Can You Have Business Success Without Social Media?

In episode 18 of the Biz Alchemy Podcast, Jacquelyn shares the story behind her break-up with social media. She explores what led to this decision and what she has put in place so that her business can continue to thrive. Sometimes we have to make big decisions in our business that are not always logical but intuitively and energetically we know it's time to move on.

Transcript

So this is a very big week for me.

It is the breakup of a long-term relationship,

One that's gone on for probably over 10 years for sure.

But as far as my business is concerned,

This relationship has been there from the beginning and my business has established itself based on this relationship.

And this is my relationship with Facebook.

It's been a love-hate relationship from the beginning,

Never been a huge fan,

But saw its potential in building a foundation for my business,

In finding a tribe for my business.

I mean,

It's an online business after all.

And Facebook,

And especially Facebook groups,

Have been such an integral part of the establishment and the ongoing support of my business.

But in the last 12 months,

I have struggled to show up on Facebook.

Personally,

I rarely post,

And business was because I have to,

Because that's where my tribe is,

And so I have to show up for my tribe.

I want to show up for my tribe,

And this is the platform for me to show up for them.

So I kept showing up,

I kept scheduling,

Doing the two posts a day for seven days a week,

And covering all different types of content and all the shoulds to have a successful business using Facebook.

I never used paid ads ever,

So Facebook never got any money from me.

However,

My business did feel chained to it.

And interestingly,

There was a cartoon in our local paper a few weeks ago,

The Echo,

And in this paper it had a big brick in the middle,

Which said,

I'm not sure whether it said Facebook or social media,

It might have said social media.

And then around the outside,

It had business,

Business,

Business,

Business.

It had about 10 businesses around,

And they had this chain around their neck going to the social media.

And somewhere there was written dollar signs.

I can't think where.

And I looked at that and I went,

Oh my gosh,

That is exactly how I feel.

I rely on Facebook to make my money.

That is the belief,

That is the belief in my business.

But in reality,

That's actually not true.

I have built my business using the platform of Facebook,

But actually I don't get a lot of clients through Facebook.

But my belief was still that I do.

And when I looked at this cartoon in the paper,

It just hit me that this is almost the belief that has been created now,

And it sits in our society and especially amongst online businesses,

But probably all businesses now,

Is that you have to have social media to market.

And so we are owned by Facebook,

Really,

Since the main platforms people would use are Facebook and Instagram.

So they're both Facebook.

So we are tied to this entity of Facebook.

And about six months ago,

I'd made the decision that I would come out of a lot of groups by the 31st of December,

And by the 31st of March,

I would be off Facebook altogether.

And as we went into this year,

I did pull back on the groups,

And we went into this year and I thought,

Hmm,

You know what,

It's okay.

It's okay.

I don't mind showing up there too much.

I could just come in and out and don't have any shoulds around it.

So I did cut back on how often I was posting,

And I just went on there to write when I felt like it.

And then I saw this cartoon in the paper.

And as soon as I saw it,

I thought,

Oh,

My gosh,

I could feel the density in the base chakra of my business.

And I realized that I'd been denying this,

That actually in the energy body of my business was this incredible density around the should,

The have to,

Of being on Facebook,

That Facebook was required as a home for my business.

And the energy of Facebook is such a low vibration,

Like the Facebook entity itself,

Which is composed of,

You know,

Not only the people who are part of the Facebook management,

But also every single person who is on Facebook puts their energy into Facebook.

And overall,

There's a very dense energy in there.

So my business,

Which is attempting to operate with a pure vibration in its energy body because that's who I'm wanting to attract in terms of my clients,

Was continuously battling this denser energy of Facebook.

And I had an awareness of it,

But it wasn't until I saw this cartoon that it hit home,

That my business felt tied to Facebook for its survival.

And as soon as I saw that,

I went,

I'm out of there.

I set the 31st of March for a reason,

And I'm going through with it.

So even though this was the trigger for,

Yes,

I'm definitely going ahead and I'm setting this date and I'm off,

I have been planning it because I did have the idea probably around October last year.

So I had a good six months to start to plan it.

