For the longest time, I’ve been grumbling to my close biz buddies about how I hate Marketing.
The irony is, in the last week I’ve also delivered an impassioned pep-talk to a client reassuring her that talking about your stuff and making it obvious what you do is actually a gift to *your people*–not an imposition.
After all, if we can remember that we’re not in the business of convincing uninterested people to give us money and instead remember that our job is to make ourselves easy to find and easy to understand to the people who need what we do, well… I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound bad at all!
I know myself when I stumble across someone who is offering exactly what I’ve been searching for, the relief I feel that they exist is palpable.
This truth is why in my Morning Pages on Tuesday, I realised something which seems glaringly obvious right now…
I don’t hate Marketing. I hate Instagram.
It feels like a game I can’t win. And if I think about the people I want to reach (people who are craving a strategically simple & sustainable approach to business) well–the culture of Instagram just ain’t the one, is it?
You see, congruence is important to me.
If I’m over here preaching strategic simplicity and the importance of building a business you don’t want to burn down, then I have to be living it too.
And Instagram (as it exists today) has me impulsively reaching for a kerosene-soaked rag & browsing LinkedIn for jobs within 5 minutes of scrolling.
Which is why it’s hilarious that the minute I thought about announcing a new way you can work with me… I put mascara on, reached for my phone and prepared to record a bunch of Instagram Stories.
It does make sense of course, I have a community there and an audience I’ve been lazily building for the past 5ish years. I’m also certain there are people within that group who would be 100% interested in my new offer too.
But I’ve been through enough cycles of offer building & launching to know how that story is going to play out.
What Happens When I Launch An Offer On Instagram:
- My initial excitement of sharing will create a buzz & the 100%-yes-I’m-ready-now people will get in touch & hopefully invest
- Within 24hours my stories disappear along with any trace of the offer
- My internal-brain-clock starts ticking, adding one level of ‘pressure’ every hour that goes by and I don’t mention it again…
- I spend time creating a feed post to give my offer a more permanent home.
- The post flops and no one sees it anyway.
- I open the app to distract myself and see someone else selling something.
- My inner critic pipes up: “see, they’re consistently showing up and selling. why aren’t you? you’re shit.”
- I feel sick.
- I make a panic post about the offer on my stories, but barely anyone watches and no one clicks.
- I start to doubt the entire offer & it’s not even been 72 hours yet.
I could go on, but honestly? Even writing up that little narrative made me feel a bit sick…
Instagram is great for some people and some people are great at it.
Unfortunately, however, the very nature of the algorithm is that you’re only ever really seeing those people.
You’re not seeing the flops.
You’re not seeing the people who are inconsistent.
You’re not seeing the people who are launching offers to crickets.
…because that’s how the algorithm is designed to work.
As a user, it’s theoretically a good thing, because you’re seeing stuff that has “proven” to be interesting by Instagram standards.
But as a ‘creator’ of content?
It creates a skewed perspective that everyone else is killing it and you suck. Because if they can get those results, why can’t you?
(Ever notice how the majority of people who “succeed” tend to be selling some kind of formula for you to succeed too? No wonder they’re so bloody popular.)
All of this to say…my instinct to reach for Instagram as my first promotion point showed me why I need to leave.
Because as long as it’s there? So is the temptation to join in the game.
To do a quick post & begin the cycle of second-guessing, feed refreshing and counterproductive stressing all over again.
And if we want to create a life, a business, a story that is different to what we’ve experienced and suffered through in the past, we need to make different choices.
Choices that support the vision of the life we want to live & the business we want to build.
Which segways beautifully into me telling you about the new way to work with me…
Launching today:
Informal Business Partnership
A 3-month collaboration where I'll be walking right alongside you in your business, giving you the perspective, pep-talks and polite ass-kicking to create the kinda business you don't want to burn down.
What’s included:
- 1x 90-minute kick-off video call
- Weekly voice note and messaging support for the duration of the 3 months together (I will be ACTIVELY checking in with you every week!)
- 2x 30-min video check-ins to be used if & when needed to go deeper
- Access to any of my templates, messaging resources, Notion files, Storytelling Guides and workshops as appropriate
DISCLAIMER: For full clarity, I’m not actually deleting my Instagram account (yet).
I plan to do a bit of a ‘leaving campaign’ first so that anyone who’s in my audience and wants to join me elsewhere (here on Substack) knows how to do it & where to find me.
After that, step one is deleting the app… or at least removing my business account from my phone so I can still exchange cat reels with my husband.
Step two… well, we’ll have to wait and see I suppose.
