Feeling Pressured to post on Instagram?

Over on ‘the grid’ I’ve not posted since Friday, it’s now Tuesday. I’m in the winter of my cycle and I’ve got a lot on so I’ve not done the usual weekly scheduling in advance (even though I teach my clients to do this it doesn’t mean I get it right 100% of the time!)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Reasons I’ve not posted:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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✨ I’ve put a lot of time into preparing a free masterclass I’ll be running (more on that soon!)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
✨I met up with family 1:1 on Friday and Sunday⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
✨I watched a few too many ‘Married at First sight’ episodes (addictive viewing)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
✨I sorted through my biz expenses (eugh but yay it’s done!)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
✨I had a rest and watched the Trolls movie with Leo⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
✨I made a banana cake with Leo (yep lockdown classic)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Reasons it’s OK not to always be completely consistent with posting:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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✨ My worth or success of my business is not depending on how often I post. I have ‘lost’ 10 followers since Friday. If they left because I didn’t post for a few days, then I’ll happily wave goodbye!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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✨ My clients are consistently coming to me via my emails I’m sending so where I used to put all the ‘pressure’ of attracting new clients via social media, I now recognise it’s much more longer term and fluid. Yes it’s good to have strong online presence, but what is more important is the energy behind what you share. Posting 3 times a week and feeling like you’re sharing great content and feeling good about it is better than posting 7 times a week and feeling like you’re really pushing yourself.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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✨When I don’t post for a few days, I now sit with the feeling and identify what I’m really feeling. There is so much ‘noise’ out there of other people doing their thing. And that’s fine. Remember there will always be noise.

What helps me is to track the Moon and the seasons. I think how slowly winter moves into spring. When I sit in the room at the top of our house I can see the tops of the trees and feel like I’m almost watching them turn and feeling their slowness and reassuring that it’s OK to slow down. Slow and steady is better than rushing and burning out.

My top tips when you feel that awkward kind of pressure like ‘crap I really need to post something… ANYTHING’ otherwise I’ll lose followers and the algorithm will hate my account forever!

·         Consider if you are seeking validation through positive comments and likes. Whilst it is natural and nice to want these, it doesn’t necessarily drive your business forwards

·         If someone does unfollow you because you didn’t post for a few days, weeks or however long, then frankly they are not really interested in you, so better to have fewer but more genuine followers!

·         Think if you are putting ALL your focus onto one platform such as Instagram- how can you branch out and perhaps start nurturing your email list more, or instead contact people directly?

·         It always helps me to remember that basically some guys in California most likely wrote this code that is affecting how we live our lives- spending so much time in this app because they wrote this code that decides which content gets seen? It doesn’t sit well with me (watch my break up letter to Instagram here for more on that)

 If you’d like some more inspiration, check out my positive card generator