158: Making Pinterest Work For You with Kara Duncan

Sabrina: On today’s episode of the Shoot It Straight podcast, I have my friend Kara Duncan with me and we are talking all about Pinterest. And how to actually make it work for your business. We are talking about doing, we’re doing some myth busting. We are going through very specific strategies, Kara’s giving us dos, don’ts, things that we need to do to get started, what we can expect, how often we have to use it.

Literally, this is a masterclass in Pinterest and I cannot wait for you to listen to this chat. So let’s dive in.

Welcome to the shoot at Straight podcast, where honesty meets heart and real talk actually means something. I’m your host, Sabrina Gehart, and each week we get vulnerable, practical, and just a little bit bold so you can feel seen, supported, and ready to take the next step in your photography journey.

Let’s go. Welcome back to the Shoot at Straight podcast, my friends. Today I’m joined by my friend Kara Duncan. Kara is a Pinterest and blogging expert. She writes for me, which is amazing, and one of my favorite hires in the past year. Uh, it’s been so amazing. In fact, side note, this is kind of a running joke, but I think I’ve given you to like.

Everyone that I coach, um, I, whether or not you wanted more clients, I like vomited clients to you. So Kara is such a great resource and she’s also a really fun human and I got to actually meet her in person this year, uh, earlier this year at a conference, which was so fun. But this is your first time on the show and I’m super excited to have you.

I’m sure this will be the first of many, so we’ll just go ahead and lay that preface down. But before we dive into today’s chat, Kara, will you introduce yourself to the listeners?

Kara: Yeah. I’m so excited to be here because literally anytime I see something in my inbox that’s like, came from Sabrina, I’m like, you know, they’re gonna be the best.

She attracts the best people, and it’s just like always such a joy. So I’m Kara. I do blogging and Pinterest for other creative entrepreneurs and small business owners. And basically my whole thing is like getting you found by the people that are searching for you, wherever that is. Yeah.

Sabrina: And you’re so good at what you do.

Uh, so today we are talking about Pinterest. And how using that marketing platform can help your business. I’m really excited about this chat and I’m excited for the listeners, but I’m also excited to like selfishly pick your brain because I don’t currently do anything on Pinterest, so, which I feel like I need to just quietly say that on the side.

It’s one of those things, my friend, where it’s like, I know I should, I want to, I wanna be leveraging it. It’s always the last on my list. I’ve dipped my toe in it here and there over time. Never stuck with it consistently. So we’re gonna have a candid conversation about getting my button gear and why we should be doing it, and we’re gonna teach the listeners all the things right alongside me.

So I’m really excited. Kara, everyone knows at this point in 2025 what Pinterest is unless you are new to Planet Earth. You have heard of Pinterest? Okay. But I don’t think people realize how valuable it is, especially for business owners. I know personally, this is probably giving, showing my age at this point, but when I think of Pinterest, I think of old school OG Pinterest where I’m like pinning nursery ideas and recipes and travel things.

I think of it more as like maybe the original way of like, it’s just like ideas. Putting ideas in piles, right? But now it is a massive search engine that’s driving a ton of traffic. And again, I’m thinking of the Pinterest of 15 years ago. So what makes it so valuable to a business owner today?

Kara: Oh my gosh.

Okay, so this is like, I have such a loaded answer, so feel free to like stop me with any follow. I would say a lot of us are in the same boat where it’s like, we used Pinterest and now we are at different stages of our lives or whatever. But I feel like what you said is so important where it’s like it was the first place you go when you had a new idea, right?

Like when you were having a baby, you planned your nursery on Pinterest. Probably depending when you start your business, maybe not. But when you start a business, you go to Pinterest when you’re a photographer first looking for ideas of like pose ideas for your clients. You went to Pinterest, right? Yes, you might have like seen things on your feed that like attracted you to the idea, but when you were like ready to sit down, like I always like joke, Pinterest is still a good desktop activity.

