Over the last 90 days I have worked really hard to build up my visibility on Instagram, where I hope to develop a following for the ‘life’ side of my business. I’m not going to lie, it has been quite a challenge. In fact, it’s become a bit of an obsession!
Turning up on social media every day is actually not how I thought my business would run. I thought clients would flow to me, because they were all waiting on me launching my business and that I would be there to serve. Now, clients do flow to me and I will always be eternally grateful for those special people who see me as the person that can help them. Nevertheless, there is a need in today’s society to be able to nurture a wider client base through the powers of social media.
Instagram has been new to me, but the thing I’ve learned about the dreaded algorithm is that you need to be consistent. Consistency is key – turning up every day and engaging in a variety of formats that will educate your audience, attract your ideal clients, and allow your clients to get to know you as an individual aswell as an ‘expert’.
This is where my challenge began. I’ve been coached, mentored and supported so well, and I’ve got to say the learning curve I’ve been on has been enormous. When I look back and see how far I’ve come, I’m so immensely proud of my journey. Little old me, doing it for myself! But working out how to post, what to post, when to post, checking insights, checking what performs best, and what has landed well is all completely mind-blowing! Uploading photos, aligning trending tunes, mastering Canva and swapping furiously between phone and laptop, app and web-based products is just a few of the intricacies involved. I kid you not, one post can take 30 minutes upwards!
The challenge doesn’t end there… oh no! Then the response checking comes into play! How many have watched the post? How many have commented? Oh no, no one! Oh yes! So many! It’s literally obsessive. But I’m not giving up. Instagram and I are growing to love each other more. Instagram is listening to me more, and the results are beginning to blossom, just as we enter into the Spring months. How rose-tinted and romantic is that!
So, when I didn’t have internet for two days this week, just imagine the panic!
I was raging with the world! Instagram will stop doing its magic, it will stop responding to my posts, I’m doomed, oh no!
I was so panicked I didn’t know what to do with myself. My mind was in an irrational spin of what ifs, oh nos and oh my gods! I had begun to catastrophise and it wasn’t pretty. After lots of turning the wifi on and off, and all the usual checks, I reluctantly realised there was NADA I could do about it.
Now what?
Well…. that enforced pause was magical. (What? I hear you say!)
Yes – MAGICAL.
The world has not crashed and burned. My Instagram account has not been swallowed down a black hole. The loveliest of people still engage with me online. And, best of all, I’ve reset and recalibrated.
Living with that urgency and fear is not good. It leads to burnout and anxiety, and that’s not a good place from where to run my business.
Instead of pacing the floor for 2 days, I just took the time to ‘be’. I couldn’t check my emails, do my accounts, create landing pages, write programmes, so I took the time to ‘be’.
When my creative, productive energy isn’t used, it then transfers to my mind and I start to overthink things, and I tend to become overwhelmed, so I pulled out my journal and started to write. And boy, did I write!
I wrote about how I was feeling, what that meant, whether it was helpful, and why that was. I really took an objective perspective of the situation and realised very quickly, that it was not important. That it would all be fine, that it wasn’t the end of my business, and it wasn’t the way I should react when things didn’t quite go as planned.
I was also able to spend some time planning instead. My journal is now full of business notes and scribbles that will help me create direction and focus going forward. It’s often during when I journal that my best thoughts come to me. It’s just me and my pen and paper, and my thoughts and ideas just flow out of me. I managed to create two new programmes during that time, and I’m so excited to turn them into electronic versions, so I can share them with you all in the future – when the time is right.
For now, I continue journaling every day. I also continue posting on Instagram every single day. The difference now is that I’m more relaxed about it. I engage on the platform, and I continue to build relationships and grow, but I’m not bringing the panic and anxiety to the space I was before. I needed to learn that lesson. I needed to be thrown out into the internet-free wilderness for a while to know that life continues, and that things won’t end for me!
Now, as a rational adult, I know this. However, when you’re invested into making something work, and you’re learning and growing as you go, then that desire can sometimes take over and become an obsession.
Time with my journal made me see it was ok. So, what have I learned:
🧘🏻 Stay calm in the chaos – chaotic thinking does not lead to calm.
📔 Always reach for your journal to help de-escalate and get perspective.
⥣ Social media is only one facet of my business.
💭 Thoughts are just thoughts, and not actually always the reality.
🌏 The world doesn’t end when you don’t post on social media.
📋 To do lists shouldn’t dictate our lives.
👏🏼 Good things come when we create some space for ourselves.
I’m such a big advocate of journaling and was so fortunate in this situation to have the knowledge to turn to it to support me when I began to catastrophise. I’ve recently created a complimentary e-book called Unlocking You, that offers 20 journaling prompts to get people started on their journaling journey. Now seems like a very appropriate time to share that with you, given that journaling saved me from a couple of days of frustration, worry and anxst.
If you’d like to download a copy for yourself, then click on this download link and a copy will wing its way to your inbox.
If you’d like a bit of support in reframing your life, or if you need to find your own perspective on an issue, then do not hesitate to get in touch. Working with a coach is wonderful to help you go inwards and support your own introspection. Please either use the contact form on here, book a complimentary 30 minute call, or complete my ‘work with me’ form and I will be in touch for a chat.
In the meantime, when you get the opportunity to switch off, instead of jumping about in fury at the to do list not getting done, jump about with joy – these moments don’t happen often – and reach for your journal should you need the thinking space and support.
