Following Little Bits of Happiness & Trying Things that Scare You

On episode 12 of 'Your Next Chapter' I have Amy Elderkin on as my guest.

Who is Amy?

Amy is the co-founder of Popcorn Media. Popcorn specializes in social media marketing, along with providing PR and traditional marketing services. Amy co-founded Popcorn with her two business partners five years ago.

Why did I bring Amy onto the show?

Amy is the embodiment of an individual who has been able to create a lifestyle true to her nature by taking on challenging aspects of her life. As an example, she didn’t go to school for marketing, but has been able to build a successful social media marketing company through listening to past experiences and taking deliberate action.

In the podcast Amy explains that she found her path by following little bits of happiness. She went through several jobs and eventually landed in the hospitality industry doing sales and marketing. The job required her to use social media to promote a hotel and she soon found herself really enjoying Twitter as a platform.

Amy started building her own Twitter platform and soon found herself exploring events and meeting new people. She ran a campaign called "Tweet to Eat" where for 2 weeks she sourced all her food and meals through the generous donations of Vancouverites over Twitter. She became an influencer on Twitter in Vancouver and realized if she could do this for herself, she could do this for businesses.

She would eventually meet her future business partners through Twitter and they began to collaborate on what is now Popcorn Media.

Amy said she choose marketing because it was what she enjoyed from her last job. By following little bits of joy and taking on things that challenged her growth, she was able to build a business and career she enjoys.

Amy’s Mindset

Try things that scare you – The things that Amy likes to says yes to are the things that scare her. An interesting point that surfaced during the podcast is that at one point, Amy read that men are much more likely to say yes to opportunities in jobs that they aren’t qualified to do than women; thus they get more opportunities.

Amy decided that was not going to be the case for her, “I say yes to things I probably shouldn’t say yes to.” When we say yes to the things that scare us we step into an opportunity for growth.

Balance – There is no such thing as balance in Amy’s world. She says there is always something out of balance in her life and it’s a constant juggling act. There are times where she will be a complete introvert staying in and other times where things are going at 100 miles an hour. You learn to balance the variety in each day.

Her life motto – Interesting life; interesting marketing.

Amy’s core belief is that if she lives an interesting life that will carry over into her career (this is a perfect example of flow). Amy actively embraces her personal life which allows for her career and personal life tohave a blurry zone in the middle.

The more guests I interview, the more I recognize that blurring the two areas between your career and personal life is a repeating pattern among my guests.

We discussed numerous other avenues on the podcast which you can listen to and hear more about:

• When Amy knows she needs to make a change or pivot in her life (3:23)
• Life motto - Interesting life; interesting marketing (9:07)
• How to improve your business and personal social media campaigns (17:57)
• The most important thing to do on social media (and it’s not what you would expect) (22:40)
• The best platform to practice your social media listening skills (27:28)
• Meeting new people is in your DNA (38:53)
• The questions Amy asks herself when making life decisions (43:56)
• Why you should try things that scare you (45:07)
• What Amy tells her employees when they say they can’t do something (53:40)

 “I’m making this choice for the rest of my life. Which is not true. Your life changes all the time but you don't know that at 21... It’s about passion and not knowing what you’re doing. Just going with it and just living life being happy as much as you can and being okay not being happy. And that’s my thing. That’s my favorite thing”

- Amy Elderkin on public speaking to students

Podcast Notes

Marie Forleo – YouTube Inspiration for Amy

Ola Volo - @olavolo Instagram

Dj Khaled - @djkhaled305 Snapchat

Fascinate – 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation by Sally Hogshed