Like I know Gen Z is like looking up Pinterest on your phone, but for me as a consumer of Pinterest, I’m like, this is a desktop. Like let me get my ideas. And to your point, I do think it’s like a great idea platform, but I also think that there is a level of ready to execute on those ideas and like take action on those ideas that we do not see on any other, any other platform.

Right. So. I think for photographers listening or really this can apply to any creative entrepreneur, but it’s like, yes, your clients are on Pinterest looking for ideas, but then also when you reach the stage, Sabrina’s in where you’re mentoring other photographers, photographers are also there. So I think also it’s kind of like we have this bias where we’re like, I was on Pinterest before and I’m not really anymore.

So like Pinterest is like kind of dying off. They actually like, they’ve been increasing year over year and last month I think they hit, or not last month, but within the last couple months they hit a record of 585 million monthly users. So it’s like very much a active platform of all different interests and all different, like people are heading there to take action.

Then even if you’re like, yeah, blah, blah. I’ve heard all from a strategic perspective. I would say Pinterest increases the number of back links to your website, making your website more credible. Pinterest images will show up in the Google image tab if that’s where people are looking. And then also, Pinterest is transparent about what works in the platform that we really don’t see with any other mediums, right?

Like we are, I feel like Instagram is like kind of getting better, but then it’s like a mixed bag of if it works, Pinterest is like A plus B will always equal c. What else do you wanna know? Do

Sabrina: you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. They want it to work for you.

Kara: I feel like there was like a phase where they were like, like other social media platforms, they wanna keep you on Pinterest for as long as possible.

So they experimented with things like idea pins or story pins that don’t like click to your website or like multi slide kind of pin ideas. And it didn’t work as well for them. So that’s why I say one of the complaints I hear about Pinterest is that there’s just more ads on it. Which I think there is a lot of ads on Red Trust.

I think that that’s like a fair criticism. I think that that is like made up by the fact that they’re looking to help people find what they’re looking for similarly to Google,

Sabrina: right? So there’s like an, there’s like an algorithm piece to the ads that you’re being seen. So you’re being fed things that are helpful to what you’re searching.

Yeah. That is such a loaded, uh, response and there’s so much in that. Um, there’s so much in that and it’s fascinating because. Users are growing year over year. So that tells you that obviously the app is not dead. It’s acquiring new people constantly. But it’s true. I guess I’m stuck in my old ways because now.

Like the last time I went to Pinterest, it was this year. It was at the beginning of this year. I used it when I was creating my vision board for the year because I needed a bunch of different visuals and, and I think of it as a visual platform and what a easy place to find that, right? But it’s not my first go-to anymore for some things, but that doesn’t mean it’s not for other people.

So. That’s a mindset thing that I need to work on. I’m thinking, um, it, I surely I’m not the only one that’s thinking that way, right?

Kara: No. We all go to like our own consumer habits and I feel like also we don’t realize that the people that we’re marketing to are not us. Right? Like they’re us a few years ago or they’re, you know, the mom that just had her baby and is looking for newborn photos or the person who’s just starting their business and needs branding photos, like whatever it is.

Sabrina: Another thing when I think Pinterest, I think, I think like these bigger, or maybe not bigger, but. Not local businesses. So I really, when I was trying to really make a, to like take a stab at Pinterest and, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna put air quotes around trying Okay. Um, I’m gonna put air quotes around trying you guys.

But when I was really trying to do that, it was in the season of my business that I was offering travel sessions, so across the country. So again, outside of my local area. Then also when I was first getting started as an educator, because again, I’m, I’m reaching people, not just in my area, but for many of the listeners, they’re a local photographer or a local creative business.

They don’t want to or have the capacity to serve outside of their area. Can Pinterest still work for

Kara: them? Yeah. I, I feel like this is another one of my like favorite myths to bust because. I think too, in the creative industries, especially, I would say photographers, like all we hear all the time is how saturated our markets are.

