Happy Monday!
I am sending a new episode on online marketing and social media for introverts your way today, which is based on a free workshop I recently ran. I know so many of us feel resistance around this and imposter syndrome is sadly totally normal, so I wanted to share my best tips and tools. Listen if you want to learn:
- How to indentity where exactly your resistance around sharing your work is coming from
- How you can use free tools and automations to make the process easier
- How you can draw clear boundaries around your time and privacy
- How you can find the right spaces and communities for your message
- How a clear and consistent visual language can help you feel more confident online
- How you can set realistic and authentic goals for your business
And here are the tools I mentioned:
Listen to the Embodied Business Podcast
on Apple Podcast // Spotify
⋒ Hi, my name is Yarrow.
My show is a podcast for introverts who want to build gentle & sustainable businesses that are aligned with their values and fun to work in. Subscribe to be supported in defining your own ethical marketing compass, building rock solid systems and finding the confidence you need to thrive.
You can learn more about my work and listen to other episodes at PinkWellStudio.com. I also offer free monthly Spark Sessions and share resources, ideas & new episodes about once per month over on Substack ⋒
Transcript
Hey, everyone, my name is Yarrow and you’re listening to the DIY business magic podcast. Welcome back, and really glad you’re here. And I’m so grateful for all the beautiful feedback that I received for the podcast. So today, I’m coming to you with an episode on social media and online marketing for introverts. I’m running free monthly workshops every month, as the title suggests, and I often hear from people that they really struggle with imposter syndrome. They’re really overwhelmed with all social media. And they’re just have a hard time sharing their work, even if they really believe in it, and they are super enthusiastic about what they want to do. So today, I want to walk you through a presentation that I shared at a recent free workshop, where we talked about all these things, and I shared a bunch of really practical tools. And they also offered some journaling prompts for people to explore where their resistance is coming from. I really think this work is super important and very effective if you give it some space. So yeah, if you can get your journal out, if not just listen, and maybe come back to this another time. Before I really go into what I want to share today, I have a couple of announcements. So first one that’s more private. I had a birthday this weekend. Yay. It was super beautiful. And I had a really great time inviting my friends and making it a long weekend taking a little bit time off and doing some journaling and planning for the year had. And it just felt really good to turn 33 To be honest, and I’m excited for what the next year is going to bring. One of the wishes and big dreams I had for this birthday was to start a free community apothecary here in Brighton in the UK. And I’m super proud and excited to say that we did it. So I’ve grown my patreon over the past year. And I’ve used some of that money that is being pledged to me and my business
to buy bottles and herbal products. And on Saturday evening, which was my actual birthday, I invited all my friends to a really cosy yoga studio, and restrained bottles labelled and unpacked, that means more than 100 bottles that we’re going to share around in the local community here to get more people excited about herbalism and just support everyone’s immunity in winter. And for me, I mean, personally, I absolutely love herbalism. And something that’s really important to me. But what made me so happy about it also was that I created a wheel win win situation, my patrons get to support something that feels meaningful to them, even with a small patch, they get access to my courses and programmes and free workshops. And I was able to kind of distribute some of that abundance in the local community here. So I’ll be teaching more about growing a Patreon and about these alternative ways of sharing ideas and making things happen over the next year. And then I would really love you to join me get on my newsletter list and be the first know when new free workshops are coming up. One is coming up already on December the fourth one that I’m really incredibly excited about. And it’s all about business planning for 2019. So I’m offering this because I want people to get into the headspace of thinking very gently and kindly about their goals when 2019 before the Russian January comes where you see ads everywhere. And it just feels like all this pressure to chase someone else’s dream. And I want to I really want to help people to find authentic goals that feel good and doable for them. And that reflect the values that they want to live their life by rather than something that you know, is a cookie cutter business model that maybe works for someone else. So this is going to be a 90 minute workshop in which we’ll explore what we actually want and how they can be good, what we’re willing to invest and how much energy we really have. And also what free tools we can utilise to make that happen and how we can get into a habit of planning and structuring our work and doing our own product management in a way that’s not boring, but actually really satisfying and fun. So if you want to join that, follow the link in the show notes. I’d really like to meet you and you’re totally Welcome to invite your friends as well. Okay, so now finally want to share about social media and online marketing for introverts. So first thing I want to invite us to look at, invite you to look at is where your resistance is actually coming from. And I really want to say that I think this resistance is completely normal as his imposter syndrome. I still get this frequently. I’m really happy with my work. I love what I’m doing. I’ve created something that feels meaningful to me, and yet I have days where I feel shy about sharing and like, you know, I have thought like Who am I to do this and someone else could do this better and maybe I should Just staying bad, I don’t know.
