Following Joy

I’m starting a new thing today.

It’s not really new. I’m just moving things around a little, cutting out some things that aren’t working for me, and focusing more on what I love.

Image by Kristopher Roller, @krisroller, courtesy of Unsplash.

With this slow productivity kick I’ve been on since September, it’s given me time to think more about what I’m doing for my business, my family, and myself—and what my business is doing for me—and to examine what is and isn’t working for me.

I’ve had some definite successes. Giving up time-blocking has allowed my rule-following brain to be more flexible—an absolute necessity now that I’m running three (now down to two, since one got his license) kids hither and yon every day of the week, often during my working hours.

If I’d tried to keep juggling a time-blocked schedule while doing this, I’m sure I would have had a nervous breakdown.

It’s also showed me that I have a lot of work still to do to overcome my workaholic tendencies. Work is where my thoughts tend to go first in times of stress. Which, of course, has been kind of my status quo this year. (This decade?)

Lest you get the wrong idea, I’ve actually been feeling pretty good for the last month, taking better care of myself physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, and my body has rewarded me with maintaining better equilibrium. A win is a win.

But there are also stressful things about my business, which is maybe what prompts my neurotic desire to work more most of all. I hate leaving things out of place, unfinished, or unresolved… unconquered. If there is more to learn, do, or achieve, I have a hard time putting something aside. Which there is always more of, especially when it comes to marketing. And last week, I had to admit to myself that my current methods of marketing my business weren’t working all that well—both on a financial and emotional level.

Not all of the methods. There are things that Past Me did that are still paying off today, years later, and for that, I’m super grateful. But not all the things. For instance, for the past month, I’ve been stepping back onto social media in an experimental fashion, working on fully separating my author and knitting brands there, and it has yielded some interesting realizations.

Realization One:

Social media is, in general, a huge creativity suck for me. I spend so much time thinking about what to post, taking photos, processing photos, writing captions, and then checking my phone constantly for responses I feel I must respond to myself as soon as possible, that it turns my brain into squirrel food for Deep Work tasks like writing.

Case in point: for the last week and a half, I decided to focus on writing first, and guess what? I’m making progress on my manuscript.

Maybe this is a result of the burnout, or maybe it’s my brain’s normal state, or maybe it’s how human brains work. But doing social media and writing seem to be incongruous activities for me. Which means that, if I’m using social media as a way of staying in touch with my readers and knitting audience and to remind them my products exist, I have to reconsider how and when I’m doing it.

(Notably, my knitting social media account seems to be getting much more interaction than my author one. Still working through what that means for my author social media platform.)

Realization Two:

Advertising is, in general, a huge time, creativity, and now, a money suck for me.

I’ve spent an enormous amount of time over the past several years learning how to use Facebook Ads and Amazon Ads, and I’ve dabbled in BookBub Ads. While I’ve had some moderate success advertising Finding Heaven on Facebook, that has recently gone away and the ads were losing me money. I’ve experimented with advertising my knitting business on Facebook, too, but that never seems to move the needle and I’d be better off flushing my money down the toilet.

Even when I was “successful” at advertising my books, i.e. making a profit, it wasn’t enough to justify the amount of time spent on it. Some months, I’ve spent upwards of five hours a week just creating, analyzing, and tweaking my ads. That’s five hours a week I wasn’t creating books or patterns, and that’s a lot of brain power being syphoned away from the thing that would have actually made me more money… producing more stuff.

I don’t exactly regret spending this time, because I did learn a lot about using those advertising platforms, about myself, and about what ads will and won’t do for me right now. But, as of last week, I’ve decided to go on an advertising hiatus.

Every business needs to promote itself and reach new customers somehow. I was just using that marketing time in a rather ad-heavy way for the last couple of years. And I’ll try ads again in the future when I’ve built out my catalogue of offerings and can use different strategies that will likely give me a better return on investment.

Realization Three:

There are loads of ways to market that don’t involved using ads or social media.* I’m already doing several of them… and they are actually some of my favourite marketing activities.

Namely, I’ve spent sixteen years creating an SEO-rich website through my blog, podcast, and other content. In fact, I get so much traffic that I regularly get pitched to place backlinks or sponsored posts on my site, to the point that I’ve actually had to create a policy about it. Until recently, I wouldn’t even consider either of those. Then I got a pitch that intrigued me and which I thought would serve my audience, but I don’t think they liked my terms and prices, lol, because it didn’t work out. It did, however, cause me to rethink my “ban all outside advertising” policy, thus, the new one. :-)

(I don’t know if any of the people pitching me ever read these policies, but hopefully it’s cut down on the torrent of drek filling up my inbox. Still haven’t received an offer that has actually turned into anything though.)

My philosophy for advertising space on my website is that if it’s going to be advertising a product to my audience, it should be what they came here for—my stuff. It should do it in a natural, organic way, so that you don’t have to fight through a slew of flashing banners and popups to get the value you want. And if I mention some other products or service, it’s because I’ve used it and believe in it and think my audience would benefit from it too.

The process of creating this site others find so attractive—both as users and as advertisers—is one of my favourite things to do. I love blogging. And I actually really enjoy site design and maintenance. It’s weirdly therapeutic as well as creative, kind of like knitting. More importantly, it doesn’t seem to drain me creatively the same way that social media and advertising does.

I also really love creating email newsletters. I’ve been doing these since I started my first business in my early twenties, and they have always been my favourite way to connect with my audience. And they are still one of the most effective methods. Bonus!

So, I’ve decided to embrace slow productivity with my marketing too—I’m stepping back from ads, I’ll be revising my social media strategy so it’s less draining for me throughout the month, and I’ll be doubling down on the things I love—blogging, content marketing, email, and other forms of “slow” marketing. I’m even pondering how I can revive my podcast in a way that’s sustainable for me.

And, in the process, I hope to take another step on my journey back to joy in what I’m doing.

People might even drive to a lemonade stand in the country if the marketing is good enough. Image by John Angel, @johnangelnyc, courtesy of Unsplash.

You might see a bit more variety on this blog in the coming months. Not a ton—it’s still primarily my journal for what I’ve been up to and me processing life. But there are some types of posts I’ve wanted to put up that I just haven’t had the time for, so instead of only seeing my journal-type entries like this, there will likely be a little more behind-the-scenes stuff relating to my books, knitting designs, and other things I’m working on for my business.

And, since this post is already long enough, I’ll leave the details of what that might mean for my next post.

Have you ever stopped to consider whether social media or another regular practice in your life is serving you effectively, or maybe even doing more harm than good? If so, what did you do about it? Tell me in the comments.

Happy Monday!

*Last week, I discovered several podcasts dedicated to this very concept. I’m currently devouring Marketing Without Social Media by Viv Guy, if you’re looking for more about this too.

When winter and summer collide you get snow on your geraniums, thanks to the long fall we had. Winter is here now, though. I’m thankful for my warm house!