You don't have to do #allthethings to be successful.
Last year in my quest to figure out what it is I “really” want to do with my life, I launched WAYYY too many things. So this year has been all about trimming the fat. Getting rid of the things that 1) I hated doing 2) weren't profitable enough for me to want to do more of 3) weren't allowing me the freedom to live / work the way I wanted. There are three things I quit doing to grow my business with the help of these guidelines.
Streamline.
I'm not really into picking a word of the year, but I guess you could say that's what mine would be.
One of the things that sort of bothered me about being a marketing consultant was that I felt like I was always telling people what to do. I mean people were literally paying me to tell them what to do, but in general I felt like I was constantly shouting “you should do this because….”
I'm sure you see / read / hear it all the time…
You should post on Instagram every day. You should blog every week. You should start a YouTube channel for the SEO benefits. You should be doing Facebook live videos to connect with your audience. You should launch an online course so you can stop trading your hours for dollars.
#realtalk – You “could” do all of these things and still not be any more successful than you were before.
I'm not saying any of these things are “wrong” or that you “shouldn't” do them…
BUT AT SOME POINT YOU HAVE TO STOP LISTENING TO WHAT OTHER PEOPLE TELL YOU TO DO AND FOCUS ON ACTUALLY DOING THE THINGS THAT DRIVE YOUR BUSINESS FORWARD.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”You don't need to be active on all the social media platforms – spend the majority of your time on the 1-2 platforms that have the highest ROI and don't stress about the rest!” quote=”You don't need to be active on all the social media platforms – spend the majority of your time on the 1-2 platforms that have the highest ROI and don't stress about the rest!”]
Wanna know what I quit doing over the summer that made absolutely no difference in my business?
- Blogging regularly – I used to publish new posts every. single. week. and long story short, I haven't been doing that regularly this year. Yes, this has (slightly) affected my blog traffic, but more importantly it has not negatively affected my revenue! Quick tip: if you don't want to make time to blog regularly, make sure you have evergreen blog posts that can consistently drive traffic back to your site even when you're not publishing new content. The main reason I continue to get consistent traffic > subscribers > customers is that I have Tailwind working on autopilot to promote old posts!
- Being active in Facebook groups – I used to waste SO MUCH time on Facebook. Yes, connecting with other people in Facebook groups can be a great way to grow your business / make friends / build community… but it can also be a time suck. Personally, I wasn't seeing the ROI from Facebook that I wanted, so I archived my own Facebook group and (accidentally) stopped being active in other people's groups as well. Ya know what changed? Nothing. Most of my traffic / customers / clients come from Pinterest and Instagram so spending less time on Facebook has made no difference in my business other than having more time to spend on other things! Quick tip: You don't need to be active on all the social media platforms – spend the majority of your time on the 1-2 platforms that have the highest ROI and don't stress about the rest!
- Working with new clients – Yup. I had a lot of things happening over the summer (travel / moving / life / etc.) that made it hard to commit to custom photography projects in advance, so I decided to take a 2 month break from client work. I was slightly terrified at first (my client work made up roughly 1/3 of my total income as of May), but I had my biggest revenue months EVER without working with a single new custom photography client. This is the most surprising one for me because I honestly expected a dip in my revenue from making this decision, but I think removing client work from the equation gave more more time to focus on growing other income streams – and I didn't hate it. I'm not giving up custom client work forever (for now!), but this revelation is definitely making me rethink how I structure my time and packages for the future! Quick tip: Sometimes you have to step away from one thing to move forward with something else. Don't be afraid to change the way you do things in your business when they aren't the best fit for the life you want to live.
Spending LESS time on all these things has led me to have more time to focus on other priorities like the Styled Stock Society and also to take advantage of other opportunities. Like…
- Sharing social media tips with Entrepreneur.
- Shooting an ad for American Express.
- Going on a last minute press trip to this magical resort.
So one more time…
You don't have to do #allthethings to be successful.
Thank you for this post. It is nice to know that there are more people who are doing things the way they want and getting results. Thanks, Shani Dee
Amen to spending less time in Facebook groups! I have streamlined my group interaction and narrowed it down to 2-3 key groups. It has freed me up time wise and now I’m focused on the groups that are the best fit.
Loved reading this post! The last few months I had the same realization that I don’t need to/want to be on all social media channels. I’m glad you wrote this post and enjoy reading your content!
I really like your tips since they’re so unique in a bloggersphere that’s usually more focused on doing every. single. thing! It’s scary to let some things drop, but in the end, it makes so much more sense to use our time on the essentials only. And I totally agree with the facebook groups, they never really worked for me!