How 4 Months Without Social Media Has Benefitted My Business

In episode 38 of the Biz Alchemy podcast, Jacquelyn shares the impact that four months without Facebook has had on her business. She outlines five benefits from being Facebook-free, and how following her intuitive guidance has led to a more joyful, effortless business that is truly heart-aligned. This is definitely her new paradigm of business!

Transcript

Lovely to have you here as always.

I'm feeling refreshed today.

I've been and done the lighthouse walk near my house here in Byron Bay and had a swim.

We are having the most amazing last month of winter.

I've been swimming every day for the last week or so.

It is so beautiful.

And because we're in lockdown here in New South Wales,

Uh,

In Byron Bay,

We've been in lockdown for just over a week now.

And now it's all of New South Wales,

But it's so quiet here.

So there's a few people out.

There's quite a lot of surfers out because they're allowed to surf.

Um,

There's a few people around,

But not many.

And the streets are deserted.

The shops are deserted.

It's actually incredibly peaceful.

So it's like having your own paradise to yourself in a way.

Uh,

So feeling blessed that despite the hardship of the situation,

I am somewhere where I can be in nature.

Because my gosh,

It's such our savior,

Isn't it?

Anyway,

Today I am going to chat with you about how it's been for me in the four and a half months since I left Facebook.

And a couple of people have asked me about this lately.

And I thought,

Well,

That's been a good chunk of time for me to sit down and evaluate where I'm at.

Um,

I've got to be honest with you.

Haven't missed it.

And actually last week I went on because I hadn't deleted my account.

I had just chosen not to go back on there and I'd left a notification on my business page saying,

If you want to find me,

Here's where you find me.

Uh,

So,

Uh,

It wasn't,

You know,

It was still there.

If I wanted to return,

It was still there,

But,

Um,

It sort of annoyed me because if anyone ever gave me a link to Facebook and I,

And I'd go on to look at whatever they were showing me,

I'd still have this massive list of notifications.

Even though I wasn't using it.

And I didn't like that.

Anyway,

Last week,

Uh,

I'd actually read something about,

Uh,

An insider from Facebook,

Just sharing about the algorithm and how it's working in relation to current world events.

And I just thought that's it.

I do not want to be in this platform,

On this platform anymore,

Even though I've taken my business off it energetically.

Uh,

For me,

It,

The fact it's still there,

I still had a page open.

I still had a profile was just enough for me to go,

Uh,

I'm out of there.

So I did end up closing,

Deleting my Facebook,

Uh,

Account and also deleting my Instagram account.

I don't use Instagram.

I've hardly used it for my business,

But I still had an account.

Mind you,

They still give you 30 days to change your mind.

So,

Um,

So there's a clause,

But,

Uh,

It felt really good.

And for me,

It was a perfect segue into sharing with you today,

The five benefits to having a social media free business.

Because I know many of us have a love hate relationship with social media and it can be so scary to walk away from it.

Particularly if you've built your business on it,

Which I had.

I'm very,

Very grateful to the opportunity that Facebook and Facebook groups in particular gave me to grow my business.

It really,

It was,

It is not the only way to get started,

But it's the way that I ended up going.

It's the path I took because it presented to me at that time.

It helped me build a beautiful tribe.

And I met some amazing people who are still connections,

Still friends.

I met them back in the day.

I met them through that journey of Facebook.

So I am not here to say that that is not the way to build your business,

Instagram,

Facebook,

LinkedIn,

Whatever social media platform you're using.

But I want to present another side.

The fact that it can work without being on social media business can work.

Now,

If you are new to my podcast or you're wondering sort of what led to me deciding to leave Facebook in the first place,

If you listen to episode 18,

Can you have business success without social media?

That's when I explore my reasons for leaving.

That was right at the time I left.

And so at that point I was stepping into the void.

I did not know what would be on the other side of the leaving Facebook cliff.

And now I figure after four and a half months,

I've got a fairly good grip on it.

So I've come up with five benefits for me from leaving Facebook behind.

But I'd like to begin with sort of a negative,

I suppose,

Maybe a challenge that I had with the departure,

With my departure from Facebook.

And that was letting go of the conditioning I had that I had just probably picked up from being on social media,

That it was important to be growing your list,

To be getting more numbers,

To be continuously in front of more people.

And that numbers mattered really,

That it was quantity over quality.

So I have had to really go deep into this conditioning,

Visit this story and decide if that is true for me or not.

Because if it was true for me,

Then I was probably making a mistake by getting off social media.

But with the experience I've had that I'll go through with you now,

It's actually helped reinforce for me a new belief.

And that belief is that quality is way more important than quantity when it comes to business.

