Ever wondered how a spark of authenticity can ignite a social media revolution? Kaitlyn Young, the visionary behind Social Media Doctor, sits with me, Dionne Malush, sharing her transformative tale of evolving from a casual advice-giver to a pioneer of genuine online connections. Our conversation traverses the landscapes of self-doubt and triumph, as Kaitlyn divulges her strategies for overcoming entrepreneurial fears and the vital role mindset coaching played. Tune in for an honest reflection on authoring your narrative in the digital age, where authenticity isn't just a buzzword, but the backbone of enduring success.
Bringing heart back to social media isn't just a mission; it's a journey that comes with its share of trolls and negativity. In this candid discussion, she reveals how her loyal companion, Zola the dog, has been her anchor, teaching her about the unspoken empathy that transcends even the digital chaos. We explore the art of aligning your virtual presence with your truest self and gracefully handling the slings and arrows of online interaction. Kaitlyn's insights provide a masterclass for anyone yearning to polish their personal or brand's digital façade while remaining unfalteringly themselves. Listen in for a soulful reminder that the bravest thing you can do in a world of curated perfection is to be unapologetically you.
Ever wondered how a spark of authenticity can ignite a social media revolution? Kaitlyn Young, the visionary behind Social Media Doctor, sits with me, Dionne Malush, sharing her transformative tale of evolving from a casual advice-giver to a pioneer of genuine online connections. Our conversation traverses the landscapes of self-doubt and triumph, as Kaitlyn divulges her strategies for overcoming entrepreneurial fears and the vital role mindset coaching played. Tune in for an honest reflection on authoring your narrative in the digital age, where authenticity isn't just a buzzword, but the backbone of enduring success.
Bringing heart back to social media isn't just a mission; it's a journey that comes with its share of trolls and negativity. In this candid discussion, she reveals how her loyal companion, Zola the dog, has been her anchor, teaching her about the unspoken empathy that transcends even the digital chaos. We explore the art of aligning your virtual presence with your truest self and gracefully handling the slings and arrows of online interaction. Kaitlyn's insights provide a masterclass for anyone yearning to polish their personal or brand's digital façade while remaining unfalteringly themselves. Listen in for a soulful reminder that the bravest thing you can do in a world of curated perfection is to be unapologetically you.
Have you ever followed a brand on social media and felt like you were truly part of their story, not a spectator? What was it about their online presence that drew you in and made you feel connected? Welcome back to Shine On Success Podcast. I'm Deon Mallish, your host, and I'm here with my friend, caitlin Young, the visionary founder and CEO of Social Media Doctor, a two-time best-selling author and a dynamic leader at Iconic Alliance. Imagine turning your passion for authentic connection into a thriving business that revolutionizes how companies engage online. That's exactly Kaitlyn said. Stay tuned as we uncover the story behind Social Media Doctor, the power of genuine social media presence and the journey of an entrepreneur who's making a real difference. So welcome Caitlin. I'm so excited to have you on here. How are you?
Kaitlyn Young:
Doing good, so good. Thank you so much for the amazing intro. I'm so excited to be here with you.
Dionne Malush:
Me too. I'm really excited, so I put some questions together specifically for you and I want to share that with the audience, because we've been working together now a little over two almost two and a half years and you've definitely been a light in my life and I would like to share that. So, to kick things off outside of your clients when was the last time you interacted with a brand online that you felt genuinely, that felt genuinely authentic to you? So if you had to think about outside of us because we know you're helping us every day, but let's talk about other people- there are so many brands that I follow, but I love Gary V, I love Kris Whitehead, too.
Kaitlyn Young:
There's just so many authentic brands there's oh my gosh, I could go on and on for a while.
Dionne Malush:
Gary V really is. He's so good at it and watching him it gets everybody excited. He just has a special connection with people and I'm sure it wasn't always that way. He's worked on it. He puts out a ton of content now and I feel like I do a lot, but not even nearly enough compared to him. So I have a lot of work to do and I'm sure that people feel that way. But he is just himself and he is as genuine as anyone I've ever seen.
Kaitlyn Young:
Agreed. That's what attracts me to his content. I'm like, oh my gosh, like goals.
Dionne Malush:
I agree, it's great. So let's take me back to a moment, the moment you decided to start social media, doctor. What was the tipping point that made you say I need to fix this, I need to fix what's happening in social media?
Kaitlyn Young:
So it was kind of like I was attending an event in Florida and I had been helping a few small people with their socials, but not professionally, I wasn't contracted out, it was more of just giving my free time to help people. And I realized that I was plain small. I realized that I had this like aha moment, that my purpose on this earth is to help others unmask their hidden truths within them and shine their light authentically online, and so I kind of grabbed a hold of that purpose and went running with it, like I had this fire ignited at that event. That does kind of set me on this course to like completely change the face of social media, and so how long ago was that?
