July 4, 2024 • 46 mins
In this episode, I delve into my personal journey with social media, particularly Instagram.
This is the first of a two part episode that introduces my reasons for leaving InstaGram, my reasons for coming back and my conclusions after 7 months.
I discuss my decision to step away from the platform two years ago due to its impact on my health and well-being. I've decided to return, but with a new approach. I'm exploring how to maintain a minimalist brand presence, focusing on connection and authenticity rather than followers and likes. This experiment is about finding a way to use Instagram that aligns with my values and doesn't compromise my well-being.
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- "I hope you are inspired to become the puppeteer and not the puppet." - Saskia de Feijter - podcast host
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A while ago, I released a bonus episode for the
people that wanted to supportthe show and, as an extra, for
those that joined my newslettervia my Instagram profile.
Well, let me just say it didn'treally reach a lot of people.
We are now months in myInstagram experiment seven to be
exact and I'm getting ready toshare my findings and experience
(00:24):
so far.
But before I share someunexpected findings this week,
here's the background story tomy complicated relationship with
Instagram.
If you feel pushed and shovedaround by the algorithm, but you
also make friends on Instagram,if you think you rely on it for
your business, if Instagram isbasically your marketing plan,
(00:45):
this two-part episode will bevery interesting to you.
I just I can just say that Iknow it.
There's nothing I'd like morethan to get the conversation
around this going.
So send me your thoughts viathe voicemail on the episode
page of patternshiftfm or sendme an email at info at
yeah-volcom, and all right, I'llallow it.
(01:10):
A DM on Instagram is okay too,at underscore yeahvol,
underscore patternshift.
I always integrate what I learnin what I teach and I know that
there is a need for an easy,step-by-step guide to build some
boundaries around your socialmedia use.
I'm working on that and I wouldlove to hear what you would
(01:31):
want in such a guide, so let meknow.
Hi, I'm back with a bonusepisode.
My name is Saskia De Feijderand I'm so glad that you're here
because I'm going to explainwhy I returned to Instagram.
After two full years of reallynot being there and just not
(01:54):
just pausing my account likeclosing my accounts, I went away
for good.
That's what I thought.
This podcast is about smallbusinesses in the slow fashion
industry that I want to supportand help to have a more healthy
and happy take on how they runtheir business so that they can
(02:17):
do it sustainably for themselvesand for others.
Okay, so I talked about meleaving Instagram a bunch of
times on the podcast.
I started, actually, thispodcast to have something
instead of my social mediaaccounts, because I didn't feel
(02:41):
like I was in alignment with itanymore.
I felt like it was turning intoa toxic place.
I spent so much time there andthere, just from a business
perspective, wasn't so muchreturn on investment.
People used to comment and saythat I was inspirational and
(03:08):
they loved what I did.
They loved the way I thoughtabout things and it helped them
to think differently about whatthey did online, and, although I
was really happy that that washappening at the same time in
building a small business byyourself and also taking care of
your health and your privatelife, that was just.
(03:32):
The balance was off, and so Idecided to leave Instagram and
use my time for better and otherthings, and I have loved it.
I have not for a second missedit in two years.
That's because I took thiswhole path of really doing this
(03:56):
intentionally.
It wasn't from one day to thenext.
I started by unfollowingaccounts, making it a more quiet
place to be.
I took the app from my phone.
It was this whole process ofthings that I did before I
decided it's time I'm steppingaway.
(04:19):
I even invited people toconnect with me via email,
connecting with me personally oreven sending me snail mail and
there was one person that did Ashout out to Charlotte Hi,
charlotte, I owe you one.
The next one is way overdue.
(04:40):
Charlotte lives in Finland andwe started a snail mail
correspondence and that wasreally, really fun.
I just decided to spend timewith friends socially in a
different way, and even alsofriends that I made through
(05:02):
Instagram.
So obviously things changed alot, but when you feel the need
to connect with somebody or theyfeel the need to connect with
you, that will happen and youcan do something about that.
It doesn't need to be onInstagram and it also shows you
how deep relationships go andyou can make intentional
(05:26):
decisions about that.
So I was so happy not being onInstagram.
And then what happened is Itook a course on writing for the
internet and what they had usdo was post every day, and they
wanted us to post on what wasthen still Twitter.
(05:48):
That was this summer.
It actually changed over to Xduring the month that I was
there, and I'll have you knowthat Twitter was actually the
reason that I became quitecritical of social media, and
that was back in 2012, where Idistinctly remember being in the
(06:10):
car and I even remember where Iwas at that time and just
thinking in Twitter sentences.
That was just so such a momentfor me where I'm like I can't
believe I'm thinking in kind ofTwitter marketing sentences,
(06:33):
like that's how my brain nowworks.
I've kind of molded it intothis Twitter mold and I was so
appalled that I left.
I think it was that week, sothat was in 2012.
And that started the feelingthat social media it's free,
(06:57):
it's a free marketing tool, andnothing is really free ever is
it, except for the really goodthings in life.
And yeah, that is when Istarted to change my mind about
things and becoming moreintentional.
So that's a long time ago.
I remember when I quit Facebook.
(07:19):
I think that must have been.
I think I quit Twitter waybefore 2012 and I might've quit
Facebook in 2012.
I don't know a long time ago,um, but I kept it like dormant
so I could, uh, send theInstagram posts to Facebook, but
(07:42):
I never went there anymore.
And then last year I killed itcompletely, two years ago.
I killed it completely and Ijust remember that people were
like what Are you crazy?
What are you doing?
That's like business suicide,what are you doing?
But that's just how I alwaysdid things, even in my business.
(08:05):
I will not sell somebody a setof needles if they don't need it
.
It's just.
I've always tried to connect mypersonal values to my business
values, because that's the onlyway I can uh, I can really do it
.
So this summer, I did thischallenge right every single day
(08:29):
for the internet, and they usedX as a platform, and I was not
happy about that.
When I found out, I'm like, oh,I don't want to do that.
So that was kind of.
I always struggle with thesethings because I want to stay
true to my values, but not atthe cost of everything.
(08:52):
So I really just need to thinkit through and realize why I do
these things and what's thepoint, what's my goal, and just
intentionally, consciously thinkabout it and then make a
decision.
So at that point I was like,okay, I'm just gonna sign up,
I'm gonna do this for thissummer and I'm gonna look at it
(09:15):
as an experiment as well.
So that was my first experiment.
So I'm on Twitter, posting everyday in this internet language
that is meant to really catchpeople's attention, and it does.
It does work.
It just didn't work on X for me.
So I followed all the rules andwhat they say is focus on your
(09:37):
niche, right?
So, as I'm in this super duper,very tiny, tiny, tiny niche,
that didn't work, because what'ssupposed to happen is that
people will tell their peoplethat you exist.
