Ingrid Deon
Organic Social Media Agency Owner
Ingrid Deon is the Founder and CEO of word-craft, a social media marketing agency headquartered in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Her zone is genius is in organic social media strategy, content creation and community management. When she's not creating social media content for clients such as Nestlé Canada, Manulife Bank and King Cole Tea, Ingrid is usually knitting at home with her boyfriend, son and cat.
Connect with Ingrid...
Website: www.word-craft.ca
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wordcraftinc/
Full Transcript - Episode 29
Chantelle: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Human Design Profiles and Entrepreneurship Podcast. I'm your host, Chantelle, a 1/3 Manifesting Generator, small business strategist, workshop facilitator, and the author of the Aligned Action series of workbooks for solo entrepreneurs.
Thank you for joining us on this podcast, which is an active learning experiment on how we experience entrepreneurship on an individual level while we satisfy our desire for self awareness. It is very true to my profile as a 1/3. Each episode profiles a human design enthusiast slash business owner, who's here to share how their personal profile lines are influencing their business journey.
Today I'm connecting with Ingrid, the founder and CEO of WordCraft, a social media marketing agency headquartered in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Her zone of genius is an organic social media strategy, content creation and community management. When she's not creating social media. Content for clients such as Nestle Canada, Scotia, Manulife Bank, and King Cole Tea, Ingrid is usually knitting at home with her boyfriend, son, and cat. Have a [00:01:00] listen while today's guest, Ingrid, a 2/5 shares her story while you read between the lines.
So Ingrid, you have a two line in your profile.
It's on your conscious side. And I know that you have a special relationship with that as you identify as someone who's introverted. Tell me about what introversion feels like for you and how that two line really shows up in your life and in your business.
Ingrid: For sure. Yeah, I'm definitely introverted, and it's absolutely something that I've been working on to be a bit more extroverted, especially since becoming a business owner, because you have to do a lot of networking and a lot of peopling, and it can be a little bit challenging as an introvert.
A lot of people, might not think that I'm an introvert because I've done a lot of community theater through the years.
I used to perform music quite a bit and, you know, even going back to high school, I was always someone who really [00:02:00] stood out because, you know, I had green hair on my third day of school at high school and wore crazy clothes and, you know, was just kind of a bit of a weirdo.
But even though I've always liked to stand out, I still need that time alone and always have.
I can't do a full day of being with people. If I'm doing a networking event or something, or if I'm going to a conference, I need to not do anything in the evening. I need to just kind of stay and be by myself for a little while.
So I very much value my time. Alone time, personal time.
Chantelle: Well, I think sometimes people think like, Oh, all introverts are shy, but that's not necessarily the case. We think that those two things are correlated, but they're usually not. Really, introversion is all about how you recharge, right? And so, you know, that you need to have a balance between lots of people-focused things and then more alone time.
So that totally makes sense. I know that you work with a [00:03:00] team, although sometimes you work remote. How does that feel for you as an introvert working with your team and sharing space?
Ingrid: Yeah, so we do have an office that we share and it's an open concept office, although we have a privacy booth that's soundproof that I can go into if I need to get away. Yeah. So that's kind of nice. But I do love being around the team during the day while we're working.
It makes it feel really busy. And I don't know. It's just nice to have people around and then when I go home I can not be around people.
We tend to do a hybrid model where we're in the office four days a week and at home maybe one. Not everyone's in the office every day though. Right. So yeah, so like today I'm working from home and that gives me some time just to be by myself for a little bit.
Chantelle: Oh, I'd forgotten about that pod. That is such a supportive thing for a 2/5. That makes a lot of sense, that purchase.
Ingrid: So, it's a little selfish because I'm pretty much the only one who uses it but it feels like my decompression chamber that I go to every [00:04:00] now and then. Yeah.
Chantelle: I'd be so curious to know what the profile lines are of the people that you work with. Like maybe no one else has line two and maybe no one else feels that need to take some space every once in a while. That's super interesting to me.
Ingrid: We do have another employee who is pretty introverted. And we've been friends since I was in grade eight and she was in grade seven. So we go way back, but she rarely comes into the office, even though she lives just a couple of blocks away.
Chantelle: Because, yeah, it's hard for her to be around that many people. That's interesting.