And that is a whole other podcast in itself,

Which I will explore at some point.

But in a nutshell,

Despite what you hear,

You can let go of the numbers story.

It's not important.

20 really amazing people in your tribe is way more supportive of your business than 20,

000 followers.

So on that note,

Let's go in to the five benefits that I've experienced from leaving Facebook.

The first one is I have way more time,

So much more time in my business.

I can't believe how much time Facebook sucked from me and not just time,

But energy.

It's one thing to say,

Okay,

I've got a timer,

I only do 20 minutes a day,

But energetically you are still invested in there.

Even when you've stopped your 20 minutes,

If you've put a post in there or you've commented,

And then in the meantime,

Someone's responding to that,

Even though you're not checking,

Energetically,

You're still in there.

You're still a part of the conversation.

And this is not necessarily obvious,

But it is a fact.

You are energetically invested in there.

You're energetically invested in there 24 seven.

And so,

Yes,

Energetically a big relief,

But I did find I suddenly had a lot more time,

A lot more time to create.

I mean,

I was no longer spending time in Canva.

I hardly go into Canva now.

I was spending a lot of time in Canva,

Creating Facebook posts,

Writing copy,

Repurposing copy,

And then just the time of going,

Oh,

Gosh,

I should do a live,

Putting that out there.

Even when I had,

I was using like a scheduling system,

You know,

Still even to go in there and update things and be checking it was still doing its job,

Posting twice a day,

Because that's what I used to do.

You know,

That still took time for me because now and again,

Things need updating within that.

And also the time I used to spend commenting in groups,

Which was an important part of building my business.

But I probably didn't need to do it so much now.

And yet it was sort of ingrained in me to keep that momentum going by commenting on other people's posts.

And of course,

The more my world expanded in Facebook and I got to know more people and they became friends as well as colleagues and clients,

I wanted to comment on their posts.

So when I'd see things come up,

I want to comment.

And all of that takes energy.

And I've got to be completely honest with you.

I have not missed that.

At first,

I missed not knowing what people were up to day to day.

But then I realized,

Well,

Hang on,

You don't need to know what people are up to day to day.

And if you want to stay connected,

You stay connected outside of that platform.

So that was interesting to just watch myself.

Is it FOMO?

Maybe.

Sort of a little bit of FOMO,

Fear of missing out on what's going on in someone's life,

In someone's business.

So that was interesting to break away.

But it does free up so much of your time.

Because I'll be honest with you,

It had become a drudgery.

I did not enjoy being there.

I did not enjoy the energy of have to,

The shoulds.

It really was a should in my life.

And all I enjoyed was the connection and I found other ways to do the connection.

It also made me realize how social media is fully yang.

You're constantly in your yang energy when you are on social media.

Even if you're scrolling,

You're putting energy out the whole time you're doing it.

And taking that big chunk of yang out of my life has given me a lot more yin time.

As I mentioned,

I am creating so much more.

And a part of my transition has been to go to Insight Timer,

Which revealed itself to me at the time when I decided I was coming off Facebook.

So I am creating much more for that platform,

But it's a different sort of creating.

It's recording meditations and that really lights me up.

That feeds me so much.

And I'm in a yin space when I'm doing that.

So I have found that I'm much more in harmony with the yin and yang energy in my business.

Now if this is something that you would like to know more about,

Just understanding the yin and yang of business.

Check out episode 7,

Harmonizing the yin and yang for business success.

I have mentioned it also throughout other episodes,

But this is really a big one for us in embodying the new business paradigm.

It's to be balanced in the yin and yang energy of business when business is traditionally yang.

And I found on social media I was in a lot of yang energy.

So that has been a real blessing in helping me move into my yin and the time that,

Or the spaciousness I would say,

That I feel around that.

So now I do have way more time to go on lighthouse walks and have swims,

Which before that was squeezed in around everything.

Now the second benefit that I've experienced is that I have more pleasure in my newsletter writing now.

It's not being crammed in between everything else.

With that space and that time that I'm talking about,

I can really immerse myself in the joy of writing my newsletters.

And what I love about that is that the energy behind me and behind what I'm writing is much more powerful.

It's much more aligned.

It's more attractive because it's my energy and there's joy in it.

I'm really experiencing joy as I share my story,

My perspective,

My wisdom through my newsletter.

And I feel incredibly nurtured by writing my newsletter.

Plus,

I'm nurturing my tribe more.

My newsletter tribe are choosing to be there.

They've signed up.

They're staying.

If it's no longer aligned with them,

They leave.

So I am speaking to people who want to hear my message right now at this point in time.

Unlike on social media where people are just scrolling and your message is just flicked on by many,

Many times.