So somebody sees your stuff andthey're like, oh, my neighbor
(10:01):
knits as well, so they might beinterested in this.
And then they say, hey, howdyneighbor, I've seen this X
person, I've seen person X andthey're Twittering.
They're X-ing.
What are they?
They're X-ing about knittingand that might be interesting to
you.
But if you're talking superduper deep inside your niche,
(10:24):
then that first layer of peoplethey will not understand what
you're talking about.
So they will not connect to you.
So actually, what I learnedabout that month is what you
have to do is, first of all,talk to a more general public.
So they're like, oh, you'refinding all the crafters, all
(10:47):
the knitters, and then the extralayer of the onion is talking
about the business aspects andchanging the world a little bit
and all of that.
And then you can get there.
But following all the rules,doing everything right for a
(11:09):
whole summer or actually it wasa month, 30 days gave me,
honestly, one follower becauseshe was a knitter and she was in
that group as well.
No other people startedfollowing me, even when I talked
(11:30):
to other people on Twitter.
So that definitely isn't myplatform.
I don't particularly feel thatI want to be there at all.
But that was kind of my trialthing, my experiment, and it
wasn't for me and it didn't work, and so that was the first kind
(11:53):
of step back to social mediaand I stopped posting and I
started posting on LinkedIn andthat did a lot.
There was a lot happening onLinkedIn.
The problem is that my clientsor my potential clients are
(12:15):
usually not on LinkedIn.
For some reason.
A lot of them don't seethemselves as business owners,
as professionals or not in thatkind of way, and they are on
social media to find customersand not necessarily connect to
other business owners or theydon't see other business owners
(12:38):
as potential customers.
So it's kind of a tumbleweedsin a kind of way, but still I
got some traction there, so thatwas interesting.
So I want to focus on why I'mcoming back for now, because I'm
sure that being like an oldpunk rocker-ish in a way, like
(13:01):
the word sellout or like I knowthat kind of bubbles up in my
mind a lot lately.
Why am I going back?
Well, there's a couple ofreasons.
Basically, there's one reason.
So I have been working on akind of a workshop for my
(13:21):
clients small businesses in theslow fashion and textile craft
industry to show them how theycan do marketing in a way that's
more aligned with their needsand their boundaries and more
healthy, and that really boilsdown to doing a minimalistic
approach to social media andthings like that, and while I
(13:47):
teach how to do that on socialmedia, the only social media
that I'm still on is LinkedInand Pinterest, which I should
use more, I have to say, but Istill really don't like it that
much.
I like actual connection withpeople.
I think that's the basic thingof it.
(14:08):
Yeah, so I'm building thisworkshop and I feel like I'm
missing something in that.
I feel like it's hard to teacha minimalist approach when you
haven't been on the actualsocial media platform, where all
(14:31):
your people are, for two yearsNow.
That's not reason enough for meto go back, but I do want to
take this experiment, just goingback one step.
If I as kind of.
Well, there's actually nomarketing experts.
(14:55):
Like with marketing, what youneed to do and this was a
mind-blowing thought when Ifirst came across it is that,
and so liberating is that you'renever really an expert on
marketing, because all it is istrial and error and trying as
creatively as you can, thinkingabout your customer, who they
(15:17):
are, where they hang out, whatthey need, how you can support
them, and then putting that intolike communication cake and
offering them that cake.
It's meant to connect, to help.
It's a positive thing.
I never thought marketing was anegative thing.
I just am looking for the toolsand the platforms and the ways
(15:42):
to connect in a way that reallylight me up as well and that I
know my customers and mypotential clients will love, and
love to be there and that kindof thing, if you know what I
mean.
So From one, if you look at itfrom one aspect, it's like okay,
(16:05):
so you're a marketing quoteunquote expert, and Instagram is
most definitely the platformwhere my people hang out and I'm
not on there and I'm trying tosell business programs to those
people who are on that platform.
That sounds wild, it soundsbonkers.
(16:26):
What am I doing?
But at the same time, I kind ofpractice what I preach, right.
So it's kind of this kind offorces that work against each
other.
And I pivoted my business threeyears ago.
It's so different than what Idid before, where I had a
needlecraft school and an indieyarn shop, and now I work from
(16:51):
home.
I'm selling on the internetinstead of locally, and it's so
different that I have to reallyrework the way I do things.
And that was a conscious choicebecause I had to for my health
my mental and my physical healthrequires me to change the way I
(17:14):
conduct this business and spenda lot of time figuring that out
, found a lot of solutions, andnow I want to help other
businesses do the same, andthat's where I am right now.
So that's my business, that'swhat I do, and part of that is
that I want to show them thatyou can have a marketing plan or
(17:39):
a marketing strategy that fitsyour needs and your values.
That fits your needs and yourvalues.
So I had to move back in thereto kind of make that connection
and make it easier to talk about, but also kind of build a
bridge, a bridge in and a bridgeout.
(18:01):
Who knows, is it the bridge infor me or the bridge out for
other people?
I don't know.
So that's the experiment.
I need to prove myself wrong orright, and it's kind of a
win-win.
But if I prove myself right insaying that you can have a brand
presence on Instagram, you canhave a brand presence on
(18:24):
Instagram which is minimalistand good enough, then that is
(18:51):
great.
But if it doesn't work, I mybusiness.
So that's honestly the reasonand, as you hear, I'm saying
brand presence.
I'm using that now, instead ofmarketing as a word for this,
because I think that for me atthis moment, the way I want to
go about this is I just want tobe there and to be able to
(19:15):
people to be able to find methere as a baseline.
So here's what I did.
I have this minimalist presenceon Instagram and I have this
whole kind of strategy plannedout, which I will share with you
in a sec.
I will be able to share with myclients what worked for me and
(19:42):
how I did it, and what analternative is to being absorbed
by Instagram, because that'sthe problem, right, people are
being absorbed.
There's so much noise in theirlives, the world is so full, and
it's not good for us, it's nothealthy and, I think the most
important thing, it's notnecessary to be bombarded by
(20:07):
information.
There's also something that'sextremely important, and that is
thinking about making consciousdecisions.
What am I letting in and whatam I pushing out?
So posting or consuming onInstagram are two different
(20:30):
things, and there's so manyintentional decisions you can
make that it's really weird thatwe most of us just copy what
the other person is doing, andthey look at the brands that
they love and they copy whatthey do how it looks, their
(20:54):
actions, how much they post.
There's like ongoing podcastsand YouTube videos on Instagram
strategies and it's just so.
It's like send through yourfingers right.
One moment, you have it there,you think you got it, and then
(21:15):
it's all gone and you have tostart again.
So in my book, the best way todo it is to keep it close to
yourself and to just be thepuppeteer and not be the puppets
.
Oh so where did I go?
Come up with that?
That should be the title.
