Quick Tip #50 Should I Be Focsuing On Instagram Or Doing The Work

3:24PM Feb 8, 2022

Speakers:

Jessica Lauren

Keywords:

instagram

work

torn

reel

goals

feels

patreon

week

create

social media

quick tip

hopes

girl

pamela

outsource

pay

creative

matters

podcast

signups

Hey y'all! Hey! It's your girl Jessica Lauren, and I am coming to you with this week's quick tip. This quick tip is for my content creators, my creatives and my business owners. Now, as an entrepreneur or creative entrepreneur or artists, there is a lot that is expected of us, right? We have to not only run our businesses, right? The behind the scenes, the the establishing of taxes, and LLCs and S Corps and we have to make sure we're making money and have an inventory. Some of us have to be the talent like some of us are showing up in podcasting, or blogging or being spoken word artists, or maybe speak publicly as your career right? There is a lot that is expected us, of us. On top of that not only are we supposed to be doing the work, we're supposed to be documenting us doing the work for social media. There is this pressure, especially over on Instagram, to always be creating content for Instagram in hopes of creating superfans and in hopes of connecting closer to your ideal audience in hopes of making sales, increasing visibility and all that jazz. Instagram is an incredible tool to do all those things. I've met some wonderful people on there, I've had some explosive, beautiful conversations on Instagram. But at the end of the day, Instagram is not my job. And I had to come to that realization. You know, a couple weeks ago, I was torn. Like, I was like--" Okay, I need to record the podcast, I want to apply for a grant." And you know, I just had other stuff to do. And then I felt this pressure like--"Well, shouldn't you set up your camera and do a time lapse? Or should you be having a photo shoot for Instagram? Or shouldn't you, you know, think of five reels for the week."

And of course, that is a part of thejob, right? That's one of the hats that I wear is to be a social media marketer, right? Because like I said, it is a great platform and all that jazz. But that is not my only job. And so while I'm sitting here, you know, trying to do the work, the work that's going to make impact and help other people and help, you know, just align me better with my goals. And my mission statement, you know? I'm sitting here torn, like-- "Oh, my God, I need to make a reel of me pointing at words, I mean, dancing, you know, trying to explain something about productivity." And it was like--"Jess something is gonna have to give, I just don't have the capacity to do both."

And so I posed the question on Twitter, it was just like-- "Am I the only one that feels this pressure to not only do the work, but to also document it for social media." And I got some responses, people were like-- "I'm over it, right." And at that moment, I decided that like, when I feel inspired, to create a reel, I'm going create a reel. If I feel inspired to hop on my Insta Stories, and hop on my Insta Stories and show my day or pose a question or throw a poll up there. But I am not going to be bound to some algorithm, right? I just can't. And so if you are a creative or a business person, or entrepreneur, or an artist, or whatever.... you have to, quote unquote, have to show up on Instagram. But also you have work to do. And if you're feeling torn, my quick tip for the day is to do the work first.

And if you have the capacity to throw on a camera and show the behind the scenes, or to create a reel, go for it! But do not let somebody in Silicon Valley that then created an app that I held the algorithms that are set up against you anyway, dictate your focus. If you are in a deep focus, you know, you're not distracted, you're doing work that will make you money, help your clients, help your audience. Do that. And let Instagram and tick tock and Facebook be the cherry on top, like let that be extra the extra sprinkles the extra chocolate chip, but don't let it pressure you into feeling like you have to always feed the machine. The machine that is social media, you know, me and my good girlfriend, Lucretia. She's been on the show a couple times. She is behind girl behind hustle. She's in the midst of a pivot like she's trying to figure out what's the next step for her podcast and lifestyle brand. And she was like, Oh girl, I gotta stop what I'm doing and spend four hours creating reels. And it was like But do you you know I'm saying like, you have to investigate your return on investment right? If the reels and other stuff is booking you clients and making you money and getting signups for your newsletter. Go for it right if that's going to be a big part of your strategy, but if all you're getting is likes and comments, and is not paying the bills, maybe that on your backburner, maybe focus on something else. So for me for a long time, Instagram was a great place to build one on one relationships with my audience. And I love that. But as far as like landing clients or getting signups for my courses, or when I had a store getting more purchases of my products, that was on Pinterest. That was my biggest return on investment, but I kept pouring, you know, blood, sweat and tears into Instagram. And I was like, Hmm, let me change gears, I took a Pinterest class. And then I got upwards to like a million views a month, right? Just from switching gears a little bit and putting my content that I already created over on there and letting it circulate. And that built my traffic. And, again, I've met, you know, my clients on there. So I'm not saying I am not anti social media whatsoever. It is a great tool, and it puts us in wonderful positions. It really does. And I still love Instagram. I was just at the point where I had me had me in a chokehold and I let nobody no Instagram, no tool, nothing to have me in a chokehold anymore!

