Romona Foster’s 17-year social media practice for women consultants 50+
Romona Foster is a social media trainer and consultant who runs Social Media How To’s with Romona, offering classes, one-on-one marketing consultations and done-for-you services for small businesses. Her story is worth reading because she has kept a small agency operating for 17 years, built a membership, Clever Consultant Academy, for women consultants 50+, and has trained AI to work the way she does rather than treating it as a novelty.
Treat AI as an apprentice you train: pick the tasks you need help with, commit to one or two tools, use them every day, correct their outputs and iterate. Ignore the pressure to chase every new tool or buy an ‘AI agent’ for everything.
What’s the quick origin story of your business, and what makes what you do genuinely different from the other options your customers are looking at?
I started Social Media How To’s with Romona after people started asking me how to use Facebook and LinkedIn in the early 2000’s. I showed them for free way too long. I taught my first group LinkedIn class in 2011, and that started something that I could not have imagined. Offering one-on-one marketing consultations and social media classes for small business owners in addition to done-for-you marketing services has set me apart from other boutique marketing agencies. I am also one of the few small agencies that have stayed in the game for over 17 years. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go in this industry. My focus has always been on helping businesses grow, with the emphasis being on helping. Many choose this industry because they think they will make a lot of money. Anytime I hear a business owner mention money over helping others or saying it’s something they love or are passionate about, I wonder how long they will be around. I don’t wish anything bad on anyone, but that is just not a good sign.
Where does most of your new business come from today, and where do you wish it came from?
Today, most of my new business comes from women consultants 50+, and I would not change a thing. I love working with women consultants and have even created a group membership, Clever Consultant Academy, where I teach the women how to market their expertise. We are in our third year together.
What’s one thing you’ve actually handed over to AI in the last year, and one thing you tried it on and went back to doing the human way?
I’ve handed just about every task over to AI in the last year. I know that some people have used AI for certain tasks, regretted it, and gone back to doing it "the human way," but I can honestly say there is no assignment I have given it that I have had to do myself. I have trained it to do things my "human" way, and if there is anything it can’t get quite right, I correct it. I am constantly correcting and tweaking, but I don’t give up on it and go back to doing everything on my own. I love using AI, especially ChatGPT. It is the business partner I didn’t know I needed.
Have you noticed a change in how customers find you or what they already know before they reach out? Is anyone arriving through AI assistants like ChatGPT yet?
A few people have mentioned to me that they found me through ChatGPT. One woman even said during her first consultation, "Before we get started, I wanted to let you know, I found you through ChatGPT." My first thought was, how nice of her to tell me that. That was a great feeling.
If you were advising someone in your industry on all of this for the next 12 months, what would you tell them to actually do, and what would you tell them to ignore?
One thing that disturbs me is how reckless people are with all of these AI tools. And what I mean by that is they are jumping from tool to tool, moving to whatever is trending and where everyone else goes. I would advise anyone in the marketing industry to slow down and ignore the people who are jumping all over the place. Write down all of the day-to-day tasks that you need help with. I would tell them to take time to learn the tools and decide what AI tool is best for them. Really work with those applications, meaning use AI for everything you do. Train it, test it, and challenge it. Don’t just go with everything it gives you, and do not allow it to agree with everything you say. Figure out what is working and what is not working, and train it, test it, and challenge it some more. Most definitely, use it every single day. I would also tell them to ignore the "you need an AI agent" for every thing conversation. Do not overwhelm yourself and DO NOT let other people overwhelm you.
Thank you to Romona Foster and the team at Social Media How To’s with Romona for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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