So you're also sending your energy out to an audience who doesn't want to hear it.

You might get 0.

005% who want to hear it and they stop.

I just made that figure up,

By the way.

But otherwise,

It's just going out to this unknown space.

When I write my newsletter,

The ladies receiving it want to hear my message.

And as I said,

If they don't,

When they've shifted their energy and it's no longer vibing with mine,

Which is perfect.

And I'm very much honored that we all have our journey in that way.

They unsubscribe and then they find someone's newsletter list who they do resonate with.

So I am really enjoying this aspect of not being on social media.

It's given me a whole new love for my list,

The people on my list and for the actual art of writing the newsletter itself.

And so just another aspect of that is because I'm not really offering freebies now in the way I did when I was on social media,

Which admittedly got people to sign up because they might have,

I might have been doing a free webinar.

I might have just offered a free meditation or some sort of opt in that I was promoting.

So a whole lot of people would join my list for that thing,

But they weren't necessarily really wanting to hear my voice.

They didn't even know if they were aligned with my message.

They just wanted that free thing.

And maybe they stayed on my list.

Maybe they left.

But I don't want that on my list.

That they're not the people I want on my list anymore.

So I may not be getting the numbers signing up,

But where I do still get people joining my list from is Insight Timer.

So even though I'm not allowed to promote myself on Insight Timer,

In my bio,

There's a link to my website.

And so they can easily find me.

And once they find me,

Then they see how they can stay in touch with me,

How they can join my newsletter list,

How they can listen to my podcast.

That's all there for them.

So it's a choice then to sign up to that newsletter list.

I've also attracted some new people to my list through giving talks in other groups,

Through being interviewed on other podcasts,

And also through this podcast,

Because someone might find me through this podcast,

Want to hear more about what I have to say and join my list.

So that's,

They're my avenues now for attracting in my tribe.

And as I said,

I may not be getting the quantity I used to get,

But the quality is there.

And I think I've got about 420 on my list at the moment.

I've never had a huge list.

Like at one point,

I think my list got to about 600.

But the other thing I do is every six months,

I send out an email to those who have not opened an email from me in the past six months saying,

Do you want to stay on my list?

And then they have to click yes to stay on my list or else they're removed.

So because I'm doing that constant declutter of my list to make sure the people on my list are energetically aligned with myself,

That also sort of caps my numbers a little bit.

But as I said at the beginning,

For me,

It's not about numbers.

It's about an energetically aligned tribe.

And so those who join my newsletter list now are really wanting my message.

And that enables me to stay incredibly authentic and aligned to who I am because that's who they're wanting.

So the third benefit.

Now,

This is for those of you who,

Even though I've said it's not about the numbers,

Have said,

Oh,

Yeah,

But I still like to look at the numbers.

I like to look at the stats.

This is for you.

But it was actually also insightful for me.

So without getting into the nitty gritty numbers,

Because I don't tend to do that.

On my last opening of my group program,

BizAlchemy Playground,

Which was in June,

What I do now,

Because rather than do freebies,

As I said,

I do low-cost events.

So I offered a solstice meditation for $11.

And I had,

I can't remember now,

Quite a few sign up.

When I say quite a few,

It might have been 20.

My playground ladies received it for free,

So they were there as well.

And then I probably had about 20 people join.

From that experience,

That two-hour retreat that we had together,

From that experience,

I had the highest conversion into my program,

BizAlchemy Playground,

Than I've ever had.

From any webinar that I've run,

Any challenge that I've run,

You know,

They've all converted into different things,

Not necessarily the playground.

But whatever that I was inviting people into following that experience,

The conversion has been lower than this conversion I had this time.

So as I said,

I may not have got the numbers.

I've run webinars before where I've got 100 plus people,

Free webinars.

Then I had,

You know,

Very often just a few percent conversion from that.

This one,

I didn't work it out exactly,

But just off the top of my head,

As I'm thinking now,

It was about a 40 to 50 percent conversion.

And like,

Really,

That's pretty amazing,

Isn't it?

So this is what I mean by it's about quality,

Not about quantity.

You know,

Just after doing that little spiel,

I actually do have to just say that here,

I hate the word conversion.

I'd written that quickly in my notes and then I've just talked about it and then gone,

Oh,

My gosh,

What a terrible word.

It's just like it just sounds like an object,

Doesn't it?

So I attracted in some beautiful,

Beautiful ladies to my retreat who decided they wanted to continue being a part of my world.

And so it was a really wonderful response from that.

There we go.

That is a much nicer way of saying it,

Isn't it?

I'm still picking myself up.

I'm still learning.

OK,

The fourth benefit,

And I touched on this before and you could probably feel my energy around this a little bit.