Like saturated, saturated, saturated. Right. And in some ways, yes, they’re, they are saturated industries, but. I feel that way on Pinterest until I am comparing them to somebody that is competing nationally or globally. And you’re like, no, no, that is saturated. Right? When you’re just comparing with your own area, it doesn’t feel as saturated anymore, especially on Pinterest, because if you’re a photographer in, um, like bigger city, I’m guessing like.

20 people are taking Pinterest seriously. Like when I’m doing my keyword research and I’m like trying to see like who’s the competitors. It is like common for me to find like five photographers with a certain city in your name, right? Like it is just, and I do feel like the, like the reality is most people are not searching for their city plus photographer, but some people are.

Right? And so like, I know this is a different kind of photography than like family photography, but I’m even thinking back to like when I was planning my wedding. Well, guaranteed I saw every single photo that had ever been pinned to Pinterest on the venue I wanted. Right? And like I looked at all of them and then I went to the blogs and then I looked at more.

And so I feel like, yeah, less people are doing that, but the people that are doing that are like very much looking for that. Also for something like family photographers, I think that there’s such value in like sometimes we have to just like think more creatively about like, okay, what are people looking for?

And sometimes it’s like things to do in your city, which will attract like both if you’re in like a tourist destination. And then also, even if you’re not, like I know I’m personally as a mom, always looking for things to do in my city. And if somebody is like, oh, splash Park. My city or whatever, and then I’m clicking it and it’s like a photographer that’s like, Hey, did you know Splash parks are a great time to get like family photos in?

Like you would have me sold because I have a three-year-old toddler, I can never get enough photos of. And a husband that doesn’t necessarily want me to book family photos every three days. You know, like

Sabrina: Yeah, I love that. Okay. That’s such an interesting perspective about seeing just how saturated, like the bigger, like just truly global brands are.

And you’re right. So immediately I started, the example that went in my mind was like. Clothing retailers like you, if you’re trying to, or even like shoes, like if you’re trying to sell a pair of brown sandals in the summer, you’re competing with every brown sandal sold around the world. You know what I mean?

Yeah. And that does make it put it into perspective in that, okay, I am in a big city in a big metroplex, and there’s a lot of competition here, but I’m not competing against every brown sandal in the world.

Kara: It’s all relative, right?

Sabrina: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s so true. Let’s think about somebody getting started with Pinterest.

Somebody’s listening and they’re like, okay, you’ve got me. There’s a lot of users over there, a lot of people searching. It gives me really valuable back links. It’s findable on Google, which I love that, that piece of information now that is huge. How do they get started? What’s, what are the first few steps of getting started with creating like a strategy for Pinterest?

Kara: Yeah, so first I would say. Identify your keywords, which realistically, if you are a local based business, like you might only have a couple like big keywords, right? Which is like your city and the kind of photography that you do. And then once you have those, you’re gonna put them in your, your name, so like whatever your name is, or photography business name, and then the city and photographer or whatever your business is, and then add them to your bio, which is like a piece.

Below your name that I feel like doesn’t get filled out enough, or like, I bet you, you filled it out like when you first started up your Pinterest account and like never looked at it again. No judgment, but I bet that’s what it is. And then you’re gonna wanna create a board with your main keyword or few keywords and then your profile’s really set up, right?

It’s not like, yes, add a, you know, profile photo and a cover photo, but those. Not too many Pinterest users are going to your profile, right? Most are finding the pins more organically versus like Instagram where maybe they’re binging your feed. So I would say like, don’t worry about that so much. And then once you kind of have that set up, I would create more boards.

So I like to start with like five to 10 and then add as needed. So I try to come up with a few examples. ’cause I know this is like where people get stuck. You could look at it with your like content buckets, but I would say like keep your city top of mind. So your style of photography, your location, so it could be like your city family photographer, it could be your state family photographer.