And so for your alone time, I know in your bio we talked about knitting and just like staying at home. I know you love cozy things, tea and all of that.
What are some of your favorite alone time activities?
Ingrid: I definitely love all of the crafts. I do a lot of knitting and a lot of needlepoint, reading yeah, cozy things for sure. We have a wood stove in the basement, and we've set up a couch and a chair right around the wood [00:05:00] stove, and we pretty much spend every evening down there.
It feels so nice to be in a little cave around the fire.
Chantelle: Especially in Canada coziness is a must. I think whether you're introverted or extroverted.
Ingrid: Yeah, absolutely.
Chantelle: And so let's talk about that five line and the other aspect unconscious in your profile. The five line is a little more social, a little more out there and interacting with people and then having that desire to guide and lead.
What does the five line feel like for you?
Ingrid: It's so funny. When I was going through the profile it's so much like how I've ended up because I do a lot of webinars and workshops and teaching people and I really thought that for a long time back when I used to work at a marketing agency, I started as a social media coordinator and when my everyone wanted me to step into the manager role, but I didn't, I wanted to stay in my little bubble of comfort and not [00:06:00] have a team and not lead and not manage people.
So I fought it big time. And then when I eventually accepted the role. After someone said, I've never seen anyone so reluctant to advance their career in my life, it was a bit of a kick in the pants. So I decided to take the role and I loved it and I managed a team in Halifax and a team in Toronto and loved being like the mother hen of the team and guiding people and helping them on their journey and answering their questions and teaching them things.
So then when I started my own business. I didn't start with a team. I started as a solopreneur but I started teaching workshops and webinars pretty soon after I started my business and I've been doing it straight through the entire time. And I love it. I get so excited. Because I think it's just when I'm talking about the things that I'm passionate about. I get very animated.
Which is also another reason why people think that, sometimes think that I'm an extrovert because I do [00:07:00] get so excited about talking about the things that I love, like talking about my business and talking about social media. But yeah, it's just so funny that that is the reason that people view me as extroverted because I just love talking about these things that I'm passionate about.
Chantelle: Yeah. And I know that you, like me, we're both Manifesting Generators. Yes. So that energy and that enthusiasm is, is right there. How do you feel about being an MG in business? What does that feel like for you?
Ingrid: So I've worn a lot of different hats and have had a lot of different careers. And none of them really seemed like the right one until I started my business, which was never something that was in the plans.
Never ever wanted to start a business. But here I am. But once I started my business, it seemed like everything was just falling into place. It felt like I was really doing what I was supposed to be doing. And before that, I was always the underdog and was not manifesting the things that I [00:08:00] wanted. But as soon as I started doing what I feel like I was supposed to do, just like everything seems to come to me a lot easier, so much easier.
And I don't know if that is sort of the hallmark of a Manifesting Generator, but that's where I see it coming through. Just that when I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, I'm able to manifest the things that I should be, have need want, I guess in
general.
Chantelle: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. I think as MGs, we have to listen to our sacral and maybe just the fact that you were working for yourself and all of a sudden could make a lot of those tactical decisions yourself.
Maybe you got to feel a lot more of that sacral yes, and that just led to more of that, right? Because you kept making decisions.
That were really aligned with you. Whereas when you're in that corporate environment, it can be tough to make that work because so much of the time you're doing what is asked of you or expected of you or like required. Right. But as an entrepreneur [00:09:00] and as a solo entrepreneur, especially at the start, like you got to make that up for yourself, which is really empowering for a Manifesting Generator, I think.
Ingrid: I've always said that my favorite part about being an entrepreneur is that when I see an inefficiency, or something that's not working, or when I see a better way of doing something I don't have to flag it with anyone.
Because I always used to, and then people would say, that's a great idea, and then nothing would happen, and that would make me crazy. But now, if I see something, or if someone on my team sees a better way of doing something they tell me, and we change right away. Like, we just implement it. Which is a beautiful thing.
Chantelle: Yeah. And that speaks to the skipping steps aspect of being Manifesting Generators. I hate jumping through hoops. As you described that. I was like, Oh yeah, I really didn't like that about jobs.
And it's true working for ourselves. You get to cut out the middleman in a sense and just execute on something.