Dionne Malush:
When did you actually start it?
Kaitlyn Young:
was about two and a half years ago.
Dionne Malush:
Right, almost when we met. I think I met you in Texas right. That's when I actually met you, so I know starting a business is no small feat. What was the significant challenge that you faced while establishing social media, doctor, and how did you overcome it?
Kaitlyn Young:
So my biggest challenge was my self belief. That would be my biggest one because you know, who am I? Someone that hasn't gone to college for years, or you know someone that's only 27 starting a business. Like who am I to do that? And why should I be the one to be an expert in social media? There's so many other people out there, so I had to get really grounded in the belief that I am the expert I am and then also come to terms with what, like what that purpose meant and how I could fulfill it. So that was the hardest challenge to overcome. Once I got there, like the momentum started. Of course, there's other challenges that pop up, like as you grow oh, I need to hire people, I need to, like, do all these other things. That have been a learning curve, but you know something that had. The biggest one is definitely my self belief.
Dionne Malush:
So let's talk about that. So how is your mindset affected? Your entrepreneurial journey? So how do you get over that? Because there, I'm sure there are plenty of our listeners that have the same feeling. I've been there myself. You know that. You know deserve ability. I always say, like you know where I came from, to where I'm at right now, where I want to go, like I'm not there, not even close, and people will look at me and say you should be happy, but I have so many goals and I just, you know time is not on our side. As you age, you realize that you know that's the one thing we can run out of, and you know so. I have a lot to do, but tell me about yours and your mindset now where it is.
Kaitlyn Young:
Yeah. So I hired some mindset coaches, I hired some people to help me get through that hurdle. But the biggest thing I had to realize was is that we are the authors of our own story. We are the people that we are. The only opinion like in our story that matters. There are going to be haters. There are going to be all these people that if we base our self belief on other people, we're never going to reach our goals because we're always going to be wondering oh no, what if they don't like it? Oh no, what if these people don't like it? So you have to start turning inward.
Kaitlyn Young:
And how I started doing that was practicing gratitude, daily gratitude, practicing self affirmations, grounding myself, really throwing myself into my faith, really throwing myself into reading more, into listening to podcasts. And I just started learning that the more I self developed myself, the more my business grew, the more my life changed, the more I started changing this mindset and most of the time I didn't realize how much it changed till. I would look back at my wins and, like holy cow, I like would never have done this six months ago or I would never have been in thought. I would have been in this place six months ago, and so it's a gradual effect. You don't always realize the how much you change until you look back and go wow, and that's where journaling, gratitude, the affirmations and everything you can look back and go. I was grateful for this and now I'm here, right.
Dionne Malush:
And I just listening to you is so much different than when you first met. I can hear your confidence and you know we're all going to have days, right, that we shift back a little bit. But I've been learning through. What I've learned through self development is that I can stay in that moment, maybe for a moment or an hour, but I can't live in it, I can't spend my days in it, right. So you're going to have things happen. This is the life of an entrepreneur and you're seeing it. You know you've been through some things in the last two and a half years that I've met you. You know some personal things, some professional things and you're pushing through it and I'm very proud of you. I just want to tell you that, just to watch you.
Kaitlyn Young:
How old are?
Dionne Malush:
you now.
Kaitlyn Young:
I'm 27,. I turned 28 in a month, so we're getting there.
Dionne Malush:
Look at you. I'm so happy for you. So what advice would you give to someone looking to make their mark in the social media world? Like give a piece of advice to the audience.
Kaitlyn Young:
The biggest thing that I see people struggle with is the ability to put themselves out there, the confidence to get on camera, the confidence to just be themselves, Like they think that they have to be exactly like everyone else and will overanalyze Like their posts, overanalyze their content and then they don't put anything out. So I challenge people like you will suck at first and that is okay, Like if you go back like three years looking at my crazy TikTok dancing videos like it was bad. But the thing is is that by starting to put myself out there, by starting right, that's where the growth comes, because each time you get a little bit better. Each time you get more consistent, each time the real, the posts, the graphics get better. And then, like in a year or two, you look back and you're like holy cow, I can't believe I posted that. But okay, we're past that now.
Dionne Malush:
Facebook will not let you forget about it with the memories, Like, no matter what you're going to get memories, it's always going to know and you know. Just watching and knowing, just our relationship together and watching, you know the differences in what we're doing. I think we've come a long way and I think if anybody's out there watching us on social media, I think you can see that we're both as authentic as we can be. That whole Gary V vibe is happening with us, right, so can you share a moment that seemed like a failure at the time but turned out to be a valuable learning experience.