I knew it wasn't just a matter of,

Okay,

That's it,

Close down my account,

Off I go.

I knew I had to make a plan,

And so I did.

So part of setting up this podcast initially was so that I had a channel for my voice to get out there other than through doing Facebook Lives.

And the podcast has been amazing,

And I love showing up every week,

And I love sharing with you about my insights in terms of business energy and what I'm learning,

What I'm learning about the new business paradigm,

My experiences sharing some interviews with you with some amazing women.

This has been perfect,

But it's not a full replacement,

And that's partly because I do not get your response through a podcast.

I'm sharing with you,

But I'm not getting anything back in terms of immediate feedback.

And I have to say that as a generator in human design where I respond,

This has been a little bit challenging because it's like I wait for your response,

And then I can respond again,

Which is why it's nice to interview people.

But that part of me hasn't been fully satisfied through the podcast,

Whereas on Facebook or any social media,

You do a post and you get response.

Not always,

But often you get a response,

Even if it is just a like,

But you get a response.

The second thing that I decided to do was overhaul my website.

I was going to play around with my copy a lot more,

Which I haven't yet done,

And then I was going to revisit the SEO on my website,

Which I'm not there quite.

But I have started.

I've put that in process.

And an integral part of that was also nurturing my list.

My email list is so important to me.

It always has been.

I have never been about quantity in my email list.

It has always been about quality.

I only want people on my list who want to hear from me because if they don't want to hear from me,

But they're not bothering to unsubscribe or I'm going into their junk and so they're not even getting a chance to unsubscribe.

Well,

Their energy is still going into my business and yet they're not aligned with my business.

And that's not negative.

We're just not vibing at the same place at the moment.

So they're better off with their energy in someone else's business,

Someone who they are aligned with right now.

So having a tribe who is really vibing with what I'm talking about right now,

Who is learning from what I have to share,

That's really important to me.

So I have been nurturing my list.

I have been working out what works best for me around the newsletter.

I used to do weekly and now I've moved to fortnightly with an occasional one in between if I have something to share.

And I feel really invested in my newsletter and I spend two or three hours creating my newsletter so that it is something that people want to devour so that it's sharing a piece of me that they can really benefit from.

This is really important to me that it's not just about advertising,

That it's about sharing some wisdom or some experience I have that can help them in the energy of their business.

So I have put even more focus on my email list as a result of deciding to move away from Facebook.

And the interesting thing about this is when I write my newsletters,

I feel inspired.

I feel excited.

I love what I'm sharing.

But in the last few months when I've been writing my Facebook posts,

I don't feel that way.

And so obviously the energy that's going into my newsletter is very different to the energy going into my Facebook posts.

So it's going to attract different people anyway.

So really it's a no brainer.

I was wasting my time on Facebook.

I wasn't showing up as me.

I wasn't showing up as my full vibration.

So I wasn't going to attract in the people who really resonate with who I am anyway.

So,

You know,

I'd worked out how to satisfy the throat chakra of my business that was through this podcast.

And I'd worked out how to satisfy the base chakra of my business,

Which was through nurturing my email list and through my website.

Because here's the other thing.

I'm talking about the website in relation to the base chakra.

If you have an online business,

Your website or your social media pages are the home of the business.

That's almost like the bricks and mortar of the business.

It's the most physical aspect of the business.

And so this is what I mean when I was saying Facebook felt like it was blocking up my base chakra because the energy was denser.

And yet it was one of the homes of my business.

But my business wasn't happy there.

So that's going to affect the security,

The stability of my business.

And what that means,

The base chakra is also about safety.

So that also means that clients coming to me,

Especially,

Well,

Through Facebook,

But actually any clients drawn to me,

Would have been picking up that the base chakra of my business was not feeling really secure and safe because it didn't like one of its homes.

So energetically,

That could also have affected clients who I was hoping to attract in because maybe they could sense that.

Maybe they didn't feel fully safe in my business because my business itself didn't feel fully safe on that actual platform.

That's really worth keeping in mind when you're thinking about the energy of your business.

So anyway,

Amidst all of this change and these decisions to move away from Facebook,

Of course,

The universe gifted me with something else,

Something that wasn't in my plan.