Yeah, that's even also veryinteresting If I look on
(21:40):
podcasts and titles and find thetitles that talk about
minimalist marketing or nosocial media.
There's not a lot there, butaround me, the amount of people
that don't feel comfortableanymore and have issues with
(22:01):
social media, they're everywhere.
There's almost nobody.
It's always this kind of a butstory.
Right, you talk to somebodyabout social media and they go
oh yeah, I really don't like it,but, or I wish I could quit,
but.
And then what comes next is alot of things that are basically
(22:25):
just choices.
And you have those choices andyou can choose to connect with
your friends in another way andyou can choose to focus your
business social media posts inyour business hours, on your
computer and not on your phoneat dinner with your family or at
(22:48):
night watching TV scrolling.
There's choices we can make andfor some of us these choices
are hard.
And if a choice is hard, thenyou are just a hero for choosing
what is good for you.
So I hope that kind of makessense to you.
So, um, yeah, so here's how Idid it so far.
(23:13):
I'll share that with you andI'm going to probably record
what's happening in this wholeexperiment.
So, yeah, what I did.
First of all, I thought a lotabout the subject.
(23:37):
I talked to people about it, Italked to myself about it.
I literally, as I walk everyday for half an hour, I talk
into my otter, which kind oftranscribes what I'm talking
about.
So I have to do it in Englishbecause it doesn't speak Dutch,
and I use these notes for laterand to get my mind clear.
(24:04):
So I'm opening my otter now andthis morning, as I walked, what
otter does?
It makes a summary.
So I quickly get the gist ofwhat went on in my mind.
And these are the things that Ido to understand where I'm at,
(24:25):
because I have so manyconflicting feelings about this
that I need time to process.
I made this worksheet for myselfand I called it Insta in a Day
and at some point maybe in thisepisode, I don't know yet I'll
probably use it in the workshopthat I'm building.
This will be available forother people.
(24:45):
It's a worksheet that helps youthink through the main things,
the main reasons why you want tostart an account and how you're
going to do it and how you keeplinking back to your goals,
your boundaries, your values.
(25:06):
All of the things that I teachin the Business Circle program
connected to Instagramspecifically and I wrote down by
having a brand presence onInstagram.
I want to turn myself into astudy case and investigate what
can be gained with a veryminimal brand presence.
(25:26):
As a second point, catch somepodcast listeners in my
quote-unquote flytrap and movethem over to my newsletter.
In the process, I like toreview what happens when I just
have a grid in place and noactual proactive moves after one
(25:47):
month and then add podcastupdates in the second month.
So this already goes a littlebit into the strategy, which I
will come back to later.
The most important thing for meon Instagram is to have a place
to land, because people in myindustry go to Instagram before
(26:09):
they go anywhere else.
So that's it kind of a fly.
I said fly trap, I mean flystrap.
I'm imagining people flying by.
Oh, this is interesting.
So it's not like murder, it'smore of a.
Is there a more positive way tosay this?
Anyways, I'm tiring myself out.
(26:33):
Yeah, so that is important forme, that people have a place to
land, and at the same time, Ikind of want to move them away
from Instagram and into mycommunity or at least into a
conversation with me personally.
(26:53):
So I'm going to try my best ininviting people into my mailing
list or into my community.
So those are the main goalsthere.
And then I started to make alist, basically, and talk about
(27:14):
what I love about Instagram,what I like about Instagram,
what I hate about Instagram andwhat I don't like about
Instagram.
And that gives me insights inhow I'm going to be there, who
I'm going to be there no, notwho.
How I'm going to be there,actually, also a little bit of
who.
Then I wrote my boundaries down.
(27:38):
What is unnegotiable I don'twant an app on my phone.
I have set times in the week todo focused interactions on
Instagram.
I do not watch the statisticsdaily or even weekly.
I might do that once a month,and then I have a boundary of.
(28:04):
In the first month I want tostart following people, but
don't start active connectingwith people yet.
Just wait it out and see whathappens.
What happens, and I know peopleare going to react and they're
(28:26):
going to say that's not theright approach for Instagram.
This is not how you getfollowers.
This is not how it's done.
But this is not how I want todo it.
If I could find out what thebest way to use Instagram is,
that's not what I'm doing here.
I want to find a way that Ilike to use Instagram and see,
(28:47):
to find a way that I like to useInstagram and see what the
results are of that.
So then, what I did is I went toCanva and I designed my 15 post
grids, which is basically justa mini website, right?
So if you land on my account,you'll see the 15 posts and
(29:09):
you'll see pictures of me,pictures of the beautiful
illustrations, and you see thePattern Shift podcast, right,
smack in the middle, and thiswill give you a first glance of
what the Yavel and Pattern Shiftbrand is about.
And then I made some columns,so I forgot to say I made all of
(29:31):
this in Notion.
And then I made some columnswith the images, the text
connecting to the images, thetopics and some notes, and I've
just started to write textconnecting to the things that I
offer, what I do also, whatgeneral problems are that my
(29:56):
clients are experiencing and howI can help them with solutions.
All of that, I can help themwith solutions.
All of that, and that made thiskind of easy to use copy paste
way of filling that grid withinformation.
That is, yeah, as I said, justbasically a small website.
(30:20):
Then I went on into defining astrategy, and the strategy is
basically a combination of thegoals, the things I like, the
things I don't like, how I wantto start, how I want to proceed
after a month.
Do I want to use a link tree?
Actually, this podcast episodeis part of that as well, just
(30:44):
explaining why I'm back, becauseit's quite a story, isn't it?
It's hard to explain in twosentences.
So the strategy for me is Iwant to find a way in which
Instagram can offer me thingsand not take things from me,
(31:07):
because it's about me now, but Iwant to share this with the
people in my community.
Later on, my podcast was firstcalled A Smaller Life, and it
was about decluttering and acolorful minimalism Just
learning how to choose.
That's actually why I startedmy community.
(31:31):
I wanted to offer a place thatwas less toxic and more friendly
, more safe, with no algorithms,and that's what I've built in
the Yavol community.
It's amazing and I'm so proudof it.
What happens is that people sayit's another thing and there's
already so much in my life,whereas my thinking was here's a
(31:55):
choice you can make.
You can decide to have this oneplace where everything is more
safe and kind and focus yourlearning and your sharing there,
and some people can add to whatthey're already doing, but lots
of people are.
They don't want to leave thesocial media, even if they don't
(32:18):
like it, and I think it's sofascinating that people are
scared to do that, and it's soliberating.
So, yeah, I guess we're all sodifferent and my experience is
not your experience, and so Ithink it's really good for me to
step back and to figure outwhat is kind of a midway and
(32:42):
what can work for people like methat are also different.
So, going back to what I did andhow I'm doing this is defining
my strategy finding out.