Kaitlyn Young:
Ooh, so I had I had lost a client I had. Basically I had messed up on their social media experience. I had dropped the ball and I was like, oh my gosh, this is a complete washout failure Like I can't believe if I let that go. But that experience actually catapulted me into realizing who my ideal client was. It made me realize that I was working with people that weren't my ideal client. I was doing the, I was taking a dollar to take a dollar at that point, cause it was like it's money, you take the money. And so that taught me the importance of working with the ideal client. Working with people, with coaches, with realtors, with contractors. Those were my ideal client and I was not meant to do all industries. So help me niche down and be able to be the expert in certain industries. Then try to be everything to everyone.
Dionne Malush:
Wow, that's great advice. And I think that's what happens even in real estate, where I feel like we're like a smorgasbord realtor, like we'll do anything and everything and once in a while like just too much. You get so overwhelmed. You have so many things, messages coming at you, and social media, I think, is so. Similarly, if you you post something that's not correct in someone's opinion could change the shift of the whole day, right Cause you read that and you think, oh my gosh, I can't believe they said that, or I can't believe they put that emoji on there, because it affects people too, with a point where, like I'm at that point in my life, at 55, or what other people think of me is none of my business right. I've learned that and I keep, and that's what I learned. It's hard. I mean, there's days that you start to really dig into oh my gosh, I can't believe they said that. But you know what it's really. You're right, it's up to you.
Dionne Malush:
You're the author of your story, your Facebook story, your life story, and I have had some personal. You know some personal issues and some challenging ones, and you have pets. How many do you have? Tell us, tell us.
Kaitlyn Young:
We have three cats and a dog, so we used to have two dogs. We have one now. She is the light of my life, she's my child, that's just end of story. She's my child, she gets everything. Right now she's sitting over in the corner on her own food ton, because that's hospital. It's a lot of issues, but yes, they are. They are, they are for babies, they get everything.
Dionne Malush:
You showcase them a lot on social media and it's really really nice to see. So you know when you go through personal issues and you have challenging times. How did the pets help you?
Kaitlyn Young:
Oh my gosh. So Zola, my dog, she is in tuned with my feelings, like she I don't know, like I have no idea. I'm pretty sure God like just gave her that gift, I don't know, but like she just literally will know and she'll come, put her head on my lap and will just kind of look at me, like give me the soft look, and then next thing I know, she's, like you know, basically laying on my lap and doing like this very soft stroke and so like she helps ease my anxiety, she helps calm me down and she knows when I'm having a rough one or when my husband is, because he's had a lot of challenges as well, and so she just is very in tuned with that and so when I'm able to calm down, I'm able to think more clearly. That's something that I have had get really like. That I've seen really play out is I used to spend weeks in wallow and self pity.
Kaitlyn Young:
I used to spend days and follow in self pity and going what was me in that victim mindset? And now, like I give myself like a five minute rule, like okay, I have five minutes to feel this, like to really just let it, because you can't just bottle it down either Like that's not healthy, and during that five minutes I feel it and then I release it, whether that's through writing it on paper and burning that piece of paper, or, you know, it's just talking it out loud and letting it go. You know, and the pets help with that because it's like they let me calm down by putting them and things like that.
Dionne Malush:
I always say that my dog sues my soul and he, you know, whenever and I've had some things you know to personally myself and just having them be right there and they don't leave your side Like when you're upset or sad or hurting. They're like your little house doctor, right, they're always there for you and I do love having pets. And I know one thing about you and social media, doctor you champion authenticity. So how do you ensure that your brand's unique voice and values shine through on social media? How do you do that?
Kaitlyn Young:
So I bring it back to our core values. So that's like I have our core values at the compass of everything we do, and so when I'm thinking about what I'm going to post, I always double check it back in my mind, like, does this align with my core values? Does this align with our mission of putting the heart back in social media, because that's our mission? If it doesn't align with those things, then it doesn't need to be on social. Or if it's not in alignment with me, it doesn't need to be on social. That's kind of my moral compass of what goes on there. Yeah, sometimes I will post, you know, a PSA or something about social media, but it's still in line with the brand because it's bringing the authenticity back.
Dionne Malush:
That's fantastic. You're doing a great job of it. So when you see a post that someone posted it's a direct say, it's a negative message, how does that make you feel?
Kaitlyn Young:
I used to get like really riled up and be like, oh my gosh, I can't believe they post that and like go down a whole tangent and stuff. But now I just look at it from the lens of like wow, they must be really going through something to feel that they need to post that. And you know, I really hope that they work through that kind of thing. You know, I don't try. I really this last year like changed the lens that I looked through the world, because so often we get caught up in the he said, she said or you know, oh, look at this latest gossip on social media and things like that and I had to realize, like what is actually feeding my soul was actually helping me grow, and so when I see something like that, it usually doesn't get much of my attention anymore. It's more of just like a.