I'm, I'm just being led by what feels right. It feels holistic for me. And so what I decided is focus on the Deep Impact work. And when you feel led to be creative on Instagram, or wherever, or whatever other app is stressing you out, then go for it. And to be honest, it depends on your goals, like if your goals, you know, are to increase your, you know, impressions every single day, then you might need to post every single day. But for me, that wasn't my goal. My eyes gave that call up a long time ago, like, look, I'm playing with these people. My goal is just to connect and to, you know, have a different form of the work that I do over here over on Instagram, but it's not the end all be all right? So do the work. Do what feels right. I guess we have to figure out what is your goals on social media? What how do you want to show up. And then once you figure that out, then you could show up in that capacity. I know Taylor, Elise Morrison, the founder of inner workout, and one of my good friends. She's like, I only pop on like once a month, but then she outsourced it to someone else to show up on her Instagram and do the posting and engaging and all of that stuff. So that's also an option too. And I actually went that route. I hired Pamela Renee, who was a good girlfriend of mine, everybody a good girlfriend of mine. But Pam used to listen to the show. And every Sunday and Wednesday in her own will she would just make up some graphics. And then one day I didn't turn like girl would you like to get paid for that all I had to do is reposted. She's like Sure. And we work together for a couple years now where she'll create the graphics for the show, post it and do some engaging on social media just because I was just like, I'm trying to run two shows, um, you know, I just got a lot on my plate. So if you have the income too, you can outsource that. If it's just starting to weigh on you. I'll be sure to leave Pamela, Pamela's information in the show notes because she is really, really good at what she does. And she helped increase my visibility and all that stuff, things that matter to me, but things that I didn't want to do you know, me I wanted to focus on really building out my business. And sometimes it's hard to do that when you have to be the social media person, the financier, the producer, the co host. Like it's a lot and if you have the means to outsource it, outsource it. Even if you can't pay like a big retainer. There's Fiverr you got little cousins that do it all day long. eBay cannot pay you $10 To make this you know whatever for me, get creative, but just know that the work matters. You building up your business matters. You creating a life that you love matters. And it's okay if social media is a part of your strategy its nothing wrong with that. But if it is draining you and stressing you out and taking you away from the deep focus work, it might be time to go back to the drawing board and figure out those goals. Is that really what you want to be doing? And it's okay to do it. You can pivot listen, you ain't got to post every doggone day. But if you're like you know what I want to show up twice a week I can commit to that, that's fine. But please try not to let it control you and just steer you away from the work that truly matters. We are that is it for today's quick tip.

Thank you so much for joining in. Now if you'd like today's quick tip and you want a little bit more of this every single day. I want to invite you to join the morning jumpstart live show that's right every Monday through Friday morning. over on Patreon I host the morning jumpstart and is basically this show but every single morning for about 10-20 minutes. We help go getters ditch excuses, do the work and make it happen. Been, but if it's exclusive to Patreon it's a subscription that you have to join. And if you're interested in that, just go to the Sunday jumpstart comm and click on Patreon I mentioned quite a few things in today's episode like Pam and Inner workout and The Girl Behind The Hustle. If you want to reference any of that, it'll be in today's show notes. Just click on Quick Tip number 50 When you get to the Sunday jumpstart.com Well you guys that is it for today's episode. I love you so much. I'm praying for you and rooting for you. I hope you have an incredible rest of your week. And I will see you back here this Sunday for a full length episode. Until then, enjoy the rest of your week and I'll see you Sunday!