No Marketer? No Problem! Grow Your Business on Your Own

Most business owners and artists have all reached the same place as me. They're tired of comparison and weak from running on the rat wheel of social media. The more time we spend on our phones, it becomes harder and harder to create a work-life balance. People use having a business as an excuse for being on social media all the time. Here's the truth. I'm not blaming anyone for that excuse because I had the exact same thought.

I thought I was a business owner. I have to use social media in order to grow my business. I've got to make a living. I've got to survive. It's not that you want to post for your product or your service. You want to get your work or your art out there online. The issue is that after we posted, after we put out our hard work, we wait, we refresh, we see what the likes are. And then, we compare ourselves and think about ourselves based on the reaction we get. And then we spend hours for the rest of the day looking at what everyone else is doing.

Today is not about getting you to delete your social media. You can just take that deep breath. I'm not asking you to delete it. I really do believe there's no doubt that social media is beneficial to your business. What about all the businesses that survived and thrived without it for decades? What about the famous artists that we all celebrate and follow? These people are proof that there are other ways to grow your business and increase your following.

I'm a business owner myself. I would never ask you to try something that I haven't done before. We had to take steps back and look at our business; how is this affecting what we're doing? Although I no longer personally have social media, my business still does. I want to share with you today how we choose to create a healthy balance of what we put our time and attention into. We only have so much time in a day, and oftentimes, social media isn't the only place that needs work. There are so many other areas of our business that need our time and attention.

I'm not arguing for one moment that being online and having a social presence and social networking isn't going to help you because it absolutely is. It's going to affect you in a positive way. I think the issue lies in our mindset and even brainwashing by a lot of the marketing is the belief that we have to have it to survive and be successful.

I want you to think about it like this. On one side of the coin, it's the truth that it will help you, and it is good, and it will grow your following, and it will help you make an income. On the other side is a reality that can be really detrimental to your mental health. It can be really something that really slows down your progress. It can distract you for hours of the day. And so on both sides. One side says, man, this can really help you. The other side is, in order to invest in it. You also have to do it cautiously, or other things can happen as well.

So today, there are three things you should focus on when you're not focused on social media and technology for your business.

Work On Your Business

Number one is to work on your business. An author once said, there's a difference between working on your business and in your business. Most of us are too busy and burnt out to actually work on our business. When I'm working in my business, I'm working on emails and phone calls and computer work, running around town, going to the UPS store, shipping stuff off, and meeting with customers. That's working in your business. The things you have to do.

Working on your business is like answering the question, where do I want to be in 10 years? What's the plan if I can no longer work for a few months, or am I going to have an income? What's going to happen? What's my plan for growth? What's my plan for expansion? That's working on your business. How do I create a healthy work-life balance? You can't think about any of these things. You can never answer all these questions when you're too busy working in your business. You're doing that day-to-day work that has to be done.

But if you want to be ahead and not behind, if you want to feel like you're on top of things, instead of everything's on top of you and everything's running around you and keeping you busy and hustle, making you hustle all the time. The reality is that you have to slow down and work on your business. I would argue that posting on social media rarely works for your business. That's going to fall into that task list of working in your business. And so, as you say, hey, I was going to spend two hours on social today, take some of that time and write down your vision. Write down your goals. Make a plan, write it down, and actually begin to take steps towards where you want to be. Stop relying on luck and all these other things that social media and advertising have told you that you need to be successful. It's just not true.

Focus On Your Customers

Number two is a renewed focus on your customers. I think when we're on social media, we can project these ideas that here are all the things that we need to get done and all those that we need to be on a certain blog. Or we need to be seen by this right person or shared on this page so that our customers can so that new people can find us and we can get new customers. All the while, overlooking our existing customers.

To me, the best passageway to a new customer is treating your old customers right. They become your best advertisers in your community and around the world. If you're an online business, something that we did was really, really simple tip. We started implementing thank you cards. So you could send a DM, or you could send a text and say thank you for using our service, hiring us, or following us. We appreciate you. But a thank you card is so personal. It's something that when someone receives it, it's so different than our current culture that people almost don't even know how to accept it. They're like, oh my gosh, what in the world is this? A handwritten, thank you card with a stamp on it. It looks so pretty. It's nice. They felt that I had a friend in high school. She wrote me a thank you card. As we graduated. I still remember that friend. I remember that card. I don't remember any texts or calls that I got around graduation. But I remember that handwritten, thank you card. Her telling me, thank you for being a great friend in high school. Something as simple as that can go a long way.

Another idea that I had is, to be present in your community. We all say, you gotta be, have a social presence. You gotta be present online. You gotta be present on social media, but what about our presence in your community? What about an area of place for you to give back. A nonprofit for your business to sponsor connect with real people? I love going to coffee shops. I loved going to networking events, anything that is going to get me around people. That's going to help grow your business. It's tangible. It's real. And to be honest for introverted or more quiet people, that can be very scary, but it can also be very rewarding to step outside of your comfort zone.