It could be both. It could be each popular location you go to often, which could be like a landmark or a park or anything like that. It could just be like outdoor photo ideas in X, Y, Z pose, ideas, outfit ideas. Types of photos. So that could be like reunions, extended family, seniors could be things to do in your city, like start there.

And one extra tip I would give is Pinterest doesn’t prompt you to make a board description, but um, once the board’s created, you can go in and do that. And that’s just like an additional place to give Pinterest context about the keyword. So Pinterest has what they call like a confidence score, which just means like how confident are they that you are the solution to like a specific keyword.

And so the more like relevant and more places that you can put those keywords, the better. So that’s like an added oomph to every kind of board. And then really like when we look at creating Pinterest strategy, it’s like you have your keywords, you have your bio set up, you have your boards, then you just start creating content and then pins around those things, right?

So yeah.

Sabrina: So a couple of questions. When we talk about keywords on Pinterest, this is different than keywords on Google or, or like our blog, right? Or is, are we thinking the same way? Because when I think of keywords for the blog, there’s hundreds of thousands of options and nuanced things that we can put and that we should put on our website.

We don’t wanna continue to use the same one over and over again. ’cause that’s keyword stuffing. Is that

Kara: different on Pinterest? Yeah. So I think, ’cause you’re saying keyword stuffing, but I think you’re. More talking about like when your content, what is the word for it? Cannibalizes itself? Yes. Okay. Yeah, so I would say it is different then.

So Pinterest is definitely like your more high level, and then you can also create as much content around a keyword as you want. And you’re not gonna wanna go quite as niche as maybe you would with Google,

Sabrina: right? So you’re gonna stick with Fort Worth, family photographer, Fort Worth, newborn photographer, and you’re gonna use that over and over again as opposed to on your blog.

You should be coming up with lots of different things to support that keyword instead of just using it over and over and over again. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And then I, I’ve always been curious about the boards thing in Pinterest. I have a ton of boards over there. I, I think based on what you’re telling me, like the, the boards actually matter, like Pinterest wants things organized in a certain way, so you can’t just like willy-nilly start pinning stuff, like it needs to be organized.

Kara: Yeah, I would say like, it just builds the strength of your account. So like if there’s a. Dallas-Fort Worth photographer who has like all photography related boards and then they had you, for example, that had like some photography related boards and like recipes you wanna try and kid ideas and whatever.

They’re gonna be more confident in the first option and they’ll recommend them more.

Sabrina: Okay. That’s interesting. Is there ever a situation where a pin would make it into multiple boards or does it always need to stick in one?

Kara: Yeah, I would say you can technically pin a pin up to 10 different boards before it’s like a little bit spammy.

I would say on average I’m doing it about five boards. The only thing that I would, I would caution with is you don’t wanna pin the same URL. Five times in a row. Okay. Yeah. So you don’t wanna like pin it to one and then like, and just bam, bam, bam. Do it over and over

Sabrina: and over and over again. Right, right.

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When I think about Pinterest managers and people like you who like do this so well and they do it for other people and they like have this really deep strategy, I, you know, you hear that people are pinning like a hundred pins a month or, or more than that. I don’t know, like a, a lot of pins. If someone wants to manage their own account and see success, is that the same kind of volume that they need to do or will smaller numbers work?

Do you have a

Kara: recommendation there? Yes. Okay. So first thing that I meant to mention, back up a couple of questions when you asked me about local businesses, I would also say that we have to be mindful that we’re probably not hitting a million monthly impressions. I think people get like caught up in these, like same with the a hundred pins a month and stuff like these big numbers.

And they’re like, oh my gosh, my Pinterest isn’t doing anything. ’cause I only have like 4,000 monthly impressions or whatever it is. But maybe those 4,000 impressions are leading to 300 link clicks and you know, five people book you, right? That’s working. And then for the amount of pins, and this is like, I do think you do need that kind of volume on Pinterest, but I did make it.