First of all, I want to justgive information and after a
month or so, I want to startsharing the new podcast episodes
(33:04):
in stories.
Probably, obviously, I will bereacting to direct messages
because I'm there to connectwith people.
I just don't want to beconsumed by it.
So there's a different way ofapproaching that.
And then I look at the kind ofthe parts of Instagram that I
(33:29):
want to use and be used in asmart way.
So what profile name do Ichoose?
What's my username or do I notuse the highlights?
Then talked about the 15 gridtiles as a webpage, a link tree
and a bio, including a call toaction which focuses on asking
(33:54):
people to sign up for my mails.
So, and then?
When do I post and what do Ipost and how do I post?
Post and what do I post and howdo I post After the first month
?
As I said, I post with newepisodes, but not on the grid.
I want to keep the grid likestatic and I'll probably do that
(34:16):
in the, in the stories, and Icould do, I could find out how a
reel works, but at this pointI'm not nearly I'm not
interested in that.
But if I can do it smart and Ican automate it, then I'm in
because I'm all for theautomation.
(34:38):
I'm working smarter, not harder.
How do I post?
Yeah, exactly, using automationas much as possible and make
social media a once a week event.
That is just not have it frontand center, which is already
hard for me Already.
(34:59):
It's seeping back in Because,let's be honest, I'm not cured.
After being two years away, Istill have a twitchy thumb.
My thumb now goes to mycommunity mostly.
So let me be honest, where do Igo?
Linkedin, my community, and Ialso sometimes am on the Making
(35:28):
app, which I love as analternative for Instagram, and I
tend to sometimes go toPinterest for inspiration.
It's definitely a dopamine hit.
It's definitely that.
It's just my thumb just goesthere and I can talk about being
intentional and being and beingconscious, but, like, my brain
(35:58):
just wants the hits right.
So I have to be intentional andconscious about the steps to
take before that thumb twitchinghappens.
So, if things are, if I don'tlet certain apps on my phone, if
I don't like it's buildinghabits, if I put my sneakers
next to my bed in the morningand put them on.
(36:20):
Then the next step is exercise,and that's easier because I
made it easy for myself.
I think this is the same wayCompletely cutting off
everything might not be thehealthiest decision for myself.
I think this is the same wayCompletely cutting off
everything might not be thehealthiest decision for you.
So it's about consciousness.
It's not about doing what I say.
It's doing what's important foryou, and if you feel like I do,
(36:43):
then this is a way that you cango about it.
I'm here to give you inspirationand ideas and just talking
about how I did it, very much inmy own way of speaking, which,
for some people, is probably waytoo chaotic, but that's fine.
So, going back to my littleworksheet, I talked about my
(37:07):
strategy how to post, when topost and what to post, talked
about my strategy how to post,when to post and what to post.
It's important to have ausername that makes it easy for
people to find you, so I choseYavol, underscore pattern shift,
and my username is Saskia deFeiter.
Then the bio I made a bio thatconveys what Yawal is.
(37:31):
As I pivoted, now Yawal issomething that is different from
what it was before and includeda link tree, and I will include
a call to action link that willsign you up to my mailing list.
And then there's the question ofwho to follow.
(37:51):
Who do I follow, and do I evenwant to follow people?
Or do I just want to be thisquiet person in the background
and react to DMs and to peoplecommenting, but not much more?
So this is complicated right.
When I still was on Instagramat my high point, had about
(38:14):
7,000 followers, and I can makeit a point to kind of go back
there, but that's not why I'mthere, because my whole thinking
has changed.
I'm not in the business ofgetting thousands of followers
because I want to have thousandsof listeners to my podcast.
(38:34):
The reason that I am onInstagram is to find people to
connect to and move them into mycommunity vibe, and the other
way of thinking for me is thatwhat really helped me to relax
about my business and aboutgrowing my business is I don't
(38:55):
need that many people.
I don't need a lot of followers, I need a few clients.
That's actually what I need Afew clients a year that take my
business circle program, mybusiness circle program, people
that want to sign up for thecommunity and be a member for
8.50 a month or just try it outfor a month and then stay or not
(39:18):
stay.
If it's your thing or not, youcan find out.
That's why I'm there, and sowho follows me and who I follow
is kind of connected.
Me and who I follow is kind ofconnected, because if I'm on
Instagram, I'm not there toscroll, I am there to connect
with people.
So there's going to be a littlebit of scrolling and I have to
(39:40):
give myself restraints there.
So how do I keep the space formyself fun, interesting and
helpful?
That's by following the peoplethat connect to my goal, by
making a conscious choice tobuild a feed that is going to
(40:04):
offer me information,inspiration, all that kind of
thing.
So following and followers,kind of connected, yeah, I just
(40:25):
do want to see what's happeningin the industry, although I had
some spies on the Instagramactually one major spy that kind
of feeds me with informationthat might be interesting and I
don't think I missed all thatmuch, because I can find people
in other ways and I've signed upfor newsletters if people had
them, and also there's only somuch of information that you
(40:48):
need for your business.
The whole FOMO thing issomething I have to actively
battle.
I have a lot of emailnewsletters, but I made my inbox
.
I have folders and smartfolders, and so I have ways of
(41:09):
making that a fun and inspiringand interesting thing instead of
an overwhelming thing.
So I kind of have strategiesand plans and systems around
that.
So this is the whole Insta in aday worksheet that I went
through.
I went through and with that Isigned up and now I'm going to
(41:37):
fill up my account in theupcoming few days.
I'm very interested to see howit goes.
I was unable to get a newaccount for a couple of hours.
They just wouldn't let me in.
I think I'm on a blacklist orsomething, talking so much bad
stuff about Instagram.
So I used the new email addressand I managed to get in after a
(42:04):
couple of hours and some heavyswearing and some introspection
of thinking of is this a sign?
Should I not go back?
Is this the beginning of thatwhole thing again?
But no, I'm committed to this.
I want to figure out how one canhave a brand presence on
(42:27):
Instagram and not make itconsume you, but offer you
things.
So I'm going to end with this.
I hope you are inspired tobecome the puppeteer and not the
puppet.
Please reach out to me and askme anything about this.
I love to talk about it.
(42:48):
I'm working on a workshop sothat people can learn more about
this and I have obviously alist that you can sign up for if
you're interested.
So if you want to learn moreabout all of this, you can find
everything you need on mywebsite or on Instagram at yavel
(43:11):
, underscore pattern shift andsign up for my it's.
It's fun.
I'm here, I'm not too busy totalk to you.
I would love that and, uh, yeah, kind of share about me and
what I do with everybody.
You know.
So the more sharing, the morecaring and the easier it is to
(43:32):
have a minimal approach tomarketing, which is much
healthier for us all, especiallyfor me.
No, just kidding.