My plan was podcast,

Website,

Slash list.

And then I was presented with Insight Timer in mid-February and I have moved into that platform.

I love being on that platform.

I love it because I can record my meditations and put them up there so I have evergreen content.

But I can also show up live and have that beautiful interaction that I love with my tribe.

So my generator is so happy.

And not only that,

Even with the recorded meditations,

People can still comment and share about their experience.

So I'm getting the interaction that I love.

And not only that,

It works via donations.

So if someone feels really moved or inspired by what I'm sharing,

They can leave a donation for me,

Which is shared between Insight Timer and myself.

How inspiring is that?

And not only that,

The people on Insight Timer are there because they're interested in their personal development.

They're interested in meditation.

They're interested in energy.

They're interested in yoga.

It's a tribe that speaks my language.

If I'm on there sharing about business energy,

Even all the teachers who are on there,

They're all making a business as such out of their healing work or their energy work.

So even amongst the teachers on there,

I have a tribe that's perfect for me.

And so I'm sharing this with you because if you are thinking,

I would love to be off social media,

But I just don't know how.

Remember that we don't always know the answers,

But sometimes it takes us to make the decision,

Create the void so that the universe can go,

Oh,

Here,

How about this?

Try this one.

Because without the void and with the denser energies in our energy body or our business's energy body,

We could be blocking out that alternative.

And that's what I feel like was happening for me.

I have not had space to even consider Insight Timer until recently,

Until I've pulled back from social media and no longer spent the time that I used to invest in social media.

So I have to say,

I am incredibly excited about breaking up with Facebook on the 31st of March.

I feel like there is potential in this that I don't even see right now.

And I'm just excited to see what happens to my business energy body,

Especially the base.

But all the chakras will be affected without the denseness of the Facebook entity in it.

Now,

I'm not sharing this with you to say this is right for you to say,

Get off Facebook,

Get off Instagram.

I'm not sharing it for that reason.

I'm sharing it so you can experience what I've been through in making this decision.

And so you can appreciate that you do have a choice.

We always have a choice.

Business is an adventure and there's no right and there's no wrong.

It's experiencing different things.

I may do this and in six months go,

Oh,

My gosh,

Actually,

I want to get back there and I can do that.

Nothing's black and white,

Nothing's set in stone.

I'm on an adventure.

I'm exploring.

I'm learning.

It's a lab we can experiment.

And that just makes the whole thing so much more fun.

So I hope this has got you thinking.

When I sent out an email last week to my tribe all about this choice I've made,

I had more response from that newsletter than I've had from any other newsletter I've ever sent out.

So it showed me that it's on a lot of people's minds.

Several people had already pulled back.

Several had come off altogether.

And some were saying,

Oh,

I wish I could do that.

So this is why I wanted to have the conversation.

Don't feel that your business is chained to social media,

That it requires social media for its survival.

It's a societal belief that is not true.

So shift that belief now and stay because you choose to stay,

Because you are nurtured by that platform,

But for no other reason.

And until next week,

Have an alchemical week in your business.

Reviews

I have been feeling the same way. Thank you so much for sharing this wisdom.

Hello fellow Generator. You spoke directly to my heart. I struggle so much on social media, but never crossed my mind to come off it. Although the only few dollars I made so far were not from Facebook. Thank you for challenging this belief. And thank you the "adventure" perspective. It helps a lot with my fear of making mistakes. Be blessed! 🙏

Loved this!! I hate social media and try to get off of it, but tend to feel stuck. I start feelings all the “shoulds”, which are draining. I love InsightTimer! I’m glad you found a home here.

This was great insight. As a web designer, I can speak to the life of one’s business. I’m glad you cut the cord of social media.

Just what I needed to hear 🙏

Amazing! You put in words what I was feeling (not even thinking yet!)
Thank you!

Great. I too feel the dense essence. So have others I know. They too have disengaged from those platforms as well.

Interesting ideas. I’d never thought about the energy centers as they apply to my business. Will have to spend some time with that. Thank you. 🙏🏻💕🌟