I think that is something that all of us are constantly working with. And it can be a particularly hard if you feel quite sensitive or you’re an inter word. And you find online spaces overwhelming, or even, you know, local networking can be really overwhelming to all these things are intense and wild and beautiful at the same time. So I think in the last couple of years, social media has really gained even more importance, but it’s also become a more busy and more competitive space. And it can be really hard to stand out. And to kind of find our own little niche in this very busy environment. So I think that’s really valid. And it’s just about nailing down what actually feels difficult for you and where your resistance is coming up. So maybe you’ve made negative experiences with marketing from other companies, maybe you’ve signed up for something free, and you felt like you weren’t really receiving something that you had expected or you were marketed to very aggressively, or it felt like a pretty cold funnel, where you weren’t really seen as a person, but only as a potential customer to be converted into a sale. Or maybe you have feelings around not wanting to table take up too much space. Maybe there’s some childhood or school experiences or anything related to formal education that you still feel a bit stuck with, where you’re not wanting to stand out or attract too much attention. Maybe you’re feeling unsure about what we actually have to say and what you have to offer. Maybe you don’t want to put people off, if you have friends or family following you on social media, for example, maybe you’re feeling a bit shy about sharing about your business because you think it’s not relevant to them. Or maybe you’re feeling jealous. And I really want to say that that’s totally valid to I feel jealous sometimes. And I’m trying to be just open to that emotion and to see what it has to teach me. So usually when I’m, when I’m jealous, obviously, that’s coming from a desire of for having something that someone else has that where where I’m maybe not there yet. And I’m trying to not push that feeling away, but instead to really look at that and see if I can transform it into a goal for myself. Or if I can walk away from that thinking, Okay, this is something that someone has add a certain someone else has that maybe feels really shiny and attractive to me, but had to hide, I don’t actually need that in my life. So I think like I said, these are all really valid options or, or feelings to have around resistance. And I’m just inviting you to sit down with your journal and make lists of things that feel difficult to you. There’s all along get clear on where that’s coming from and social media, if there’s feelings or unworthiness, write them down, and really make a commitment to yourself to work with them. Maybe even with a coach or with some other kind of professional person that can help you with that. The next thing I would like to look at is the idea of defining really realistic goals. Because I think or I see that many people struggle getting clear around social media and online marketing, because they’re not totally sure what they’re trying to achieve. And again, if you’re starting a business that’s so valid and completely normal, when I was studying, not only was I not sure who I was talking to, or why or what I was offering, I was also really unclear about the places I wanted to be in, or the technical tools that I wanted to utilise to make that process as easy as possible for me. So I think a really great next step after looking at your resistance is to define goals that feel authentic for you. And I’ll read to you what I have on my list. So I want to really pour energy into online marketing and social media because I want to build community of like minded people, I want to grow my newsletter list because I know that social media is beautiful and amazing and a great way to connect to people. But at the end of the day, it’s also a space that I don’t own, the content really isn’t mine and rules sometimes change which is difficult. And that’s very different with my new settlers. That’s a more meaningful, intimate way to connect to people. And so that’s something I really want to grow.
I also want to interact with the world in a meaningful way that doesn’t feel overwhelming to me all the time. I want to make a living that feels safe and sustainable. I want to be able to work creatively. I want to learn about new ideas, people and approaches, and I want to share what I’m excited about. So these are my goals and everything I’m doing on the internet is kind of leading back to those goals and that makes it so much easier to get clear. The next thing I want to invite you to think about is what is private and what is public in your life. So again, that’s another area where many people have some resistance. Maybe you are using an old previously private Instagram account and promote your business. And maybe there’s some feelings around what you actually want to share with people and what feels private to you. And I would really love you to get clear on those boundaries and to maybe even spell them out in writing. So for me, for example, I’m sharing so much about my private life and Instagram, I because I really want people to be able to relate to me as a person and not just see me as a business or brand. I want them to understand what my backstory is, why I do, what I do, what my everyday life look like, looks like and what my values are. And my boundary is that I’m not sharing so much about my relationships here in Brighton. I’m not sharing so much about my food, or what I’m eating day to day, I sometimes share about my travels, but not always, I don’t usually give away my exact location. So I, for example, don’t check into a restaurant or something. Not that I expect anyone to be creepy about it, I just feel like I don’t know, that’s not something I want to do. And so I also made some space to get clear on that. And I’m just have this little list in my mind handy to think about my boundaries. So I would invite you to ask yourself, What part of your story is most relevant to your work? And why do you want to share that? What feels to prior to share? What could boundaries look like in terms of time, energy and space? So for example, you also have ideas around how much time you actually want to spend on social media. And when you’re completely switching off, and what do you like hearing from others. So if you’re feeling pretty unsure about how much is enough, or how much is too much around private sharing, maybe see what other people you feel attracted to and how they’re sharing. And maybe there’s something that you can learn from that. And then the next thing I want to touch on is finding the right space for your message. So now that you’ll be a little bit clearer on what your goals are, what your boundaries are, what you’re trying to achieve, it’s good to think about what space is makes sense for you personally. When I was starting out in business, I thought that I needed to be everywhere. I wanted to really spread my message and my offerings as far as why and why does I could and I kind of spread myself thin between different platforms. So I was on Instagram, on Tumblr, on Twitter, on Facebook. Is that all Oh yeah, I also tried this live streaming Twitter related thing, I can’t remember the name now, which