Okay, bye, all right, I hopeyou enjoyed that Next part two,
where I share snippets from myfirst weeks back on Instagram
how I'm using it, how I'mlooking at it right now and how
(43:54):
I want to use it in the futurein a way that helps my business
but doesn't cause me stress ortakes too much unnecessary time.
See you then, or you'll hear methen.
Bye.
A while ago, I released a bonus episode for the
people that wanted to supportthe show and, as an extra, for
those that joined my newslettervia my Instagram profile.
Well, let me just say it didn'treally reach a lot of people.
We are now months in myInstagram experiment seven to be
exact and I'm getting ready toshare my findings and experience
(00:24):
so far.
But before I share someunexpected findings this week,
here's the background story tomy complicated relationship with
Instagram.
If you feel pushed and shovedaround by the algorithm, but you
also make friends on Instagram,if you think you rely on it for
your business, if Instagram isbasically your marketing plan,
(00:45):
this two-part episode will bevery interesting to you.
I just I can just say that Iknow it.
There's nothing I'd like morethan to get the conversation
around this going.
So send me your thoughts viathe voicemail on the episode
page of patternshiftfm or sendme an email at info at
yeah-volcom, and all right, I'llallow it.
(01:10):
A DM on Instagram is okay too,at underscore yeahvol,
underscore patternshift.
I always integrate what I learnin what I teach and I know that
there is a need for an easy,step-by-step guide to build some
boundaries around your socialmedia use.
I'm working on that and I wouldlove to hear what you would
(01:31):
want in such a guide, so let meknow.
Hi, I'm back with a bonusepisode.
My name is Saskia De Feijderand I'm so glad that you're here
because I'm going to explainwhy I returned to Instagram.
After two full years of reallynot being there and just not
(01:54):
just pausing my account likeclosing my accounts, I went away
for good.
That's what I thought.
This podcast is about smallbusinesses in the slow fashion
industry that I want to supportand help to have a more healthy
and happy take on how they runtheir business so that they can
(02:17):
do it sustainably for themselvesand for others.
Okay, so I talked about meleaving Instagram a bunch of
times on the podcast.
I started, actually, thispodcast to have something
instead of my social mediaaccounts, because I didn't feel
(02:41):
like I was in alignment with itanymore.
I felt like it was turning intoa toxic place.
I spent so much time there andthere, just from a business
perspective, wasn't so muchreturn on investment.
People used to comment and saythat I was inspirational and
(03:08):
they loved what I did.
They loved the way I thoughtabout things and it helped them
to think differently about whatthey did online, and, although I
was really happy that that washappening at the same time in
building a small business byyourself and also taking care of
your health and your privatelife, that was just.
(03:32):
The balance was off, and so Idecided to leave Instagram and
use my time for better and otherthings, and I have loved it.
I have not for a second missedit in two years.
That's because I took thiswhole path of really doing this
(03:56):
intentionally.
It wasn't from one day to thenext.
I started by unfollowingaccounts, making it a more quiet
place to be.
I took the app from my phone.
It was this whole process ofthings that I did before I
decided it's time I'm steppingaway.
(04:19):
I even invited people toconnect with me via email,
connecting with me personally oreven sending me snail mail and
there was one person that did Ashout out to Charlotte Hi,
charlotte, I owe you one.
The next one is way overdue.
(04:40):
Charlotte lives in Finland andwe started a snail mail
correspondence and that wasreally, really fun.
I just decided to spend timewith friends socially in a
different way, and even alsofriends that I made through
(05:02):
Instagram.
So obviously things changed alot, but when you feel the need
to connect with somebody or theyfeel the need to connect with
you, that will happen and youcan do something about that.
It doesn't need to be onInstagram and it also shows you
how deep relationships go andyou can make intentional
(05:26):
decisions about that.
So I was so happy not being onInstagram.
And then what happened is Itook a course on writing for the
internet and what they had usdo was post every day, and they
wanted us to post on what wasthen still Twitter.
(05:48):
That was this summer.
It actually changed over to Xduring the month that I was
there, and I'll have you knowthat Twitter was actually the
reason that I became quitecritical of social media, and
that was back in 2012, where Idistinctly remember being in the
(06:10):
car and I even remember where Iwas at that time and just
thinking in Twitter sentences.
That was just so such a momentfor me where I'm like I can't
believe I'm thinking in kind ofTwitter marketing sentences,
(06:33):
like that's how my brain nowworks.
I've kind of molded it intothis Twitter mold and I was so
appalled that I left.
I think it was that week, sothat was in 2012.
And that started the feelingthat social media it's free,
(06:57):
it's a free marketing tool, andnothing is really free ever is
it, except for the really goodthings in life.
And yeah, that is when Istarted to change my mind about
things and becoming moreintentional.
So that's a long time ago.
I remember when I quit Facebook.
(07:19):
I think that must have been.
I think I quit Twitter waybefore 2012 and I might've quit
Facebook in 2012.
I don't know a long time ago,um, but I kept it like dormant
so I could, uh, send theInstagram posts to Facebook, but
(07:42):
I never went there anymore.
And then last year I killed itcompletely, two years ago.
I killed it completely and Ijust remember that people were
like what Are you crazy?
What are you doing?
That's like business suicide,what are you doing?
But that's just how I alwaysdid things, even in my business.
(08:05):
I will not sell somebody a setof needles if they don't need it
.
It's just.
I've always tried to connect mypersonal values to my business
values, because that's the onlyway I can uh, I can really do it
.
So this summer, I did thischallenge right every single day
(08:29):
for the internet, and they usedX as a platform, and I was not
happy about that.
When I found out, I'm like, oh,I don't want to do that.
So that was kind of.
I always struggle with thesethings because I want to stay
true to my values, but not atthe cost of everything.
(08:52):
So I really just need to thinkit through and realize why I do
these things and what's thepoint, what's my goal, and just
intentionally, consciously thinkabout it and then make a
decision.
So at that point I was like,okay, I'm just gonna sign up,
I'm gonna do this for thissummer and I'm gonna look at it
(09:15):
as an experiment as well.
So that was my first experiment.
So I'm on Twitter, posting everyday in this internet language
that is meant to really catchpeople's attention, and it does.
It does work.
It just didn't work on X for me.
So I followed all the rules andwhat they say is focus on your
(09:37):
niche, right?
So, as I'm in this super duper,very tiny, tiny, tiny niche,
that didn't work, because what'ssupposed to happen is that
people will tell their peoplethat you exist.
So somebody sees your stuff andthey're like, oh, my neighbor
(10:01):
knits as well, so they might beinterested in this.
And then they say, hey, howdyneighbor, I've seen this X
person, I've seen person X andthey're Twittering.
They're X-ing.
What are they?
They're X-ing about knittingand that might be interesting to
you.