I broke it down so it’s a bit easier. So most of my clients are seeing best results. Pinning like eight to 12 times a day, which sounds like so much, but I personally do this and I do offer a smaller package, but I always caution against it because I feel like. It’s okay if you’re using Pinterest for some of those auxiliary benefits, like we talked about, like backlinks for Google, showing up on Google images, maybe maintaining what you already have because business is going well and it’s just kind of like cherry on top.

Like if I get something, I get something great. But like if Pinterest wanted to be like a super strategy, there is ways to like hit those numbers without, you know, spending five hours a day. I would say first things first. The production level on Pinterest is not the same as it is on like Instagram or TikTok.

Right? So, and as photographers, if you’re a photographer, you have a benefit of tons of photos to use. So the only caveat before we, before we go any further, I would say is some of my clients are like, I have beautiful photos. Why don’t we just like pin those directly to Pinterest versus making a graphic.

And what I would say there is, for the most part, if you’re pinning a straight image, it’s likely to get. Maybe seen and saved more, but it, it’s less likely to get clicked on because it’s just not obvious what’s on the other side. So I think most photographers can relate to the idea of like, you know, if you’re a branding photographer, maybe you tell people to make a board of your ideas, right?

And it’s like, yeah, your pins could end up there, but it’s not like the ROI you’re probably looking for when you’re spending time on Pinterest. Right. What I would say, like the math breaks down to is, let’s say you have five Canva templates, which is not that many templates and 10 blog posts, and you create 50 graphics.

So for every blog post you do one like graphic each, and again, the production level swap out the image in the title like it is. It can be very low lift low. Those 50 graphics to five boards each is 250 pins, which is eight pins a day. Right? And I think you can use cha GPT to write the descriptions or titles.

Just try and like make sure it’s including keywords because it can be a little glitchy there, but I think no consumers are really reading those, so it’s not even like use try GBT, but like edit it to make it sound like you, like. I really think that is something that you don’t need to worry about that at all.

You can use a scheduler like Tailwind that will literally let you space out the URLs per day. Right. I think for something like this, you could easily get this done in like five hours a month. That’s amazing. Right? Like. Like again, you can always like look at this and be like, how can I make my graphics better?

How can I make my descriptions better? How can I. But it’s like if you’re just like starting like that, that’s an easy way to start.

Sabrina: Yeah. That’s awesome. Is Tailwind still the best option? I always hear it’s kind of seen as the the premier for specifically for Pinterest. Are there any other options out there, or is that really the go-to?

Kara: Tailwind is the best for Pinterest, I think, and it is the most expensive. So I’m like, of course. Oh. Sometimes even me as a Pinterest manager, I’m like, oh, to pay for this software for just this one platform is infuriating, but it really does have the most features to get it done quickly. I would say like my second favorite would be metrical.

In order to use metrical Fast, like. Like quickly, you’re gonna need to get like comfortable with using like CSV files, I feel like. And then you could do like a quick upload. So if you’re like tech savvy and you’re like, I already have metrical, it’s a good option. But I mean, you can use your other scheduler, like whatever it is.

But I would say 50. So. To five different boards. If you actually have to like copy and paste the titles and descriptions five times, it’s a lot faster than just like on Tailwind, you could just like add the boards. Oh,

Sabrina: okay. Interesting. I have never played with Tailwind because I’ve never, I’ve never been intentional with Pinterest, so, um, okay.

That’s, that’s super fascinating. So I’m also curious is. Let’s say we, I, you know, I’m gonna commit to getting started with Pinterest. I’m really gonna give it a go this time, Kara. Um, is this something that I’m gonna see quick results from, or is it like blogging where it’s a slower game? It is

Kara: a slower game.

So like, I would say like. Realistically, I tell people like six to 12 months and that’s like being super consistent and intentional. Like I think we have to be like really realistic, like you are with ourselves on like how much effort we’re putting in. I feel like, uh, I try not to even like look at the data for six months, to be honest, because things can go up and down for a variety of reasons.