was super stressful, and really freaked me out at the time. So I left that. Anyway, all this to say, about a year and a half ago, I deleted my Twitter account, even though it had grown to about 4000 followers, just because I really felt that wasn’t the right space for my message. And I was struggling to keep up with mentions or engagements over there. And it kind of became pretty quiet. And I think it’s not a great idea to list a social media channel on your website that you’re not actually using. Because it looks like maybe your business is no longer active, or I don’t know, you just don’t really care about the social media spaces that you’re creating. So I would really recommend that you think about your message to kind of people that you want to reach and the different ways in which you want to communicate to them, and then choose spaces that are appropriate for that. So the choice I now made is to mainly focus on Instagram, and to podcast because I really like having longer conversations with people. I’m really visual, I love posting on Instagram for that reason. And I like having the space to kind of have much longer captions that I could have on Twitter, for example. And at the same time, I don’t want to be on Instagram all the time. So I’m using a scheduling tool, where once a week, I sit down and write out a couple of longer posts that then come out throughout the week. And then in addition to that, I make spontaneous posts about funny things that happened to me resources I’ve found or things that I want to share in the moment. And so I’m keeping my profile active, but I’m not on there every single day. And I’m open to direct messages. But again, I’m having boundaries around that. And then I’m
using a tool called ifttt.com, where I’m cross posting, so I’m posting on Instagram, but then this tool which is free by the way, which I love is automatically posting to my Facebook business wall, to my Tumblr account and to Pinterest. And so those are the three platforms, I kind of secondary social media platforms for me. So want to have my content on there. But I don’t want to visit all these different platforms every single day to keep them active either. So I’m really appreciating this opportunity to automate that and I’ve been really mindful and how I’ve set this process up. So this could look totally different for you. Maybe Tumblr isn’t the thing for you. Maybe Pinterest is something that you want to manage on a day to day basis. It really just totally depends on what your values and ideas are. on what you’re trying to achieve. Another thing that’s quite important to me is my newsletter. And I’m realising that I often share more intimate behind the scenes stuff on the newsletter. And that’s because I know that the people that subscribed made a deeper commitment to hearing about my work. And it feels like a slightly different environment, then then social media, for example would be, which is also why building a newsletter is such a big priority for me. And again, if you’re stuck here, I would recommend that you think about what do you what works for you personally, and maybe look around yourself and see what you’re enjoying. As I really love podcasting, this is already my second podcast, my first one, which is a couple of years old is called daydreamer walls. And it’s really grown. And it’s been such a beautiful way to build an audience and have conversations with people and do so in a way that comes naturally to me. And that feels relatively easy. Of course, it does take time, I needed to teach myself a bunch of things. It’s they’re not perfect. I definitely could spend more energy into editing each episode. But it’s great fun and edit, and then often feels more empowering and free than social media, for example. So
if you’re so inclined, I would really encourage you to consider podcasting as well as an online marketing tool, but also for many other things such as just building community and meeting like minded people. So next, I want to touch on a couple of tools that I’ve I’ve probably already mentioned that I’m using. So the first one is like I said IFTTT for cross posting. Another one is the free version of later.com, which I’m using to type out my longer Instagram post, and then schedule them ahead. An alternative that also works for Facebook as buffer. Another kind of technique that I’m utilising as recycled content. So frequently, I’ll bring back older podcast episodes, or blog posts, or interviews that I’ve given in other spaces, to post about them, again, on social media, not all the time with lead and don’t want to spend, you know, bring up the same old stuff every week. But I do always have new followers, and they might not have seen or heard about this yet. And also, once a year past, maybe if it’s still valuable content, or something that I stand for, people’s perception of it will have changed, you know, there’s older episodes that I am going back to listen to my other podcast. And the way I hear things really has changed over the years. And so that can be really interesting. And it’s a great way to get more of your content out there and have a regular practice of of posting on social media. And then finally, sometimes, I am mapping out plans for promotions. And that’s useful because I know myself and I know that I’m sometimes getting shy around promotion. So I’m sitting down, and I’m mapping out what I’m going to talk about throughout the month. And I’m challenging myself to post about in a way that’s kind of putting my set in my comfort zone a little bit, but that’s still comfortable. So at the moment, and this might work shift and a has shifted in the past. But at the moment, this looks like mentioning my Patreon, two or three times on Instagram a week, and translating that to other platforms, bringing out a new podcast every Monday and every Friday for the other podcast. And then really also every month offering free webinars that anyone can join. And this means to me that I actively growing my audience, I’m building community, I’m talking to amazing people. I’m interviewing folks that I want to introduce to my audience, I’m having great fun, and I’m building my patreon I’m making people aware of my other offerings around business mentoring, and social media support and web design. And, and I am offering a tonne of free stuff. And I’m not doing this within a funnel. So I think there’s nothing wrong with a funnel. Technically, you could argue what I do is a funnel. But what I think what I mean by that is that I’m not having a system in place where I’m offering free stuff only when I have something to sell, or only because I have something to sell. And I don’t see my free webinars as this kind of tool. I’m just getting people to sign up for something free. I’m like saying hi, very briefly introducing myself and unlike BAM here by this, because honestly, I don’t care if most people that show up for my free webinars. Don’t ever buy something from me. And that’s because it doesn’t matter. I have something excited to share. It doesn’t hurt me to have 20 more people on a webinar. I mean, as long as they’re respectful, which everyone always is. It just means, you know, there’s more to share for everyone and that’s totally cool and there will always be people who are ready to maybe buy Something or work with me, or learn more, and that’s cool, but there’s no pressure.