But if you're talking superduper deep inside your niche,
(10:24):
then that first layer of peoplethey will not understand what
you're talking about.
So they will not connect to you.
So actually, what I learnedabout that month is what you
have to do is, first of all,talk to a more general public.
So they're like, oh, you'refinding all the crafters, all
(10:47):
the knitters, and then the extralayer of the onion is talking
about the business aspects andchanging the world a little bit
and all of that.
And then you can get there.
But following all the rules,doing everything right for a
(11:09):
whole summer or actually it wasa month, 30 days gave me,
honestly, one follower becauseshe was a knitter and she was in
that group as well.
No other people startedfollowing me, even when I talked
(11:30):
to other people on Twitter.
So that definitely isn't myplatform.
I don't particularly feel thatI want to be there at all.
But that was kind of my trialthing, my experiment, and it
wasn't for me and it didn't work, and so that was the first kind
(11:53):
of step back to social mediaand I stopped posting and I
started posting on LinkedIn andthat did a lot.
There was a lot happening onLinkedIn.
The problem is that my clientsor my potential clients are
(12:15):
usually not on LinkedIn.
For some reason.
A lot of them don't seethemselves as business owners,
as professionals or not in thatkind of way, and they are on
social media to find customersand not necessarily connect to
other business owners or theydon't see other business owners
(12:38):
as potential customers.
So it's kind of a tumbleweedsin a kind of way, but still I
got some traction there, so thatwas interesting.
So I want to focus on why I'mcoming back for now, because I'm
sure that being like an oldpunk rocker-ish in a way, like
(13:01):
the word sellout or like I knowthat kind of bubbles up in my
mind a lot lately.
Why am I going back?
Well, there's a couple ofreasons.
Basically, there's one reason.
So I have been working on akind of a workshop for my
(13:21):
clients small businesses in theslow fashion and textile craft
industry to show them how theycan do marketing in a way that's
more aligned with their needsand their boundaries and more
healthy, and that really boilsdown to doing a minimalistic
approach to social media andthings like that, and while I
(13:47):
teach how to do that on socialmedia, the only social media
that I'm still on is LinkedInand Pinterest, which I should
use more, I have to say, but Istill really don't like it that
much.
I like actual connection withpeople.
I think that's the basic thingof it.
(14:08):
Yeah, so I'm building thisworkshop and I feel like I'm
missing something in that.
I feel like it's hard to teacha minimalist approach when you
haven't been on the actualsocial media platform, where all
(14:31):
your people are, for two yearsNow.
That's not reason enough for meto go back, but I do want to
take this experiment, just goingback one step.
If I as kind of.
Well, there's actually nomarketing experts.
(14:55):
Like with marketing, what youneed to do and this was a
mind-blowing thought when Ifirst came across it is that,
and so liberating is that you'renever really an expert on
marketing, because all it is istrial and error and trying as
creatively as you can, thinkingabout your customer, who they
(15:17):
are, where they hang out, whatthey need, how you can support
them, and then putting that intolike communication cake and
offering them that cake.
It's meant to connect, to help.
It's a positive thing.
I never thought marketing was anegative thing.
I just am looking for the toolsand the platforms and the ways
(15:42):
to connect in a way that reallylight me up as well and that I
know my customers and mypotential clients will love, and
love to be there and that kindof thing, if you know what I
mean.
So From one, if you look at itfrom one aspect, it's like okay,
(16:05):
so you're a marketing quoteunquote expert, and Instagram is
most definitely the platformwhere my people hang out and I'm
not on there and I'm trying tosell business programs to those
people who are on that platform.
That sounds wild, it soundsbonkers.
(16:26):
What am I doing?
But at the same time, I kind ofpractice what I preach, right.
So it's kind of this kind offorces that work against each
other.
And I pivoted my business threeyears ago.
It's so different than what Idid before, where I had a
needlecraft school and an indieyarn shop, and now I work from
(16:51):
home.
I'm selling on the internetinstead of locally, and it's so
different that I have to reallyrework the way I do things.
And that was a conscious choicebecause I had to for my health
my mental and my physical healthrequires me to change the way I
(17:14):
conduct this business and spenda lot of time figuring that out
, found a lot of solutions, andnow I want to help other
businesses do the same, andthat's where I am right now.
So that's my business, that'swhat I do, and part of that is
that I want to show them thatyou can have a marketing plan or
(17:39):
a marketing strategy that fitsyour needs and your values.
That fits your needs and yourvalues.
So I had to move back in thereto kind of make that connection
and make it easier to talk about, but also kind of build a
bridge, a bridge in and a bridgeout.
(18:01):
Who knows, is it the bridge infor me or the bridge out for
other people?
I don't know.
So that's the experiment.
I need to prove myself wrong orright, and it's kind of a
win-win.
But if I prove myself right insaying that you can have a brand
presence on Instagram, you canhave a brand presence on
(18:24):
Instagram which is minimalistand good enough, then that is
(18:51):
great.
But if it doesn't work, I mybusiness.
So that's honestly the reasonand, as you hear, I'm saying
brand presence.
I'm using that now, instead ofmarketing as a word for this,
because I think that for me atthis moment, the way I want to
go about this is I just want tobe there and to be able to
(19:15):
people to be able to find methere as a baseline.
So here's what I did.
I have this minimalist presenceon Instagram and I have this
whole kind of strategy plannedout, which I will share with you
in a sec.
I will be able to share with myclients what worked for me and
(19:42):
how I did it, and what analternative is to being absorbed
by Instagram, because that'sthe problem, right, people are
being absorbed.
There's so much noise in theirlives, the world is so full, and
it's not good for us, it's nothealthy and, I think the most
important thing, it's notnecessary to be bombarded by
(20:07):
information.
There's also something that'sextremely important, and that is
thinking about making consciousdecisions.
What am I letting in and whatam I pushing out?
So posting or consuming onInstagram are two different
(20:30):
things, and there's so manyintentional decisions you can
make that it's really weird thatwe most of us just copy what
the other person is doing, andthey look at the brands that
they love and they copy whatthey do how it looks, their
(20:54):
actions, how much they post.
There's like ongoing podcastsand YouTube videos on Instagram
strategies and it's just so.
It's like send through yourfingers right.
One moment, you have it there,you think you got it, and then
(21:15):
it's all gone and you have tostart again.
So in my book, the best way todo it is to keep it close to
yourself and to just be thepuppeteer and not be the puppets
.
Oh so where did I go?
Come up with that?
That should be the title.
Yeah, that's even also veryinteresting If I look on
(21:40):
podcasts and titles and find thetitles that talk about
minimalist marketing or nosocial media.
There's not a lot there, butaround me, the amount of people
that don't feel comfortableanymore and have issues with
(22:01):
social media, they're everywhere.
There's almost nobody.