Like if you like seasonal trends matter so much and I feel like when you’re in business. You don’t feel that as much. You’re just like, why am I not growing when I’m doing the same? But when you’ve been in business for a while, you’re like, oh yes. I do know people look for wedding stuff during engagement season.

I do know that people look for things to do in the summer for their family. Like those kind of things can really skew your numbers and then when you, when they decrease, it can feel like, oh my God, what did I do wrong last month? And yeah, I like to just like keep my head down for at least six months and then tweak because kind of like I said at the beginning, like on Pinterest A plus B equals C, there’s not too many ways that you can like do it wrong.

Sabrina: And then, you know, what’s the metric we’re looking at? How do we know, quote unquote, that it’s working? What am I paying attention to to see that my efforts and consistency are paying off?

Kara: Yeah, I would say it’s so high level. I would look at like impressions, saves, and clicks. But they’re, I guess not all metrics are created equally.

So like outbound clicks will always be the most important to me. And then impressions and saves are kind of like secondary, because impressions will show like, okay, the templates are working and they’re catching attention. Combined with the keyword, right. And then saves, mean, saves are a tricky thing because you want them for engagement, but it can also mean like we didn’t get people to take action.

So it’s not necessarily like bad if people save it, but it is something that I like, maybe weigh a little bit less. And then the other thing that I really like to look at when I’m like analyzing someone’s Pinterest account is how, like which pins are performing and how varied is it? So on Pinterest, if you’re consistent for a while, it’s not uncommon to have like a hero pin, which is like one pin that is doing a majority of the heavy lifting that is common to happen.

But we wanna just be like cognizant of that because. You know, that can change. And then if you’re bringing in a majority of the traffic and then that pin starts to perform less, which could be for any reason, like it could be like, ’cause you’re doing 2025 trends and just not relevant anymore, that can really skew your numbers a ton if everything is like riding on that pin.

Sabrina: Hmm.

Kara: That makes sense. I would also say like if you switch niches or something like it’s. Let’s say you were marketing to families and now you’re marketing to photographers, and then all your pins are like still for families. It’s just a sign that Pinterest is not understanding the account.

Sabrina: Yeah. A good example I have is this for, this is my friend Natasha.

Hi Natasha. You’re listening. I’m sure. She has a pin of, um, her dog. She took first birthday portraits for her dog. And pinned it, and it went viral immediately. And this was like 10 years ago, and it’s been viral ever since. She does not photograph dogs, so you know, she is a photographer, so there’s that, but that pin is just constantly, like at the top.

It’s the hero pin. It won’t stop. It’s con, you know, and sh it doesn’t, it’s not related to her business, you know? Okay. That’s interesting to be careful about what’s there. I’m curious also like another algorithm related question. You know, when you think of Instagram and Facebook, it, it wants you to be sharing content, but also consuming content.

And is Pinterest the same way? Like if I’m just having Tailwind do all of my work, but I’m not actually using the platform anymore, or I’m not, you know, saving things myself or having secret boards that I’m whatever, is that okay? Or do I need to be active over there to see the benefits of all of the hard work?

Kara: Yeah. That is such a good question and I do feel like, so an older strategy was like, you can’t be like a selfish pinner. You have to pin other people’s stuff as much as your own or whatever. And Pinterest has totally debunked that and been like, we are okay with somebody just being a creator, like just posting stuff and not consuming, which I think is really cool.

Okay,

Sabrina: that’s cool. That’s really interesting. It’s not that I don’t use it, it’s just like I said, I just don’t use it as much anymore. And so, you know, I don’t wanna spend my five hours a month putting effort in if I need to also be living over there. Like, you know, Instagram wants you to do so. Yeah.

Kara: And I don’t pin like, to your point, like I, I very rarely, unless I’m looking at analytics, I don’t even log into my business Pinterest account.