And this was kind of a tip that I've actually decided we need to implement more in our business is just encouraging your customers to post for you. Give them opportunities to, give them a little card with their product or service that says, hey, post this and you'll get this or post this and tag our page. And all of that social presence and that social exposure would be coming from other people without you even having to focus on it. As we continue to spend less and less time on social media for our business growth.

Invest In Yourself

Number three is a renewed focus to invest in yourself. This is the hardest thing to do. We invest in other people. We give to other people. We give to our family and friends. We do whatever we're asked. We run around town crazy busy all day, every day. But we have to begin to invest in ourself. As you spend less time focused on technology and social resources to grow your business, you'll realize you become a lot more productive. You start to sit down with that pen and paper at your journal. At your goals list. At your calendar. And you just realize you're so much more productive. You put your phone across the room. Put it in a drawer for a couple of hours and you get work done that would have taken you eight hours. You get it done in two hours.

Productivity is improved as you begin that renewed focus of working on your business, focusing on your customers, and investing in yourself. Another thing is you can become way more independent. You can become more creative when you're not constantly looking at everybody else cause the reality is that most of you, if you're like me, follow a lot of other people in your industry. So you're constantly scrolling and seeing what everybody else is doing. You're comparing your normal life to their highlight reel while they hide their real life from social media.

As you focus on yourself, you can begin to learn more. You can read books, you can attend conferences or networking events. You can go to things. You can watch things online. You can spend more time filling up that well than you honestly just spend all day pouring out to your business and your customers. You're going to sleep better when you spend less time on social media. Not that you're just not scrolling, but that tension of just constantly competing and being around and in front of other people is exhausting

And you're going to sleep so much better. Here's the truth. You don't want your lifelong dream and business to be dependent upon a platform for success. What if that platform disappears? What if your big idea was being famous on MySpace? Well, MySpace has gone. Even Twitter and some of these other apps are slowly just dwindling away. What if you never get that lucky viral video? What if it never hits? Do you have another plan for growth? I say this not to condemn you, but to just tell the truth. A lot of us push our insecurities onto the idea that social media is going to do something for us. And we no longer have to take responsibility for what we're called to do. We're not doing our day-to-day work with the idea that maybe one day I'll just hit it lucky, like the lottery. And that's not the case.

We have to look in the mirror and say, what am I responsible for today? Instead of being desperate for attention on social media, do something worth paying attention to. Go out and create an amazing product or service. Do something so different and original that people will find you in real life, not just online. Go out and create something that you're proud of, that you want your kids to see.

So that thing that you've been wanting to do. And you'll be surprised how many people come your way looking for that same thing. If all of your hope and trust is in a platform, it's going to fail you. How can I say that? Because I know. I cast all my chips on the table. I spent every day trying to compete and trying to get ahead, and it left me completely burnt out.

In the scriptures, Jesus said anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on a solid rock. If COVID taught us anything, it's that the storm is going to come. We must build our lives and businesses on the right foundation. We can't just pursue money. We have to seek after peace, wisdom, and joy. We have to focus on the things that fill us up.

Here's the truth. No matter where you are today, you can start. You can start down this path. You're going to say, oh, Jordan, I feel like crap. After watching this now, that's okay. Sometimes truth doesn't sit well with our insecurities. I'm speaking from a place of still learning, of still growing. I'm still saying, man, where am I casting too much of my attention on these outside things? And even though I don't have social media personally, and other people post for our business, I still care about my YouTube metrics. I still care about views. I still care about selling books one day and doing all these things.

But the truth is, the most important thing is that personal reflection and looking in the mirror and saying, you know, what do I need to do to improve this today? As I've said on many other videos, sometimes you just get sick and tired of being sick and tired. If you're not tired of it, you're probably not going to change.

Take A Step

That's just how it is. If you're sick of it and you just say, I want to do something different. Take a step today. Say, you know what? Jordan is right. I took a whole video to answer one question in our comment section. But I just really believe that whether you're an artist and you do these incredible paintings or you're a photographer or a website designer or a business owner, and you're in the service industry, I believe 150% that technology, videos, photography, advertising, and social media can and will help you.

But my great-grandpa, he started a service business in our town. He built the whole business from the ground up. Struggled for many years, never having social media, videos, or any of these things. But he literally went door to door with a clipboard and a notepad searching for new customers. It's the much crazier step beyond cold calling is door to door. Who knows what would happen if we did that today, but in a simpler way, just begin to look at those things in your area where you can say, you know what? I think I could do some thank you cards. Or I might just call five of my customers today and ask them what their experience was like and ask them for a review and tell them, thank you.

There's no condemnation in this. I'm calling you up. I'm trying to speak life over you. And just take that deep breath and go. Ugh, you mean I don't have to do that. I don't have to post every day. I don't have to compete with so and so? No. Oh, my ministry is not going to fail, my organization is not going to get help to these people that need it if I don't have the perfect social plan.

You should plan. But you should also plan to breathe. You should plan to work on your business. You should plan to invest in yourself. You should plan to focus on your customers and see what beautiful things can come from it.