It's always this kind of a butstory.
Right, you talk to somebodyabout social media and they go
oh yeah, I really don't like it,but, or I wish I could quit,
but.
And then what comes next is alot of things that are basically
(22:25):
just choices.
And you have those choices andyou can choose to connect with
your friends in another way andyou can choose to focus your
business social media posts inyour business hours, on your
computer and not on your phoneat dinner with your family or at
(22:48):
night watching TV scrolling.
There's choices we can make andfor some of us these choices
are hard.
And if a choice is hard, thenyou are just a hero for choosing
what is good for you.
So I hope that kind of makessense to you.
So, um, yeah, so here's how Idid it so far.
(23:13):
I'll share that with you andI'm going to probably record
what's happening in this wholeexperiment.
So, yeah, what I did.
First of all, I thought a lotabout the subject.
(23:37):
I talked to people about it, Italked to myself about it.
I literally, as I walk everyday for half an hour, I talk
into my otter, which kind oftranscribes what I'm talking
about.
So I have to do it in Englishbecause it doesn't speak Dutch,
and I use these notes for laterand to get my mind clear.
(24:04):
So I'm opening my otter now andthis morning, as I walked, what
otter does?
It makes a summary.
So I quickly get the gist ofwhat went on in my mind.
And these are the things that Ido to understand where I'm at,
(24:25):
because I have so manyconflicting feelings about this
that I need time to process.
I made this worksheet for myselfand I called it Insta in a Day
and at some point maybe in thisepisode, I don't know yet I'll
probably use it in the workshopthat I'm building.
This will be available forother people.
(24:45):
It's a worksheet that helps youthink through the main things,
the main reasons why you want tostart an account and how you're
going to do it and how you keeplinking back to your goals,
your boundaries, your values.
(25:06):
All of the things that I teachin the Business Circle program
connected to Instagramspecifically and I wrote down by
having a brand presence onInstagram.
I want to turn myself into astudy case and investigate what
can be gained with a veryminimal brand presence.
(25:26):
As a second point, catch somepodcast listeners in my
quote-unquote flytrap and movethem over to my newsletter.
In the process, I like toreview what happens when I just
have a grid in place and noactual proactive moves after one
(25:47):
month and then add podcastupdates in the second month.
So this already goes a littlebit into the strategy, which I
will come back to later.
The most important thing for meon Instagram is to have a place
to land, because people in myindustry go to Instagram before
(26:09):
they go anywhere else.
So that's it kind of a fly.
I said fly trap, I mean flystrap.
I'm imagining people flying by.
Oh, this is interesting.
So it's not like murder, it'smore of a.
Is there a more positive way tosay this?
Anyways, I'm tiring myself out.
(26:33):
Yeah, so that is important forme, that people have a place to
land, and at the same time, Ikind of want to move them away
from Instagram and into mycommunity or at least into a
conversation with me personally.
(26:53):
So I'm going to try my best ininviting people into my mailing
list or into my community.
So those are the main goalsthere.
And then I started to make alist, basically, and talk about
(27:14):
what I love about Instagram,what I like about Instagram,
what I hate about Instagram andwhat I don't like about
Instagram.
And that gives me insights inhow I'm going to be there, who
I'm going to be there no, notwho.
How I'm going to be there,actually, also a little bit of
who.
Then I wrote my boundaries down.
(27:38):
What is unnegotiable I don'twant an app on my phone.
I have set times in the week todo focused interactions on
Instagram.
I do not watch the statisticsdaily or even weekly.
I might do that once a month,and then I have a boundary of.
(28:04):
In the first month I want tostart following people, but
don't start active connectingwith people yet.
Just wait it out and see whathappens.
What happens, and I know peopleare going to react and they're
(28:26):
going to say that's not theright approach for Instagram.
This is not how you getfollowers.
This is not how it's done.
But this is not how I want todo it.
If I could find out what thebest way to use Instagram is,
that's not what I'm doing here.
I want to find a way that Ilike to use Instagram and see,
(28:47):
to find a way that I like to useInstagram and see what the
results are of that.
So then, what I did is I went toCanva and I designed my 15 post
grids, which is basically justa mini website, right?
So if you land on my account,you'll see the 15 posts and
(29:09):
you'll see pictures of me,pictures of the beautiful
illustrations, and you see thePattern Shift podcast, right,
smack in the middle, and thiswill give you a first glance of
what the Yavel and Pattern Shiftbrand is about.
And then I made some columns,so I forgot to say I made all of
(29:31):
this in Notion.
And then I made some columnswith the images, the text
connecting to the images, thetopics and some notes, and I've
just started to write textconnecting to the things that I
offer, what I do also, whatgeneral problems are that my
(29:56):
clients are experiencing and howI can help them with solutions.
All of that, I can help themwith solutions.
All of that, and that made thiskind of easy to use copy paste
way of filling that grid withinformation.
That is, yeah, as I said, justbasically a small website.
(30:20):
Then I went on into defining astrategy, and the strategy is
basically a combination of thegoals, the things I like, the
things I don't like, how I wantto start, how I want to proceed
after a month.
Do I want to use a link tree?
Actually, this podcast episodeis part of that as well, just
(30:44):
explaining why I'm back, becauseit's quite a story, isn't it?
It's hard to explain in twosentences.
So the strategy for me is Iwant to find a way in which
Instagram can offer me thingsand not take things from me,
(31:07):
because it's about me now, but Iwant to share this with the
people in my community.
Later on, my podcast was firstcalled A Smaller Life, and it
was about decluttering and acolorful minimalism Just
learning how to choose.
That's actually why I startedmy community.
(31:31):
I wanted to offer a place thatwas less toxic and more friendly
, more safe, with no algorithms,and that's what I've built in
the Yavol community.
It's amazing and I'm so proudof it.
What happens is that people sayit's another thing and there's
already so much in my life,whereas my thinking was here's a
(31:55):
choice you can make.
You can decide to have this oneplace where everything is more
safe and kind and focus yourlearning and your sharing there,
and some people can add to whatthey're already doing, but lots
of people are.
They don't want to leave thesocial media, even if they don't
(32:18):
like it, and I think it's sofascinating that people are
scared to do that, and it's soliberating.
So, yeah, I guess we're all sodifferent and my experience is
not your experience, and so Ithink it's really good for me to
step back and to figure outwhat is kind of a midway and
(32:42):
what can work for people like methat are also different.
So, going back to what I did andhow I'm doing this is defining
my strategy finding out.
First of all, I want to justgive information and after a
month or so, I want to startsharing the new podcast episodes
(33:04):
in stories.
Probably, obviously, I will bereacting to direct messages
because I'm there to connectwith people.
I just don't want to beconsumed by it.
So there's a different way ofapproaching that.
And then I look at the kind ofthe parts of Instagram that I
(33:29):
want to use and be used in asmart way.
