At the beginning of 2024, I deleted Instagram from my phone and stopped posting content there. Around the same time, I went from posting daily on LinkedIn to posting 4–5 times a week, and spending less time cross-posting to Pinterest.
I also ditched Twitter for good last summer after having enough of Elon's shenanigans, and Threads has slowly lost appeal in recent weeks.
But funny enough, while I'm posting less content than I have since I began creating in the Summer of 2022, my businesses are performing better than ever.
My MRR is the highest it's been in my 8 years of solopreneurship. I've taken much of the time I was spending on social media and creation, and put it towards warm outreach and client deliverables. More clients, and better transformations for those clients, has been the result.
Plus I feel great overall. I'm not even sniffing burn out. I'm working with amazing clients and feel complete clarity on where my business is heading.
While stopping content creation and writing online altogether would be disastrous for my brand and business, posting less frequently has me missing nothing at all.
I'm not stressed about follower counts, likes per post, or impressions. I don't feel required to engage and comment on other people's content all day.
I feel free.
Most business owners fall into a creator trap…
They think they need a huge social media following and audience to build their business.
This results in a routine that looks like this:
- Engage on other people's content for visibility
- Publish your own social media post
- Reply to comments on your content
- Comment even more on other people's content to keep the momentum going
Before you know it… You've spent 3+ hours on social media that day, all for the sake of gaining followers and momentum around your content. Just so your post hits the maximum number of eyeballs.
Then they saddle up and do it all again the next day…
That routine gives me the ick.
So how do you know if you're in the creator trap?
If you're unsure if you're in the creator trap or not: you know you're in the creator trap if your day ends with dozens more social media interactions than meaningful business developments.
And this social media centric, day-to-day activity isn't why I got into solopreneurship… I got into remote entrepreneurship so I didn't have to do mundane tasks like engage on social media all day.
I want to get paid to think, help others, and create — not mindlessly grind social media commenting.
The reality for business owners: there's way higher leverage tasks than sitting around commenting on social media all day.
So if your current game plan is to grow on social media at all costs, I urge you to stop and rethink your strategy.
What's better for your business?
- Engaging and commenting on social for hours?
- Reaching out and talking to your target audience directly?
It's clearly number 2. And if you don't like "cold" outreach…
Me either. So reach out and talk to those that have engaged with your content in the past, rather than just commenting aimlessly.
1 deep, meaningful conversation goes a lot further than 100 surface level comments.
Speaking of business development…
Posting less content enabled me to have waaaaay more sales conversations.
Sales. Proposals. Outreach. When I started posting less content, I started doing more of these activities.
Shocker: my sales went up.
More ghostwriting clients. More coaching clients. An all around better, more fulfilling business.
Now, it goes without saying a lot of my leads were super warm because of my content. Let's not sugarcoat that fact.
But that's the entire purpose of content. Attracting potential customers, then talking to them to see how you can help them.
Yet most business-centric creators don't seem concerned with talking 1:1 to the audience they're attracting. That's wild. And really hurts your revenue figures.
But I've also seen many personal benefits too…
Posting less content meant I was more present at home.
More exercising. More walking with my dogs. More time in the morning chatting and enjoying coffee with my wife.
When I was publishing the MOST I ever had (in summer 2023) I was even neglecting some of the chores I should have been doing around the house. Which placed a heavier burden on my wife during those months.
That's shameful.
I had to take a step back, and evaluate what was really important.
What do I really need to do to push my brand and business forward, without risking burnout or enjoying the life I have currently?
That's the question I ended up asking myself, and it changed my entire approach to content creation.
I'd like to encourage you to ask yourself that same question.
What really moves the needle for your life and business?
Do you really want to sit around on social media all day, hoping and praying a higher follower count will help grow your business? Do you really want your days to be filled and spent on social media?!
Probably not.
So make the necessary adjustments in your life and business — so you don't have to. Design your business in a way that makes daily posting a nice-to-have, not a must have.
You'll feel so much better.
All this said, one piece of content I never fail to write is my Friday email. I send 1 short email every Friday giving you a free tip to build and scale your online business.
It's called the Laptop Lifestyle, and if you'd like to get those free emails, check it out and start growing your online business
