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Meet Debbie Miller of Social Hospitality in Irvine

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Debbie Miller.

Debbie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Most of my career trajectory has been a series of “happy accidents.” I got my first job through an internship program during my last year of college. I interned that year, then was hired full-time upon graduating. The job was managing the web presence for a destination marketing organization during the dawn of social media for business.

After 3 years, my employer was going through a transition period and I knew that my layoff was imminent. As I began to prepare for this major life transition, I consulted many business associates for feedback. Since this had been my first job out of college, it was a substantial and awkward period, contemplating spending my days in a different atmosphere than the one which I’d become accustomed in my only post-school experience. Thankfully, I was offered a job at a marketing agency with whom I’d partnered at my previous gig, so I started working there the month after I was laid off.

Some of the most valuable advice I received was to generate something that was “mine.” I had done so much and created a name for myself under the guise of my job, though I didn’t have anything to take away with me when my time at that job concluded. As I began to brainstorm with peers, ideas began bubbling to the surface.

I knew I wanted to start a blog, but I wasn’t sure on what. I enjoy dining out, and food blogging is a popular niche, but I wasn’t sure I could articulate my experience with food in a unique way. That said, since my gig had involved working with hotels and restaurants, one person suggested doing a blog on marketing for the hospitality industry.

I was already reading social media blogs regularly myself, but I hadn’t yet come across one geared specifically toward hospitality, so I thought this was a great and a perfect fit. I was immersed (both online and in person) in the culture of social media, and fortunately, it came naturally. I also was an English major in college, so articulating things in writing wasn’t intimidating, either.

Nevertheless, as I began the process of creating my blog, I noticed that I was overcome with fear. While I’d spoken to numerous business peers and gotten infinite amounts of valuable feedback, and knew the general direction I wanted to head, when it came to materialize everything, I choked up time after time.

I’d settled on a theme, a name, and booked the URL, but it would eventually take me several months to unveil the site. I experienced a variety of hesitation, everything from fear of being held accountable, to fear of judgment, to fear of the time commitment. I knew I was comfortable with the topic and I was excited about debuting this entity of my own, but, despite that, I was still horrified.

After pre-penning several posts to populate the site, the blog, Social Hospitality, finally premiered in January 2011. It was a humbling period of trying to get used to having a legitimate web presence of my own, something I strongly desired to become a credible resource for other professionals in the same space as me.

A year later, I began notice the fruits of my labor paying off. I was contacted by a variety of people, in a variety of locations, either commenting that they found my content useful, asking if they could guest post, or wanting to hire me to help them with their own blogs or social media presences.

It was extremely flattering to receive comments like this, and to know I was helping other people. I began freelancing in addition to my full-time job and was able to build up a decent side hustle and savings. I ended up working at the marketing agency for six years, departing in early 2017 to focus on Social Hospitality full-time.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Overcoming fear was one my biggest difficulties, though, of course, one that has now reaped numerous benefits. There was a personal evolution that took place over time, even still, that has made me more confident in my “expertise.” I used to be incredibly shy when it came to any form of speaking out in person, and now I can comfortably talk about business, social media, etc., and not worry that I sound like a novice. It came down to realizing that the knowledge and experience I’ve acquired gives me something to offer others.

There also came a sense of learning to approach it from a different angle. Early in my career, a former coworker made an interesting point to me once, after a meeting in which I was silent. He asked, “why didn’t you speak up in the meeting?” and I responded, “I didn’t feel qualified” (being around much more experienced business peers). His response was, “do you know how incredibly selfish that is?” and that, too, helped alter my perception of keeping things to myself when I really should speak up.

In addition to developing and owning my brand, I had to learn to run a business, save money and balance my finances, plus learn how to retain and acquire clients. I did that “on the side” for six years till I was comfortable enough to make the leap and commit 100%.

Please tell us about Social Hospitality.
At Social Hospitality, we offer digital marketing services tailored to you. Whether you want us to do the work for you or provide a plan of attack and training, we’re here to help passionate people and businesses develop their brand identities, create engaging content, and build their social media presences.

Based on a company’s individual needs, we will craft a custom marketing strategy to increase traffic, brand awareness, and revenue. We’ve heard from clients that others offer very specific services and aren’t adaptable to their specific needs. We strive to keep Social Hospitality a progressive company that crafts strategies and services to each client.

We primarily focus on social media and content writing, but also work with clients on broader digital marketing strategies. One of our clients is a software company for whom we orchestrate their tradeshows in addition to updating their website, writing and creating their email marketing campaigns, and heading their social media. For others, we do day-to-day social and write blogposts. For others, we do a social media strategy and training, then hand it off to their team.

While my background has been primarily in the hospitality industry and we still work with several hotels and restaurants, we’ve branched out to other industries like SaaS, law, manufacturing, and residential communities.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory from childhood is probably when I got my first job at a movie theater. It was my first taste of working and making friends outside of my regular school circles.

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