But the fourth benefit,

Which in many ways is probably the most important for me and is why I decided to divorce Facebook and Instagram last week,

Even though they gave me a 30 day cooling off period.

I don't have Zuckerberg in my business's energy body anymore.

And that's really important for me.

The energy of the Facebook entity is dense.

It's divisive.

I'm talking about the big entity.

OK,

Here,

I appreciate that within groups on Facebook,

It's beautiful.

I mean,

I had a beautiful tribe that is beautiful energy and they can be real little places of oasis.

But for me,

An understanding the energetic entity and as I said,

The divisiveness,

The repression of free speech and all of that side,

Not having that in my business's energy anymore is just such a blessing for me.

My business feels lighter.

I feel like I don't have to clear out its energy body as much.

So,

As I said,

I'm speaking from my experience and what's important for me.

And I realize for many people,

They're not worried about that.

But as someone who looks at the energy of businesses,

I can see the effect that that has and certainly had on my business.

So releasing from that has been very liberating for me and making those final cuts in the energetic cords last week.

And once the 30 days is up,

It'll be even better.

I think that'll be really like,

Yep,

That story is over.

You're out of my business energy body altogether.

In a nutshell,

I feel freedom without those social media platforms.

Now,

Having said that,

I'm still on YouTube.

My podcast just gets posted on there and YouTube is the same,

The same energy in terms of censorship and so on.

And yet for me,

I don't feel it as strongly and because sometimes we still have to be on those platforms and send our beautiful vibrations out as a part of maybe the healing of that energy as well.

So I also appreciate that.

But for me,

I just wasn't able to do it on those platforms.

Whereas on YouTube at the moment,

I'm still feeling OK showing up and spreading the love in that space.

Now,

The fifth one,

This was an interesting one because I was thinking,

Oh,

Number five,

What's number five?

And this popped into my head and I went,

Oh,

My gosh,

How interesting.

Coming off social media has saved me money.

My business expenses have gone down considerably.

And you know why that is?

There's no FOMO.

I'm not seeing that course and that offer and like,

Oh,

You can do my Facebook posts for me or this course will help me choose more aligned branding colors or all these amazing offers and courses out there.

And they're all wonderful.

And I've worked with so many incredible women that I've been introduced to through that space who have helped my business so much.

And of course,

I was one offering that stuff as well.

But when it's not in your face and you have to go searching for it,

You search for what you truly need at the time.

And as a result of that,

As I said,

My business expenses have gone down so much.

Now,

It depends on how you look at it.

You might want to increase your business expenses.

But for me,

Still with where my business is at,

Less business expenses actually means more money in my pocket.

That has been a real plus from not being on social media and one that I hadn't really thought about until I sat down to write this list.

I hope this has been enlightening for you,

Given you something to chew over,

Especially if you're someone who really feels energetically depleted,

Time depleted by your presence on social media and feel that maybe that's not your business's unique path.

Maybe there's another way for your business.

Because here's the thing,

As I mentioned before,

For some people,

This is so much a part of their path.

Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn is a very big part of their business's journey.

And it is a part of their unique path and they're finding their own way to be on those platforms and maintain integrity in their business and maintain their energetic vibration and attraction in their business.

Perfect.

If you are feeling like me and it's feeling out of alignment and you wish you could find another way to be in business outside of those platforms,

That's why I've shared this information with you to give you maybe some light to go,

Look,

It's actually not that terrifying on the other side.

And you might experience like I did where I had to decide to let go of Facebook before Insight Timer came to me as a platform where I could keep sharing my message.

What I'm offering is free,

But in a way that feels so much more aligned for me.

And I have had quite a lot of new clients come to me through Insight Timer.

Now,

If you're thinking,

Yes,

Jacqueline,

But how do I know what my business's unique path is?

I don't know whether I'm meant to be on Facebook or Instagram.

I just can't tell.

It feels like I should be,

But I'm not sure if it's aligned.

All that is,

Is the little argument that can go on,

Maybe the division that can go on between your heart,

Your heart knowing,

Your heart led business journey and your mind,

Your mind knowing.

Maybe I should have said your heart feeling and your mind knowing.

And the mind is dominant in our society.

And as part of our business journey experience,

Especially if we want to bring in a new paradigm of business,

We are learning more to be guided by our heart than our mind.

Our mind becomes the two I see in relation to the heart.

The heart makes the decisions and then the mind comes in and helps out where it can.

Now,

This can be very challenging and it's been for me a four year journey in business to really be led by my heart and really understand,

Not understand,

That's a mind word again,

But really feel what is my business's unique path.

What is right for me?

What brings me joy in business?

Until next time,

Have an alchemical week in your business.

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