Hey hey and WELCOME to my first EVER Facebook and Instagram Ads blog. I’m Carolyn Heefner the ads coach you need in your life! I’m honestly not sure why it’s taken me 4 (almost 5) years into my business to start an ads blog but it’s always been on my mind and my heart to help business owners learn how to harness the power of ads with even more free info.
So as this is my very first blog entry I’m going to make this a very light, fun entry and tell you a bit about myself, why I started my ads business, and what’s driven me to continue. Then once this first entry is officially up and on my (new, YAY) website, I’ll start to get more into the nitty gritty of ads and teach you how to run SIMPLE AND PROFITABLE ads so you can bring more leads, business, and cash into your world without having to live on social media to do it.
Sound good? Perf.
Ok so a little about me.
I always knew I would be an entrepreneur. I’ve had the drive for as long as I can remember. I literally remember talking about my dad (who is also an entrepreneur) in middle school and writing the word “entrepreneur” on a paper I was submitting as we talked about our parents and their chosen careers.
Fast-forward from middle school to college graduation it was my dad who linked me up with my first internship at a local ad agency for me to understand the interworkings of business and “corporate” life. And I have to say from my internship in May of 2013 to being offered a job for the agency 3 months later, I learned more in that 3 months than I did in 2 years of college.
I stuck it out in agency life for about 5 years growing their non-existent digital division from 3 clients to 27 clients and doing everything from running Facebook and Instagram ads to learning SEO, organic social media management to account management, and quite literally everything in between. I even built my team and we grew the division even further. In my gut, I knew I was still on the path to owning my own business and being able to call the shots (agency life was truly nottttt for me).
So 2017/2018 I left the agency life behind (I was pretty burnt out) and accepted a much less stressful job at Binghamton University running ads and organic marketing for their alumni division. And while it was so welcome change and so much less anxiety-inducing (high-stress agency life to a cushy state job) I knew I wanted more.
(On a more personal side note) It was during my time at the agency, that my father who was the deputy county executive hired a young man as deputy commissioner of aviation at our local airport. Unbeknownst to any of us, that man turned out to be my now husband and father of my 3 children. All things are in God’s good timing.
I mention that personal tidbit because it was in 2018 when we (Mark and I) got married and in 2019 when I had my first daughter. And that was it. The push (literally) that I needed to start my business. I was on a timetable because I knew that 3 months maternity leave was going to go FAST and I’d eventually have to go back to work and leave her for 8 hours per day, missing all of her firsts.
So in August of 2019, I opened my doors to BellaSocial (unofficially) and took on a few local clients running ads and doing some organic social media for them. Truly one of the hardest seasons in my life. I was a new mom, nursing full-time, working full-time, and coming home to work on my client’s businesses so I could replace my income and stay home full-time. In December of 2019, I hired my first coach, in January BellaSocial was finally legitimate, and by March 2020 I had replaced my salary at the university. I left in May of 2020 (right around the same time the world shut down) and moved into running Facebook and Instagram ads ONLY. Then in January of 2021 I saw a huge need for an ads campaign. Someone business owners could ask their questions to and learn how to leverage this premium service in-house. That’s how The Simple Ads Society was created.
It’s been 5 years since BellaSocial took on their first ads client. A decade since I started running ads. Since then I’ve worked with hundreds of business owners, spent and earned thousands of dollars, and seen 10X ROI’s with our proven ad strategies. (In 2023 alone we spent over 100k on ads and earned over 1 million profit for our business owners.) I’ve had 2 consecutive 6-figure years and I’ve coached business owners from upstate NY to Australia and helped them see 10-20X returns on their own ads.
So now you know my journey from agency intern to 6-figure business owner. Questions? I’d love to hear them!
Ready to learn more about running Simple and Profitable ads? Click around the site and learn how you can join my programs. I can’t wait to help you leverage the power of Facebook and Instagram ads in your business!
