What your journey with Social Media can teach you about yourself

12 months ago, I was invisible on social media. I mean I had a LinkedIn account I had had for years, picking up connections of colleagues along the way. I had a personal Facebook page which was mainly used for lurking and stalking friends and families and being envious of their perfect lives. 

I decided I needed a Business Facebook page, so I set that up just over 12 months ago.

But I didn’t do anything with it. 

I would post maybe once a month and not surprisingly didn’t get much interaction.

I knew all the theory, the more you post the more interaction you will get, the bigger a following you will have, business will come to you - yada yada yada.

But I wasn’t showing up – and the reason why was because I was afraid of what people would think about what I had to say. I’d only been qualified as a coach for a few months by that time – who was I to be writing about coaching?

The truth is that despite the fact I had only been qualified for a few months with a professional coaching qualification, I had spent 25 years working at a senior level within large multinational organisations working in HR supporting Senior Leaders to be the best version of themselves, so that they could build and lead the best teams to deliver amazing business results. 

I had done numerous coaching courses during those years and the overwhelming consistent feedback was that I was engaging, warm, created a safe environment and was empathetic but would challenge people. The very qualities I still hold dear to me today as a qualified coach.

So why was I holding back? Ultimately it was because I was too busy comparing myself to all these amazing Coaches I had surrounded myself with as I built a support network as an independent Coach. They all seemed to have their sh*t together and I felt inferior. Imposter Syndrome can be a crippling condition and is based on the stories we tell ourselves in our heads, rather than any semblance of the reality and truth of a situation.

So, I decided what I needed was to go on courses to learn how to do social media stuff better – because that would solve it right?

I started and failed to finish quite a few – always getting blocked at the point where I needed to put myself out there.

Then I stumbled across Lisa Barry – lisabarryonline.com - on Facebook and something about the way she wrote spoke to me. She was running a free 5-day challenge, so I signed up – and I completed it – the first time ever!

The magic in Lisa is that she tells it how it is, she is incredibly grounded, supportive and is genuinely a cheerleader for you. But also, what she is about is mission led content. If you understand who your ideal client is, then writing becomes so much easier because you can write just for them, if others don’t like it – it doesn’t matter because you don’t want to work with them anyway!

On the back of her 5-day challenge I signed up to her 12-month programme with a support community included. 

All sounds great – what could possibly go wrong? Well I got stuck again, because the first task was to do a self-audit on a number of topics – How clear are you on your mission?, How are you communicating it?, How clear are you on your ideal client? – all good so far, then it started going into talking about systems, sales funnels, automation, email lists and I froze.

Admin is not my thing and I had to score myself zero on them all! 

Back to square one about feeling inadequate – not this time as a Coach, but as someone who is capable of running a business!

However, I didn’t let it deter me from putting my messages out there and I have been consistently showing up on Social Media now for 2 months and the feedback, engagement and comments on my posts have been universally positive. And do you know what – it has given me the thing that was holding me back in the first place to post – confidence. 

It’s a chicken and egg thing – which comes first the confidence to post or by posting you boost your confidence?

Now here comes the learning bit – it needed me to step outside my comfort zone to learn and grow into the space of posting on social media. 

Crazy, because I talk to clients all the time about the way to learn and grow is to be uncomfortable.

Alongside this I have sought to address some of the areas – I have engaged a VA who is helping me with my admin – a weight off my mind.

I have engaged a Coach who is helping me externalise all the stuff that was whirring round my head – because as an individual business owner it can be a very lonely place. Again, not earth-shattering news to me, but funny how it’s easy to forget as a Coach the power of coaching.

So, I now have a support mechanism in place, a renewed confidence in my ability, and do you know what new clients are being to be signed up on a regular basis.

I literally feel like I am on cloud 9 right now – will it last? I hope so, but if it doesn’t and another challenge comes along, I will remember the lessons that this journey has taught me, and apply them to the next scary thing to tackle in the wonderful world of self-employment.

If you feel something is just too scary to tackle, take it one step at a time. Tackle the things that you can, get help with the things that are too difficult and have faith in your abilities. You were meant to do great things in the world, you just have to believe that first before you can actually achieve them.

In the words of my favourite author Brené Brown - brenebrown.com “Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it's having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it's our greatest measure of courage.”

 “People who wade into discomfort and vulnerability and tell the truth about their stories are the real badasses”

So, if you too want to be a badass, do something scary, you never know what could happen.

If you want explore working with me to take the next step, then book a call with me here.