So what profile name do Ichoose?
What's my username or do I notuse the highlights?
Then talked about the 15 gridtiles as a webpage, a link tree
and a bio, including a call toaction which focuses on asking
(33:54):
people to sign up for my mails.
So, and then?
When do I post and what do Ipost and how do I post?
Post and what do I post and howdo I post After the first month
?
As I said, I post with newepisodes, but not on the grid.
I want to keep the grid likestatic and I'll probably do that
(34:16):
in the, in the stories, and Icould do, I could find out how a
reel works, but at this pointI'm not nearly I'm not
interested in that.
But if I can do it smart and Ican automate it, then I'm in
because I'm all for theautomation.
(34:38):
I'm working smarter, not harder.
How do I post?
Yeah, exactly, using automationas much as possible and make
social media a once a week event.
That is just not have it frontand center, which is already
hard for me Already.
(34:59):
It's seeping back in Because,let's be honest, I'm not cured.
After being two years away, Istill have a twitchy thumb.
My thumb now goes to mycommunity mostly.
So let me be honest, where do Igo?
Linkedin, my community, and Ialso sometimes am on the Making
(35:28):
app, which I love as analternative for Instagram, and I
tend to sometimes go toPinterest for inspiration.
It's definitely a dopamine hit.
It's definitely that.
It's just my thumb just goesthere and I can talk about being
intentional and being and beingconscious, but, like, my brain
(35:58):
just wants the hits right.
So I have to be intentional andconscious about the steps to
take before that thumb twitchinghappens.
So, if things are, if I don'tlet certain apps on my phone, if
I don't like it's buildinghabits, if I put my sneakers
next to my bed in the morningand put them on.
(36:20):
Then the next step is exercise,and that's easier because I
made it easy for myself.
I think this is the same wayCompletely cutting off
everything might not be thehealthiest decision for myself.
I think this is the same wayCompletely cutting off
everything might not be thehealthiest decision for you.
So it's about consciousness.
It's not about doing what I say.
It's doing what's important foryou, and if you feel like I do,
(36:43):
then this is a way that you cango about it.
I'm here to give you inspirationand ideas and just talking
about how I did it, very much inmy own way of speaking, which,
for some people, is probably waytoo chaotic, but that's fine.
So, going back to my littleworksheet, I talked about my
(37:07):
strategy how to post, when topost and what to post, talked
about my strategy how to post,when to post and what to post.
It's important to have ausername that makes it easy for
people to find you, so I choseYavol, underscore pattern shift,
and my username is Saskia deFeiter.
Then the bio I made a bio thatconveys what Yawal is.
(37:31):
As I pivoted, now Yawal issomething that is different from
what it was before and includeda link tree, and I will include
a call to action link that willsign you up to my mailing list.
And then there's the question ofwho to follow.
(37:51):
Who do I follow, and do I evenwant to follow people?
Or do I just want to be thisquiet person in the background
and react to DMs and to peoplecommenting, but not much more?
So this is complicated right.
When I still was on Instagramat my high point, had about
(38:14):
7,000 followers, and I can makeit a point to kind of go back
there, but that's not why I'mthere, because my whole thinking
has changed.
I'm not in the business ofgetting thousands of followers
because I want to have thousandsof listeners to my podcast.
(38:34):
The reason that I am onInstagram is to find people to
connect to and move them into mycommunity vibe, and the other
way of thinking for me is thatwhat really helped me to relax
about my business and aboutgrowing my business is I don't
(38:55):
need that many people.
I don't need a lot of followers, I need a few clients.
That's actually what I need Afew clients a year that take my
business circle program, mybusiness circle program, people
that want to sign up for thecommunity and be a member for
8.50 a month or just try it outfor a month and then stay or not
(39:18):
stay.
If it's your thing or not, youcan find out.
That's why I'm there, and sowho follows me and who I follow
is kind of connected.
Me and who I follow is kind ofconnected, because if I'm on
Instagram, I'm not there toscroll, I am there to connect
with people.
So there's going to be a littlebit of scrolling and I have to
(39:40):
give myself restraints there.
So how do I keep the space formyself fun, interesting and
helpful?
That's by following the peoplethat connect to my goal, by
making a conscious choice tobuild a feed that is going to
(40:04):
offer me information,inspiration, all that kind of
thing.
So following and followers,kind of connected, yeah, I just
(40:25):
do want to see what's happeningin the industry, although I had
some spies on the Instagramactually one major spy that kind
of feeds me with informationthat might be interesting and I
don't think I missed all thatmuch, because I can find people
in other ways and I've signed upfor newsletters if people had
them, and also there's only somuch of information that you
(40:48):
need for your business.
The whole FOMO thing issomething I have to actively
battle.
I have a lot of emailnewsletters, but I made my inbox
.
I have folders and smartfolders, and so I have ways of
(41:09):
making that a fun and inspiringand interesting thing instead of
an overwhelming thing.
So I kind of have strategiesand plans and systems around
that.
So this is the whole Insta in aday worksheet that I went
through.
I went through and with that Isigned up and now I'm going to
(41:37):
fill up my account in theupcoming few days.
I'm very interested to see howit goes.
I was unable to get a newaccount for a couple of hours.
They just wouldn't let me in.
I think I'm on a blacklist orsomething, talking so much bad
stuff about Instagram.
So I used the new email addressand I managed to get in after a
(42:04):
couple of hours and some heavyswearing and some introspection
of thinking of is this a sign?
Should I not go back?
Is this the beginning of thatwhole thing again?
But no, I'm committed to this.
I want to figure out how one canhave a brand presence on
(42:27):
Instagram and not make itconsume you, but offer you
things.
So I'm going to end with this.
I hope you are inspired tobecome the puppeteer and not the
puppet.
Please reach out to me and askme anything about this.
I love to talk about it.
(42:48):
I'm working on a workshop sothat people can learn more about
this and I have obviously alist that you can sign up for if
you're interested.
So if you want to learn moreabout all of this, you can find
everything you need on mywebsite or on Instagram at yavel
(43:11):
, underscore pattern shift andsign up for my it's.
It's fun.
I'm here, I'm not too busy totalk to you.
I would love that and, uh, yeah, kind of share about me and
what I do with everybody.
You know.
So the more sharing, the morecaring and the easier it is to
(43:32):
have a minimal approach tomarketing, which is much
healthier for us all, especiallyfor me.
No, just kidding.
Okay, bye, all right, I hopeyou enjoyed that Next part two,
where I share snippets from myfirst weeks back on Instagram
how I'm using it, how I'mlooking at it right now and how
(43:54):
I want to use it in the futurein a way that helps my business
but doesn't cause me stress ortakes too much unnecessary time.
See you then, or you'll hear methen.
Bye.
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