I have a personal account because I am a Pinterest user. But yeah, like, uh, ’cause it also doesn’t want, like if you are trying to market to photographers, it doesn’t want you like signing on to like. You know, pin photos of Natasha’s dog,

Sabrina: right? That, yeah. Okay. That’s so interesting. Alright, let’s leave the audience with this.

Do you have any good like do’s and don’ts that you think that you should leave them? Just some takeaways as they get started that they can kind of just be aware of?

Kara: Yeah, for sure. Okay. So the first do is like, please, please, please, please be consistent. I know that when it doesn’t give you that dopamine hit, it’s like so easy to put it at the bottom of the to-do list forever.

But consistency will really go a long way with Pinterest. The second thing has more to do with like once they land on that page. And that’s just like, there are so many bloggers on Pinterest and if you’re a business, you have to make it obvious that you’re a business that people can buy from. So like have your call to actions, have some sort of nurture tool slash platform.

So whether that’s like guiding people to your email list or telling ’em to come follow you on Instagram, that kind of thing. And then I think my biggest do is just like create more content like. People don’t want like constantly to be pinning to like the homepage or something irrelevant, which I guess is like my don’ts.

So. Don’t be clickbait. It’s like so unnecessary. And Pinterest is such a positive platform. Like they’ve done studies on this too where it’s like if you’re looking at like, I don’t know, like five things you can do for family photos that will make it amazing. Like come up with a better title and that, but that would perform better than like five mistakes.

Like people just like want positivity on there and when you’re clickbaity, people will just like bounce off super fast. And that is obviously a negative SI signal to pra. Where you are sending like cold, cold traffic and optimizing that is like almost, almost equally important.

Sabrina: That’s, and, and those are a lot of the same tips that I would give people when they’re, you know, having a freebie or pushing people to a wait list or get on my newsletter list is, it’s like.

You need to give them a clear next step, a clear call to action. You want to genuinely serve them and not just do the, the clickbaity garbage, you know, be a good human about it. And so there is a lot more depth there, and not just like pinning your portfolio, but like in order to have success on Pinterest, you’ve gotta also have like a blogging strategy and like stuff that you can push people to on your website.

And so it’s a deeper, a deeper puzzle. So I love that. My friend, I love to end these chats with guests, which is some fun questions so that the audience can get to know you a little bit more. Um, okay. So I’m curious, what is a hobby or something fun that you’re pursuing purely for joy this year?

Kara: I would say I’ve been like thinking of this so much ’cause I feel like for so long I was like, just like working all the time.

And it’s like so interesting to think of hobbies. I would say I’m in like my home nesting era, although I would say I’m like consciously resisting the urge to turn it into a job. You know when you’re like, okay, I’m getting stressed about this. It’s like, actually I don’t eat the right throw pillow, so Right.

Sabrina: That’s my hobby right now. Yeah, I totally understand. Like having a hard time with hobbies and not working all the time. That’s something I struggled with for years and years and years and now. I am leaning into like, how many hobbies can I have and how much free time can I have and how little can I get away with working, you know?

Um, but it is a, it is a, a little cyclical, you know, right now, at time of recording we’re in the summer and so, you know, you wanna play more, but then come fall when everybody’s like, ramping up for stuff, I’m excited about my business again and it’s, I have to pull myself away from the computer, so I get it.

I totally get it. Kara, what is something that you’re always up to talk about? I would say,

Kara: okay, this is probably so cheesy and I knew it would be, but like I would probably say my kid because when I’m not working, he is what I’m doing, right? Like playing with 3-year-old such a fun age fully takes all my time.

So

Sabrina: that’s so cute. Yeah, man, kids and 3-year-old, that’s like one of my favorite ages. It’s so fun. And they think everything is so fun. Like you can literally make like the silliest little chore or whatever, like into a game, you know? It’s just so precious. I love it. It’s so precious. Okay. Uh, do you have a vacation planned or any travel coming up?

Yeah.