And you're right. That is a beautiful thing.
Ingrid: Yeah. It is. It's the best.
Chantelle: [00:10:00] Yeah. And so, you've grown your team really strategically over time. You didn't jump to having a huge team, you just added one person at a time I'm wondering if there's anything about that process that you went through maybe, that's feels like it just honors that 2/5 profile?
Ingrid: Yeah, so much. So I have a team of six counting me. Four of those people I hired because they came to the door of my office. Walked through and told me what they can do and said that they wanted a job working for me.
So they just appeared. Like I didn't post any jobs. I didn't ask for these people and a lot of the time I didn't even know that I needed them. They just showed up and told me what they can do and I was thinking, yeah, that's like exactly what I need right now. So, it's wild because I'm in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, it's very rural. It's not like it's crawling with digital marketers. Yeah. But these people just show up and into the [00:11:00] business. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, I've never had any trouble with like labor shortage. Uh huh. Despite being in a rural area. they just manifest themselves.
Chantelle: That's fascinating. You and I know each other, and I did not know that story, and I am super intrigued by it.
I get what you're saying now about the manifestations just appearing. Your team showing up like that is very special.
Ingrid: It's weird, but it's so true. Like that's exactly, there's only one person that I hired because I posted a job.
Chantelle: Very cool. Okay. So as an MG, like we are like the ultimate in multi passionate.
And you mentioned in your intake form that you think that being an MG, you think that that is what has made you into a successful entrepreneur.
I myself, I feel a little like iffy on that. And I've talked to people who feel the same as me. But you're the first person that I've talked to who feels like, yeah, that MG-ness really makes me great at business.
For me. I feel like it's a bit of a hurdle to overcome in the sense that I'm interested in [00:12:00] so many things that it's very difficult to focus myself in long enough on one of them to build anything. Or just when my business is getting successful in something because I've offered it for a long time and I have well defined processes and built up testimonials I'm like, Oh, I'm done with that.
And intriguingly, like you were my very last website that I designed as a web designer.
A lot of people would have, I think, said, you know, Oh, you're just like hitting your stride and web design. You're at 125 clients and you've done so well.
And like, once my passion for it turned off. That was it. And I had to shut it away.
However, I've known you for years now, and you are still so focused. You're like, I do organic social media, I do content creation, and I do community management. And like, I aspire to that, but as an MG with my energy.
I can't stick with something long enough. So curious what you think about all of that I just put [00:13:00] out there. How's that for you?
Ingrid: Yep. So for me, I think it has to do with The fact that we work with about 25 different clients, so it's like having 25 jobs at the same time.
And that is what I love. It's never boring. There are so many balls in the air, like right now I have so many things that I need to do. And that doesn't overwhelm me, it just excites me. And. It's always, this is the one thing that I liked about journalism because I used to be a journalist before all of the other things in my life happened.
I went to journalism school and was a journalist for about five years. And what I loved about that was that You woke up and you went to work and you had no idea what you were going to be doing. And it was always exciting and it was always different. Like one day you're working on a story about a wharf and then the next day you're working on a story about sheep and a nursing home.
Chantelle: You are so Nova Scotia right now.
Ingrid: Oh my [00:14:00] gosh, yeah. The tales I could tell. But that's, yeah, that's what I love. I love being, having just so much variety of stuff to work on and that every day is completely different. And that's one thing that I love about community management which is answering comments and messages on social media.
It doesn't sound super glamorous to most people, but to me it is. Just so exciting because you never know what kind of questions you're going to get. You never know who is absolutely losing their mind because they can't get into their bank account. , and that is exciting to me, like talking someone down when they're losing their mind because they can't get into their bank account.
I just love that.
Chantelle: That's very niche interesting, right?
Ingrid: I know. I also love and I don't know if this is a Manifesting Generator thing, but it's like a hit of dopamine. When you're doing community management, and you're responding to comments, and every time you respond to one you, you know, you complete it, it disappears, but it's like crossing a list off all day long, [00:15:00] and it's super satisfying, super fun. Another reason that I love what I do, but it's also super creative, because we're creating content all the time, it's just like, I don't know, I love all of it.