Kaitlyn Young:
You know, I see it from the perspective of like wow, they must really be having a rough day or they really must be going through something to have to post that, you know, and just scroll past it. You know if it's something directed at me because oh, there have been posts directed at me, same thing I just go, I breathe. I may talk to Scott for a minute and be like I can't believe, I'm above and I just calm down and I'm like you know what. It's okay, you know that is a reflection of what they are feeling right now and you know I just if I respond and go down that path, it's just going to feed that and that's not going to help anyone.
Dionne Malush:
No, it's not. I remember one time someone posted something about me on a review and it was so negative. So the first thing I did was I responded right back and instead of really thinking it through. So I kind of live by these three things I either speak immediately, or I think about it for five minutes, then I react, or I don't react at all. So I try to live by that and really in the last probably five years or so I've not reacted to a lot of things where I just you know I didn't do it, I thought it through before speaking, because if I speak quickly, you know what comes out is not always the best thing.
Dionne Malush:
So that day I was like type in a million miles an hour just to get that back and hit the send button. Someone's like you should have never posted that. They made you look bad. I'm like, oh no, and it was too late, right, because you know back in the when we first started doing reviews, you could not edit them. Yes, so I totally understand that. So let's talk a little bit about coaching. You know, as a sports fan, like I have always believed in coaching in my own career in real estate and I've had coaches pretty much most of my career, maybe a year or two that I took a break which I shouldn't have. But can you tell me a little bit the kind of coaching that you, that you're getting to get you to the point where you are right now? Because there is a significant shift in Caitlin. Tell us about that.
Kaitlyn Young:
Yeah, so I have multiple coaches. I used to think that it was a one-coach, fix-all scenario and I realized, just like with social media, like why I don't help everyone and everybody is because there's different things that people are an expert at. So I have a mindset coach, catherine. She is amazing. She is the one that has helped me really switch my mindset to how it is right now. I would not be where I am without her.
Kaitlyn Young:
And then I have a business coach, Thomas Keenan, and then I also have a fitness coach, and between those three I'm getting my health and wellness in check, I'm getting my faith, my mindset in check, and then I'm getting my business taken care of. And so I'm getting coached in three different aspects, but they all actually help each other. So, but yeah, like I always was, like programmed, I don't know thought that first coach you should hire as a business coach, like you need to grow the business, then you can focus on yourself, is not true. You need to focus on your health first and the rest follows. Like that I've learned that so well. Like that was. That was a lesson I learned, like early last year, and I will like preach that from the mountain top.
Dionne Malush:
So I would stand by you, preaching with you, that's for sure. So, looking ahead, what's next for social media doctor? Are there any new projects or goals? You're excited about.
Kaitlyn Young:
Oh my gosh, I have so many things in the mix. So I recently hired an editor for my next bestseller, so we're working on that. I just launched our full scale social media course to go with our mastermind. Right now we have 20 members in that, and then I have my podcast going on. I'm going to be doing some live events later this year, so got my. I'm speaking on stage next month, so that's exciting. There's just so many exciting things coming up hiring people to so that way can step more in the CCE overall. Right now I'm training two people and so all the things are happening simultaneously, but we're getting there.
Dionne Malush:
Let's remind everyone that she's 27 years old. It's impressive, caitlin, and you know, could you just let our listeners how they know how they can connect with you and social media doctor online? Let's start there before we end this course, which I hate to do, but yeah, how can they get a hold of you?
Kaitlyn Young:
Yeah, so Caitlin Young, official on any of the socials or social media doctor or social media scaling secrets, you can go to assomedoctorcom for regular social media help and then for any course or coaching, it's socialmediascalingsecretscom.
Dionne Malush:
So before I finish, I have one more question. How did you come up with the name social media doctor?
Kaitlyn Young:
So really not super inspiring story. I actually I was like I don't know what to create this name out of and so I paid someone $100 to come up with a name for me. Like a friend of mine is like I'll give you $100 right now if you can come up with a name. They came up with the name. The funny thing is is that later on we've developed into that name and like it really makes sense. But like for the very first moment there wasn't like an aha moment. It was me going I don't know what to call this, so just come up with the name.
Dionne Malush:
That's so funny because it's such a great name and it fits perfectly because we all need help, right, and doctors help Exactly. It's just a great name. I love it and I adore you and I think you're so great. So, basically, there you have it. Another episode of shine on success with the incredible Caitlin Young, and her journey from recognizing a gap in the social media marketing world to creating a solution that champions authenticity is nothing short of inspiring. Remember, the key to success is not just hard work, but also the courage to innovate and be true to your values and to get coaching. Then don't forget to connect with her or me on social media to share your thoughts on today's episode. If you're looking to make your brand social media present generally impactful, you know who to call. Until next time, keep shining and pushing the boundaries and what's possible. Bye.