Discover the journey behind our summer project, the bigger shift towards sustainable growth, and how it all ties into building a business off social media.
Over the summer months, the team was slowly working on a little project and it’s finally gone live.
We’ve given our website a refresh and I’m so excited to share it with you.
The real reason I want to talk about it today though, is because I thought it might be helpful to have me walk you through why we decided to invest in our time here, how it fits with the bigger shifts we’re making as a business and, of course, why.
Because as much as I love pulling the curtain back and sharing what we’re up to, my intention is always to use it as an opportunity to offer you things to think about and consider to support the way you’re building things…
If any questions pop after you read this, hit reply and let me know, as I can definitely answer them in upcoming issues.
I have more of the tactical stuff scheduled to go out in upcoming UNCUT episodes and have broken down the entire process in a masterclass for Traction, so definitely check those out, too, if you’re a member.
But to back up a little – the website revamp felt like an opportunity to let the brand evolve and get up to speed with where I am right now, and also a chance to really own my expertise, experience and the work I do.
But more than that, it’s part of a bigger shift that I’ve felt to build something off of social media and create a more sustainable and evergreen way of building the business long-term.
Last year felt like a tipping point.
I took time off Instagram to work on the revamp of Life-First Business, and the longer time passed, the more I had to rationalize with myself to go back.
I just didn’t want to do it anymore.
I felt frustrated that the work I was putting in there had diminishing returns and a painfully short shelf life.
Then there was the fact that I simply didn’t enjoy the type of content the algorithm was prioritizing as a consumer and as a creator.
And it ultimately didn’t feel like the way I wanted to show up or grow anymore.
Despite having multiple extended breaks, in hindsight I can see that the reason I ended up going back to Instagram was simply because I couldn’t see a pathway to sustain the business without it.
It almost felt safer to go along with what I knew and had done for so long than it was to allow myself to question that decision and step into the uncertainty of trying something new.
But as is often the case, so much unlocked for me when I gave myself the space to mine those nudges and see what they were offering me (which is one of the reasons we have a whole lesson inside the LFB framework module dedicated to the practice of creating space to do just that).
Recently I heard someone talking about creating space by using the analogy of a sponge soaking up water.
Overstimulation, operating with “shoulds” or feeding ourselves with examples of what we think we should do, is the equivalent to a sponge that’s drenched in water. It’s at max capacity and cannot absorb anything else.
Creating space to mine the nudges for wisdom and to think and be in your own energy is like squeezing a bit of the water out, and that’s what taking a step back last year allowed me to do.
It gave me the courage to stop hiding behind breaks and instead, actually make the decision to step away and grow in a new way.
Not only did I feel relief afterwards, it gave me the opportunity to see all of the sufficiency in what I’d already built in my business, as well as all of the opportunities in front of me to operate more sustainably that I couldn’t see when I was trying to force myself to do things I didn’t want to.
Think about the fly banging on the window trying to get out, not noticing that it could fly out from underneath if it only stopped for a moment and zoomed out…
I always remind my clients that any business needs three things: traffic, a means of converting that traffic into leads, and a way of turning that audience into customers.
It’s as simple as that.
How you decide to generate that traffic, nurture your audience and create sales is completely up to you.
You just want to make sure it aligns with your strengths and what comes naturally to you, that it does the job you need it to, and that it also fits with the role you want to occupy in your business and what makes sense for you energetically.
In my case, before I was a coach, I was a writer.
I think in copy terms.
It’s something that’s always come naturally to me.
And I grew my business creating long form content through features on the website, our podcast and long-form newsletters.
I love long form content.
I love substance and love creating content on platforms that allow me to connect on a deeper level.
And I would much rather spend time creating evergreen work that I’m proud of and simply sending more people to it, than reinventing the wheel in order to churn out as much new content as possible.
I want to be known for my brain, my concepts and ideas, rather than my ability to be everywhere.
So in terms of the big shift, that means returning to a lot of the things I did in the beginning that may seem old school but work, and have really served me well.
Newsletters.
Blog posts.
A website optimized for list growth.
Robust sales pages to sell without me.
SEO and organic traffic.
One of the things I teach my students is about noticing the dominant thoughts they have about their offers and doing the self-coaching to fully get their energy behind them, and the same is true for strategies.
It wasn’t enough for me to simply decide that focusing on these areas feels more aligned and therefore should work.
I had to make an action plan for how this shift would need to work to facilitate the growth I’m after, and fully get my energy behind the plan.
Without that, you can unknowingly leak so much energy second guessing your decision and re-negotiating yourself, instead of using all of that brain power to help you forge forward and make it work.
In that case, you see that mediocre results are often just a reflection of your dominant beliefs about what you are doing versus the efficacy of the strategies you’re using.
Since leading myself and making the shift, it’s attracted more people into my world who are also feeling the call to build something that’s not exclusively dependent on social media… people, who, like me, want to forge a different path.
And I share that, just to serve as an example that you don’t always have to try and make a square fit in a circle.
The more courageous you are in following what is effective and makes sense for YOU, the easier it becomes to attract people into your world who deeply align with the way you do things.
Very often, we’ve become so used to things feeling hard that it feels scary and uncomfortable to listen to the part of ourselves nudging us towards a more natural and sustainable path.
Last year I thought that I wanted to step away from my business more, but that was simply because of the thought error that social media was the only way for me to grow.
I do want to be involved in my business. What I now realize is that I want to be more intentional about the work I do when I’m in it, and that doesn’t mean removing myself completely.
So now I get to do what I love.
- I get to write to you and have the space to create more substantial, value-first pieces.
- I get to be in my little hermit writing mode (extroverted introvert over here!) or working on the business behind-the-scenes, without feeling the need to perform, be “on” or show up no matter what.
- I have the space to build assets that allow me to sell with my copy, rather than my time or energy, freeing up more bandwidth for my life.
I took 3 days off last week to show my cousin the city who flew in from London for a quick trip; followed by two days of quality time with my kids with the school closures
- Focusing on evergreen content means I can work in advance, which means more buffer time and opportunity for breaks, too.
- And because the content I am creating has a longer shelf life, I know that the work I put in today will have a ricochet effect and attract new people into our world and offers,while I’m on holiday, taking a break or doing something else.