Kara: Um. I mean, not super coming up, but my next trip is planned for Mexico and I’m so excited ’cause we’re going with like our family and then a bunch of the cousins and like their kids and stuff. So it’s gonna be so fun watching them play in Mexico. Oh my gosh. I love Mexico. That’s amazing.

Sabrina: Where in, where in Mexico are you going?

Kara: Uh, Reviere May.

Sabrina: Ugh. That is so awesome. Okay. I love that. I love that. Are there a bunch of cousins like the same age?

Kara: Yeah. I mean, it’s not like a huge group. Maybe I made it sound bigger, but there’s like two cousins that are super close that I’m like,

Sabrina: it’s just gonna, yeah. Do you guys live far away from each other or do you see each other regularly anyway.

Okay. That’s fun. I love that. I love that. Um, that’s so fun. Okay. And then last thing, what is a business tool or a hack that you’re loving right now?

Kara: Yeah, I would say, and like this, I get asked constantly ’cause I do blogging too. So just as like a quick business hack, I would say start submitting blog posts to the Bing, Bing webmaster tools.

A lot of people know to do it to Google Search console. But chat, GBT is referencing Bing’s index. So if you wanna be found on chat, GBT takes like two seconds to submit new URLs, like your blog posts to Bing.

Sabrina: Okay. That is amazing. I literally just set up my Bing like. This summer, and it’s so easy. I don’t know why it had like never come up for me.

I mean, I’ve been in a business forever and I’ve had a Google forever. And so I, I came across, I honestly, I think it was an email, like a newsletter that I’m on that was like, Hey, Chacha, BT is prioritizing Bing, are you on there? And I was like, oh my God, I’m not on there. And I like stopped what I was doing that day to like get it set up.

And I will say, listeners, if you’re hearing this. Getting set up with Bing and Bing location was infinitely easier than Google. So like if you struggled with getting your Google My Business profile set up, this is like, I mean I was done in like two minutes. It’s so much easier and user

Kara: friendly and everything.

So, um, yes, as somebody who like had to get their clients to set it up, I was like, oh, I’m not sure about asking them to set up Bing. And then when I signed up for Bing, it was like, do you wanna import all of your Google search console people? And I’m like. Yes,

Sabrina: yes, yes. I actually do. I don’t actually have

Kara: to ask clients to do anything techy, like, please sign me up.

And it was, yeah. It’s so easy to do. It’s, and I would say like if you’ve been on Google for a minute, Bing probably already knows you exist. Right. But it just doesn’t hurt,

Sabrina: so. Right, right, right. But I love that suggestion of submitting the URLs over there. That’s a great tip. Thanks for that. Um, this was a great chat, my friend.

I knew it was going to be, I know that people are gonna have questions. They’re gonna have questions and they’re gonna wanna pick your brain, so where can they reach you?

Kara: Yeah, for sure. So I am the care report on all the things like website, Instagram. My podcast is the care report. I also have a private podcast.

If you head to the kara report.com/private-podcast where I like kind of go through my whole, like build it once, get bound for months process. It’s like eight quick episodes. And then I have weekly podcasts at the Kara report.

Sabrina: That is so awesome. I love that. And I made a note while we were talking, um, on the side and, uh, I think you need to come teach, like getting started with Pinterest.

In the round table, don’t you think? That’d be fun. I would love that. Okay, so listeners, like I said, you heard it here, came from Sabrina. I’m like, yes. Yeah, you heard it. Here. We’re gonna, we’re gonna get her scheduled into the round table as a guest expert may hopefully before the end of the year. That’d be so fun.

Thanks for your time, my friend. It was great to see you. It was great to chat and I can’t wait to hear what everybody says about Pinterest and learning more and how much they love this episode. Oh, thank you so much for having me. Thanks so much for listening to the Shoot It Straight podcast. You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode@sabrinagehart.com slash podcast.

Come find me and connect over on the gram at Sabrina Gehart Photography. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you hit that subscribe button and leave me a review. Until next time, my friends shoot it straight.