Um, another thing or another tool that I’m utilising that I want to share with you is to create a visual language. And I’ve had other workshops around branding and working with Canva. So do check that out if you’re interested to learn more. But basically, what I’m trying to say is that I really think it helps to have a consistent brand and visual language for your business. To make sure that sharing and marketing yourself online feels easier, because you’re not starting from scratch and wondering what kind of image to use or what colours work for your message every time you have something to say. So great tools to get clear on this. For example, I design minus seeds.com, which is a platform full of really beautiful colour palettes that you can use to explore different moods that you can create. I really love Pinterest, okay, create mood boards, I often get free images from either pexels.com or unsplash.com. And I like batching photography, which means that when I’m out in a really beautiful location, I’ll try to get at least 10 really good shots that I can use on Instagram or elsewhere over the next couple of months. So that is just saving me a tonne of time. Another area of online marketing and social media, of course, is networking. And there’s a few things I want to share about that. Firstly, I would really again invite you to be very intentional and very discerning with where you’re spending your time and energy. When I was starting out in business, I was in multiple Facebook groups. And I was really pretty alarmed with all the questions and all the people in between and all the ideas that were flying around, I was just a lot of noise. And then now just in a select few groups, and I’m trying to be really present there and answer questions and be helpful. And I’ve met great people that way. And I’ve also met great kinds that way. And then really think about also where you can promote your work in a way that’s appropriate. So for example, if you’re active in a couple of groups, and you’re really contributing there and you’re like a positive presence, then it is totally valid on sharing Friday, if that’s the thing in that group, the share free offering that you have to let people know about a promotion that you’re currently running. So again, really organise about that, think about the spaces that you want to inhabit and where you want to show up and share something for free. And where you might also be able to share the paid or other offerings that you have. And then finally, form a free mastermind, I love masterminds and I’ve been in one with three other people for about a year and a half now, we meet every month, and we just encourage each other and less than and less than a year. And we brainstorm ideas. And I always walk away from these meetings, feeling really excited and good about my next steps. So I really value that. And I, one of one of those people in the group just messaged the other ones and said, hey, I’ve seen you in a Facebook group, we seem to have a lot of common Are you interested in thinking about starting a mastermind. And that’s totally something that you could do to just look around yourself on social media, and find people that are probably a different field that feels really good to me, but might be different for you. So I love working with people that are in different areas because they bring such different perspectives to my own. And, and then C to really, you know, bring a very mixed group of people together, and be realistic about the commitment that you can make to each other. And it might be really nice to be transparent about what you trust, struggling with, you know, maybe say, Hey, I am really struggling with online marketing and putting myself out there. And I’m looking for two or three or five or six or seven other people who are in the same space and we want to hold each other accountable, and maybe meet every one month or fortnightly to think about ways in which we can overcome that struggle and get more active on social media and explore on our marketing that feels good for us. Okay, that was my, my little exploration, I really hope that you found some encouragement here that you found some tools that might be useful for you. And most importantly, that you know that you’re not alone. There’s a real struggle that almost every business owner deals with at some point in their journey and it’s just about finding ways that feel good and working, working on it and knowing that it’s a journey and it’s gonna get easier, definitely month by month and quarter by quarter and year by year. So yeah, if you have questions, let me know if you want to join the business planning workshop for 2019. I would so love to have you and you can sign up for that for free through the link in the show notes. Have a beautiful day.
