Why you don’t need to BE everywhere and DO everything

How many social media platforms are you wrestling to stay on top of right now?

How often do you just feel utterly drained and overwhelmed by it all - and like you have time for nothing ELSE in your business?

Here’s why doing LESS could actually be way MORE valuable to your business - not to mention your stress levels!

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I was speaking at a retreat yesterday, run by the lovely Zoe Whitman and Jo Wood from The 6 Figure Bookkeeper. My talk was on Money Mindset, and we also did a gorgeous visualisation for abundance to help the ladies there really connect with the future they want to create.

But when I got to the end of my talk and asked for questions, this one particular question came up which I really empathised with, and I thought it would be really great to talk about this on the podcast because I know it’s far from an isolated thing - SO many people are just feeling utterly overwhelmed by their to do lists and in particular, coping with feeling like they have to be showing up everywhere on social media.

So I completely get this. When I was starting out in marketing my business online, it felt like you needed to be doing ALL the things.

You needed a Facebook page.

You needed a Facebook group.

You needed to be engaging in other people’s groups.

You needed to be part of the various memberships you were hearing about.

You needed to be building a membership.

You needed to be downloading every freebie that came your way and signing up for every challenge.

You needed to be on Instagram, you needed to be doing whatever latest thing they’d brought in there - Reels at the moment, isn’t it?

You needed to be on LinkedIn.

You needed to be reaching out to 10 different contacts a day.

You needed to be posting consistently on all these social media accounts for fear of missing a potential client.

You needed to be jumping on any threads you could to shout about your services.

You needed a Twitter account to have a chance of getting PR.

You needed to be on Clubhouse.

You needed a website. You needed to optimise that for SEO.

Oh my goodness - you needed an extra 24 hours in your day just to keep up with that lot!

Is it any wonder people just feel utterly exhausted and drained by their businesses, and that’s before you’ve done anything that actually involves client work, finances, bookings, contracts…

And breathe.

So I’m here to tell you today that you DON’T need to be everywhere and you DON’T need to be doing all the things.

For this poor lady at the retreat, she was just feeling utterly overwhelmed by it all and I know she’s not alone.

The thing is, when we feel SO stretched and so stressed out, our mind just goes into panic mode and we can’t see the way ahead. We feel like there’s no way out, and we start to feel like we’re failing.

Comparisonitis creeps in and we feel like we’re seeing other people managing to juggle everything - so why can’t we?

We feel exhausted, like we might as well give up - and we have no energy left for our lives, our families, or doing anything else in our businesses other than just surviving.

And when we’re showing up with that sort of energy - or lack of energy - with our tank running on empty - unfortunately there’s no way we’re going to be putting our best work out into the world.

That means any posts we DO put out will be reflecting that lack of energy, they’ll feel like a chore to write, we might spend way longer over them than we need to.

And they won’t connect with our audience in the way they need to to be effective - because when our brain is in that depleted, exhausted, stressed state, it doesn’t think in an inspired, uplifting way.

You know from the conversations you have with your family when you’re tired that you don’t come across at your best when you’re exhausted!

And that’s the sort of energy and message you’ll be subconsciously communicating with the world when you’re overwhelmed and TRYING too hard - that’s why, when you think you’ve written an amazing post and spent ages crafting it beautifully, it falls flat and you get no likes!

And then another day when you’re just inspired to post something that feels like a complete whim, a throwaway idea, it gets LOADS of interaction. Because it’s not coming from a place of pressure and stress, it’s coming from that intuitive part of you that knows what’s best!

This is also why I don’t really believe in overplanning and scheduling too much, by the way - for me, personally, I’m much better with a loose framework and just going with the flow.

So this is also true of spreading ourselves too thinly.

What happens is if we’re trying to connect with people on 5 different platforms, we do it half-heartedly - we don’t go ALL in and really engage with them like we would on just one or two.

Literally all the really successful entrepreneurs I know only focus on one or two platforms - at least at the beginning of their businesses.

The temptation is to think - more platforms, bigger audience! And yes a bigger audience is great, but they won’t really be paying attention to you if you’re not ‘really’ there.

It’s like trying to have a conversation with your partner or your teenager when they’re lost in a TV programme - people can just tell your attention isn’t there.

So I’m a really big fan of just bringing it all back to basics.

Write out a big list of everything you feel like you ‘should’ be doing.

Then turn that into a list of things you actually WANT to do. Things you really have TIME and ENERGY for.

Because honestly, if you don’t WANT to be somewhere, you might as well have a big ‘eff off’ message tattooed on your profile picture - people will know!

Bring it back to a couple of things that feel manageable and sustainable.

Because yes it IS important to be consistent.

I highly recommend having an email list - I think that is your BEST marketing tool - but you need to be emailing weekly.

Pick one social media platform, maybe two, that you REALLY enjoy - or at least can find joy in. And if you don’t want to be on social media at all, check out Leonie Dawson’s fab course Marketing Without Social Media*

And think strategically, rather than from FOMO. What else is going to help build your business? Maybe act as a more passive way to bring people into your world? What is worth putting your time and energy into - so that you don’t have to keep creating new content over and over again?

Personally I have my Facebook communities, Unblock Your Business and Build a Thriving Wellbeing Business.

I have an account on LinkedIn. I’m on Instagram but it’s really not a focus, and that shows!

I have the podcast, and each podcast episode is also turned into a blog post.

And I have a website - but you might not even really need that when you’re in the earlier stages of your business.

Bring it back to basics. And go ALL in on the things you really enjoy and see the point in.

Your business - and your stress levels - will thank you for it!

As always, I’d love to hear what resonated with you.

Check out my free Unblock Your Business FB group or, if you’re a service-based or wellbeing business then check out Build a Thriving Wellbeing Business

Join the waitlist for my membership, The Aligned Mind & Business Academy - and be the first to hear when doors open again!

Leonie Dawson's fab course: Marketing Without Social Media*