📣 Breaking News: You don't have to do Reels, if you don't want to

Hiya,

happy weekend!

I want to share a story of Reels, FOMO, and generic business advice (my pet peeve on the internet, urrrrgh) with you today.

How often have you heard formula-like advice when it comes to business?

Do this, not that? To make it, you have to...make Reels, get up at 5 am, hustle hard, write x blog posts/week, etc.

I resent that so much. 😒

There are so, so many ways to run a business successfully and do your marketing. And everytime, I see this cookie cutter type of advice anywhere, I roll my eyes hard. So hard, they might as well spin out of their sockets and fall onto the table like in a comic strip.

Self-professed business gurus churning out cookie cutter advice that's been shared across the internet, like, 500 times already. Only that they're standing in front of a Mercedes instead of a cool house or on a beach like the other three you've scrolled past in the last 10 minutes. And you're wondering how come you're stuck in your apartment that's decidedly *not near a beach*, even though you're following all of their advice and downloaded all their freebies. Maybe you've even bought a seat in their "elevate signature group coaching container" for a ludicrous amount of money. Only that it turned out to be not as potent as an offering as it was sold.

Sound familiar?

Anyways, when I saw this post in a group for entrepreneurs this week, I needed to contribute something with more nuance. Enough with the FOMO and pressuring, already.

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And yes, the eagle-eyed reader you are, you'll recognize this is a facebook post. As a human, I sometimes hang out in business groups on and off facebook - it's part market research and part connecting with other founders. Being off socials for marketing and on socials (occasionally) for life is a an interesting line to walk. Overall, my motto is the less socials, the better my mental health and I heed that in life and work.

Back to the story.

Let's look at the type of advice in the post. It shares "the way" to do things plus pressure that if you don't do x, y won't happen.

I'm all for honesty. Sometimes, we have to look at the uglier truths in our lives. And yet, I wish more business advice were less formulaic than that. And less "sucks to be you if you don't follow my rules of business".

Has this type of message ever made you re-consider your ways? Or has it created more FOMO around the thing you don't want to do? More pressure, because now you feel like you suck because you're not on the money-making rocket-ship?

Discernment matters so much here!

FOMO-inducing content is really frustrating. It makes it so much harder to figure out for yourself what works and what doesn't.

And in the end that's what it really comes down to. Putting things together in a meaningful, considered way so they're working for you, Reels or not.

Honestly, I like my approach better, as evidenced in the comment: Look at where you're not doing the thing because you're feeling blocked, intimidated, lazy, etc. And also recognize where you're telling a fish to suck less at climbing trees.

Cut your losses in the second case and move on to what actually works for you. That also makes space for you to even be able to consider all the other options that are out there and aren't Reels or the current hype.

Moral of the story:

Following the FOMO is easier in the short term, because everyone's doing it and you don't have to go through applying discernment or thinking things through for yourself.

Following your own voice is easier in the long term, because you're doing what works for you and have weeded out distractions from FOMO while keeping an open mind about what's going on in the world.

It's your decision. Whichever one you make, comes down to discernment - and maybe some help in that department, especially with the practical side of things.

Speaking of which:

1:1 Marketing Strategy Sessions are open and available for you to book.

We'll do everything but generic advice during our 90 minutes together.

Instead, we'll deep dive into what you've been doing with your marketing and build a strategy that fits you and is sustainable. We'll look at how you feel about socials, how you can be on there less or move off them altogether (if that's what you wish), and how to build out your marketing in a way that it does the work for you.

And the best part: we'll make sure that the days of hustling on Instagram and DMs for clients and sales are over. That's not sustainable and you deserve more chill in your business than that.

The other best part is: no guru in sight, just your friendly neighborhood founder that wants to share with you everything she learned (and failed at) in business so you don't have to.

Have a great rest of the week and say bye to business-FOMO,

Johanna

Founder
Bye, Social Media!

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