent me this picture, and it was of a kitchen island with a stove, with a stove, you already know, and it was supposed to be one that would go against a wall because the knobs were sticking up.
Okay, if you look at this kitchen island and there's this thing raised up, okay, that should be against a wall for, you know, the knobs in the back, yes. And so I was like, okay, that's really weird. So I decided to take the picture. And I thought it was just a joke. Turns out it's actually a house that's for sale in Connecticut. But I posted this picture, and I think I said something like, on threads, people keep asking, How is how something going like this? And shared the picture. It blew up. People were eating it up. And people were talking about how challenging it is to buy a house and how crazy that is.
And like, Here I am, and I'm like, I have an SEO for podcast, little template thing when I get it, oh, I shared this podcast today. Here's a tip. Here's this other thing, and I post a picture about this, like, weird stove in an island, and people are just like, eating it up. And so to your point, you never know what's gonna hit. And it's usually, I found you've been in this longer than me that it's that random stuff it really is.
Jera Bean 29:39
And I can almost, like, tune into someone listening right now, and like, hear some objections and pushbacks. Like, for example, someone's like, but it doesn't have anything to do with my business. So like, what's the point of sharing it? And it picks up traction. The point is that these things, just as you perfectly describe, these types of things, leave bookmarks. Dance in people's minds. And I'll give you a perfect example that's sort of similar. A couple years ago, I was learning how to shuffle, which is a type of dance, and I was watching, yeah, it was so fun. I got busy, and I stopped doing it, but, like, I miss it, and I want to get back into it.
