Can I run a creative business in today's world without Instagram? (or any other social media for that matter)
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about patterns and habits and how the little decisions we make, build the life we live. I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that last year, I identified I had an addiction to my phone. It’s not a ground breaking admission, we all say we’re addicted to our phones, but at some point in the autumn/winter of last year, I really sat down with myself and reckoned with how much time I was spending looking at that little screen, more specifically how much time I was spending scrolling on Instagram and at what times in the day.
It’s no wonder I was addicted to the ‘gram. I’m a poster child for how you can use it as a tool to build your business. I started the @mademywardrobe account on Instagram in 2016 to document my personal challenge, to make my own wardrobe from scratch, and from those first oversaturated photos, step-by-step I’ve built a business that I love. From sewing patterns, to fabric and kits, to sewing machines and workshops, Made My Wardrobe has grown. My Instagram has been inextricably linked to my income and the sales of my business. In the Instagram hay day (peak lock-down), a single post could lead to thousands of pounds in sales and I’m not even that big on there. Our accounts growth has plateaued at just under 30k followers for the last few years and I’m kinda happy about that, because I’ve been told as soon as you tip over the 30k mark that’s when you start getting trolled. As with every other creative business I know, our reach and visibility has massively dropped off as the algorithm has changed, save for a few semi-viral posts about wedding outfit making (wedding related stuff always bangs on there).
Running a small creative business does sometimes feel like a wild game of roulette, one day I’ll open my phone and see we’ve made no sales and the next I’ll see we’ve had a huge flurry. My phone is my portal to getting the dopamine hits of success, and also a slap of reality when something isn’t working.
I’ve always said, I’ll be on social media for as long as it's a tool to lead to real interaction and creativity. The reason I post on instagram is because then we can get people in a room (be that mostly in our studio or sometimes online) and bring them together to create and that act of creation is what I’m interested in. That’s what makes my tummy tingle.
But in the last few months of 2015 it had all gotten out of whack. I was checking my instagram late at night in bed and early in the morning before I had even got up to make a cup of tea. I was replying to DMs about sewing pattern construction queries at 23.47pm because I was worried if I didn’t do it when I saw the message, I would forget the next day at work. But the thing most sad to me, was that I was framing the hours I was spending scrolling as an essential part of running a creative business. Like somehow if I wasn’t keeping in the loop I wouldn’t be able to run the business. When actually the voyeuristic infinite scrolling was draining my creativity, activating my anxiety and overstimulating my nervous system when I needed to be resting. We know all this. But what I didn’t know was how to fix it.
I knew in order to face the problem I needed to acknowledge that it was indeed an addiction having an adverse affect on my life and that meant I needed to get real about it. If I was spending as much time drinking as I was scrolling I would need to be in AA. I also knew I couldn’t just delete the whole thing all together because I do need to use these tools for my work from time to time. I had tried setting time limits on the app before, but found I would just override them, so I needed to go a step further. I needed to delete the app off my phone completely. Instead I now have an old iPhone locked away at the studio which is the only place i can access my account. This means I can’t scroll in the dentist’s waiting room, on the train or in bed. The only time I can now use instagram is at work, for work. And there is so much to do when I’m at the studio, I’m not doing the infinite scroll when I’m there, I’m doing a quick check of my DMs where I’ll encourage people to email me to further their enquiry and, sharing a post or two then logging off.
But for this switch to work I needed a challenge. In the same way that giving myself the challenge to make my entire wardrobe from scratch in a year, I needed a new challenge that would give me a sense of achievement and progress. So I decided 2016 would be the year I read a book a week. 52 in total. Scrolling instagram had eclipsed my concentration and nighttime reading rituals, but it was time to flip the script and fall back in love with books. As I write, it’s the end of April and I’ve finished 18 books so far this year. So I’m on track. The phone to book replacement has been good, because I like reading in the times and places I used to scroll and the effect on my brain is so much more calming. Keeping a visual stack of the books has helped me feel proud of my progress. The first month I was constantly getting urges to redownload the app, but they say it takes 40 days to make a habit and I can feel it’s becoming my natural instinct now to reach for a book, instead of my phone.
If you want to try this I recommend sticking to books that are roughly 300 pages long so that you can keep up momentum. Alternate between fiction and non-fiction as sometimes it’s hard to jump straight from one fictional world to another. And always have the next book ready to go so that you don’t lose half the week looking for and ordering the next book you want to read.
My soul feels nourished by the switch and my brain feels like it's gained some of the function and capacity it had lost through scrolling, but how has being on Instagram less affected my business?
I’ll be honest, sales have been slightly slower this year. Last year we sold out every single workshop we put on (which is wild and I’m very grateful for). This year we’ve had a few that haven't totally sold out and one we had to postpone. That’s probably not just down to me spending less time on social media, there are global factors at play surrounding peoples spending and I think I announced some workshops with too little of lead time for them to fill up.
So then I guess I have a choice, can I absorb the slower sales in return for curing an addiction. Maybe it’s OK if a workshop takes two months to sell out instead of 24 hours? Or in order to be successful and profitable will I always need to find more ways to show up online and connect with people. I’m still working out where I am on that paradigm. But for now I’m very grateful to everyone who has stuck with us, signed up to our mailing list, and followed this blog, as I always love writing to you.
Of the books I’ve read this year, here are some of my favourites…
If anyone has any book recommendations please do pop them in the comments, I’ve got many more weeks of 2016 to go!
