Coming back to intention
How I'm thinking about business, plus latest thoughts on Instagram, Substack and AI.
When I look back at the years I’ve spent freelancing, the years that have been the most enjoyable (and also the most profitable) are the ones where I’ve had intention in my business.
For at least the first couple of years I said yes to everything. Which I still believe is the best way to begin freelancing. I worry about those who launch themselves into freelancing with an extremely narrow niche of who they want to work with and what they want to work on. In certain cases, this may work, but while building the foundations of a business saying yes often opens you up to a far wider network of potential clients, projects and the ability to work out what’s a future yes (or no) in your business.
But on the flip side, if you don’t pause at some point and build intentionality around what you want your business to look like you end up in a rat race/hamster wheel (why is it only rodent analogies that fit here?), where your business runs away with you.
This, I find, is a one-way ticket to burnout. When you say yes to everything and anything you stop consciously thinking about things like: Is this a good fit? Does it align with the version of the business I want to have next year? By saying yes to this, what might I have to say no to? Which often then means you aren’t working in flow, or on the projects that light you up, because you’re still just saying yes, yes, yes.
2021 was the first year I was very intentional about how I wanted to work. Before this 90% of my work was made up of retainer clients who paid me a monthly fee to manage either all, or part, of their marketing,. As I mentioned before, working in a fractional way is a bit like having two or three fulltime jobs at once. So 2021 was the year I diversified. I kept retainer clients, but I also started doing project-based work that only lasted six weeks. I also started saying yes to producing high-ticket SEO strategies. Before this if I was asked to do an SEO strategy I’d say no, even though this was something I did for my retainer clients as standard. There was something about the “package” of a strategy that felt daunting to me and it meant I always referred the projects to people I considered SEO “experts”. By making these changes, I had my highest ever turnover in 2021, and more than that, it was the year I felt really, truly aligned, with the work I was doing.
The past two years I’ve been dipping in and out of my business while growing our family (which is fine, it’s a season, and I know in the grand scheme of things, it’ll be a short season). But because of this, and the fact the market has changed, I’ve definitely lost intentionality about my business and the work I take on.
Which means that I say yes more often than I say no, and that I’ve accepted projects from a place of scarcity, lacking my past confidence about the work I want to do.
In actuality, I feel like I’m on the brink of a pivot. And can I let you into a secret? It’s a pivot where I’m considering doing more “general” marketing work, where I’m considering whether I want to have the support of a team (something I bounce back and forth on constantly), or whether I want to keep the marketing minimal in order to pursue something else altogether.
Which means I’m writing this without the answer, but with the intention to make change.
And with that intention I have a feeling that I’ll work it out.
Are you currently working with intention and if so, what does that look like for you? I’d love to hear - hit reply and let me know.
Yours,
Beth
Thoughts & updates 👇🏼
📸 Instagram sent out an update last week sharing the three key ranking factors which tell the algorithm how popular a post is: 1) Watch time (note that TikTok’s first factor is dwell time) 2) Likes and 3) Sends. Two caveats; watch time obviously correlates to the prominence of video on the platform but remember that watch time can also mean time spent which is why carousels often do better than single photos. Secondly, Mosseri states that likes are slightly more important to connected audiences (i.e. the people who follow you), and sends are more important to unconnected (people who don’t). Which means if you haven’t heeded the advice from my last State of Play on Social event on having two strategies for your connected vs unconnected reach this has never been important.
🧐 Can we talk about Substack? In a bid to make my mental diet healthier, I’ve started to use scroll time in a different way. One thing I now do is open the Substack app and do you know what it feels like? It feels like when blogging first became a thing 10 years ago. Except for now I’m reading wonderful thoughts about motherhood, homemaking and work instead of mascaras and hair growth. Some of my favs to follow: Annie Ridout, The Future & Double Shift. (Although I do think the UX of the platform could use some work…)
✅ If I’m being honest I’ve been a little resistance to the AI hype. You know when someone keeps telling you to do something and it makes you want to dig your heels in and say no? Yes, that’s how I feel about using it to “improve” myself as a marketer. I also read, and apologies that I can’t remember where, that each time you ask ChatGTP something it requires the same energy as a bottle of water (due to the heat of the server space needed). But to dip my toe in what I have been using it (sparingly) for lately is to problem solve. As in, I have a client who wants to do X what’s the easiest way to achieve this? It then gives me a list of tools/methods and programmes I could use to get the desired outcome and has helped to solve some problems very quickly rather than Googling/searching for answers.
Thank you for reading 🙏
Hi I’m Beth 👋 a freelance marketer who helps manage and execute marketing for startups and growing businesses 🚀.
I’m currently working on marketing execution and strategy for a few growing businesses and love writing this newsletter to share thoughts on marketing, business and freelancing whenever I can.
You can find out more about what I do on My website or Built by Content.