Chantelle: Yeah, so I guess because you have like such, such a varied clients as well, that probably helps to bring that variety in where it doesn't get boring. I've, I've kind of accidentally talked about team stuff a lot in this.... do you find that you switch off tasks with them? Or do your job responsibilities stay more static?
Ingrid: I still do a little bit of everything. So I, yeah, I'm involved in everything. I try to delegate as much as possible, but I'm really bad at delegating. I want to do all of the things.
It's something that I'm working on. So, yeah, there are things that the team does.
Even though I've given over pretty much all the community management to one team member, I still retain the difficult customers.
That's my specialty [00:16:00] is talking those people down. Whereas I'm really bad at, you know, the brand love stuff, and the pop culture references. I don't, you know, I work in social media. I don't know anything about pop culture. I made a reference to the Care Bears the other day and my team was just like, your pop culture references are just so bad.
So, yeah, I'm involved in everything.
Chantelle: You said that you are not great at delegating. However, you do describe yourself as being very good at setting boundaries. So, how does boundary setting look like for you as a 2/5?
Ingrid: So in, I guess there's personal and professional .I think that the, the fact that I've niched down very specifically, like you mentioned I'm very clear on who is going to be a client and who isn't. So I'm saying no to potential clients because they don't fit exactly in those boundaries who I want to work with.
And I know from experience that I need to be really [00:17:00] specific about who I will work with. So I have very firm boundaries on which clients come into the business,
Chantelle: If I can interrupt you that makes sense that as a line five, a lot of people come to you thinking that you are the person who's going to save them in this.
But you're like, no, no, no, no, no. I only work with this subset of clients. That is such a line five thing.
Ingrid: Okay. I always have to have someone to refer them to. I don't like to just say no. I need to have a list of people that I can refer them to. Because I really, I really want to help them. And I want to make sure that they're getting the best service possible.
Personal boundaries. I mean, I guess it's still professional, but I don't, I tend to not work in the evenings at all. So that's a boundary. I tend to work on the weekends though. Some give and take, I guess. But yeah, I think that the fact that I'm so selective about who I work with, it's big for me.
And it's really helped me grow the business. So that people identify themselves as like, Oh yeah, this is, you're the person that I'm like, we're a [00:18:00] CPG company. We're looking for organic social. You are the expert at that.
Chantelle: Yeah. Yeah. You've managed to really distinguish yourself in that.
Ingrid: And a lot of people, we've had people that have come to us because they found us on the website. Like they found us through a web search, did not know about us. So cheers to you for that great website.
Chantelle: Thank you. And a reminder to all listening that I no longer do websites, but me too, like Ingrid, I do always have somebody great to refer them to.
Ingrid: I do feel lucky that I got the last one.
Chantelle: I think it's very special. Yes. It's an honor. Absolutely. Well, Ingrid, this has been really fun. We are going to complete this episode with the card pulling ritual. So if you're ready, you and I'll take a deep breath in together
and let that go.
And the card that I've pulled for you today is: I know who I am and what I am capable of, even when others may perceive something else. Am I taking on responsibility that is not mine to hold?
Ingrid: Interesting. It's [00:19:00] so funny. Yeah. So the first part that you said and we didn't talk about this, but my background was, I used to be a single mom who was living under the poverty line and working three jobs and.
One of my goals for this year was to speak on a stage about my story, rather than just always teaching people about social media to, you know, teach people about the fact that no matter what cards you've been dealt or what people think about who you are.
You can rewrite your story. Yeah. So, you know, I did have that label, poor single mom. And I wore it as a badge of honor and I had a hard time letting go of that label. Because I was kind of proud of it. But now I feel like I've totally I've let it go. It's like. It's the past. It's not who I am anymore.
It's part of me. But I've really embraced, you know, the new persona of CEO of an award winning social media marketing agency.
Chantelle: Yeah. Yeah. You're so accomplished. I, I [00:20:00] love that. I've been like a witness to part of your journey for a while now.
And I've told you this before, I tell you this all the time, but it's so cool having been able to watch that evolution over time. Thank you.
Ingrid: It's been fun.
Chantelle: For the people out there who might be looking for organic social media and are truly a good fit for you, where can they reach out?
Ingrid: So, they can come to our website word craft. ca or you can find me on LinkedIn, Ingrid Deon D E O N ,or on Instagram @wordcraftinc.