We all hit a point when we need a break. I hit that point just before the holiday season started last year. My business was growing, I was getting organized to make an out-of-state move in February, and I was travelling to visit family out of state a lot, and my schedule felt like it was constantly packed full. To top it off, I decided to take on several incredibly exciting, but outlandishly big client projects that all had a December 31st deadline. I know, I know. Smack in the middle of the holiday season. But the projects were so much fun, and I so badly wanted to be part of them – I knew they’d be worth sacrificing a few hours of sleep here and there just for the opportunity to participate.
Of course, not everything moves seamlessly when you get busy. For me, I poured myself into client work, but found that my work here on this blog was slipping. I physically didn’t have enough hours in the day, and submitting quality client work and spending time with friends and family through the holidays were my top two priorities.
When the busy season calmed down, I realized something: I had gotten out of the habit of working on my business blog. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to anymore. It was that the idea of writing a business blog post for my own company literally hadn’t crossed my mind. Then, when I realized I needed to get back to it, it was so easy to continually put it on the back burner. I had abandoned it for a few months – what was another week?
Nobody Is Immune
The point is: I write for a living. I LOVE writing and content marketing. I seriously live for it. I read about it, write about it, help clients with it, make nerdy jokes about it in online social media communities…it’s a huge part of my life. And I neglected it!
It’s incredibly easy to push marketing your business to the back of your to do list, especially when there are more things crowding your calendar that look and feel more important. Sometimes, those tasks are more important. If I hit “rewind” and had to decide whether or not I would have taken on fewer projects this past holiday season teh answer would be a resounding no. I loved every minute of working on them! They reenergized me, I met some amazing people, and I strongly believe we did wonderful work.
But the fact remains: I had an epic blogging fail. I left my business blog stagnant for months. That’s literally something I adamently advise against when talking to my clients.
Finding What Works For You
Even though I took a step away from blogging during this time, I didn’t stop working on my business. I hired a Virtual Assistant to help me do some really cool things with social media for myself and clients (she’s the best and I don’t know how I lived without her on the PPC team). I increased my engagement on Twitter (which was not a platform I had used a ton in the past) and connected with some awesome new people in the finance industry. I wrote a freebie that’s chock-full of blogging topics and ideas for financial planners and published it on my website. I took an in-depth look at my service offering, and have a few more big picture projects in the pipeline that I guarantee you’ll LOVE.
I took a step back from blogging, but I didn’t stop participating in marketing strategies that gave me energy. I found new ways to stretch out of my comfort zone and grew my business as a result.
As a business owner, you need to find what form of marketing works for you right now. Consistency is nice, but not always feasible in today’s busy world. Sometimes you need to care for yourself, put family and friends first, and focus on your clients. That’s okay. People might notice if you’re not in a space where you always were before. I had a few clients ask me why I stopped blogging. I was honest with them: I certainly wasn’t abandoning it! I was just taking a breather to test drive a few other forms of marketing.
If you choose to walk away from a form of marketing you’ve been passionate about for a long time, that’s okay. It’s okay to try something new. It’s okay to try multiple things at once. You have permission to do what works for you.
Stay Genuine, Always
No matter whether you’ve been blogging, engaging on social media, running a podcast, recording videos, producing free content, or whether you’ve been doing any combination of all or none of these things – I salute you. Marketing your business is tough, staying consistent is tougher. The important thing is that you show up again and again. It’s important that you’re consistent when you can be, but that you stay true to yourself and what both you and your business need right now.
It would be nice if we could be perfect all of the time, but that isn’t reality. The only thing we can consistently promise to do is to be genuine. Be yourself and do what works best for you. People will want to work with you because there’s nobody else out there with your unique personality. They’ll be drawn to who you are. Stay genuine, always.
If You’ve Been Missing This Blog
Don’t worry! We’re officially back to our regularly scheduled programming of blogging regularly. I have some great content in store the next few months that I’m super jazzed about. Stay tuned!
And If You Need Help…
Let’s talk. I’m here for you. If you’ve been stuck in the same-old marketing routine for a while and want to shake it up, or if you just don’t feel like you can maintain it by yourself anymore – I’d love to help. Contact me today to learn more about how we can work together to help you grow and thrive as a financial planner.
