If Instagram Told The Truth
If you look at the Female Founders Academy Instagram feed it looks incredibly polished, with great headlines, highlighted by professional photos, and professionally cut clips that capture the most impactful moments of the courses that I have poured my heart into. Those headlines are true, those photos are me, those clips are of my work, but what my Instagram feed doesn’t tell you is that…
I almost closed the Female Founders Academy 3 times last year. Like closed closed. Shut down. It felt too hard. I could not find my flow. I wasn’t getting the quick wins I was hoping for. I constantly felt twinges of dread if I’m honest, when it came to creating social content for this account. I just chalked all these big feelings up to the fact that I was running essentially 2 start ups while raising 4 kids as a single mother and trying to live my life. On paper, that should push me to my brink, but when I got quiet and really listened to myself I couldn’t close this business because I knew I hadn’t found the real reason behind my dread and procrastination.
It took me about 9 months of sitting with it, till I finally realized that I didn’t hate this business…I hated that I felt like I like I had to act like I had it all together in order to sell a business course, when all I wanted to do was scream I DON’T HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER! I realize that I have been doing exactly what I tell my students not to do...I’ve had my eye on other people’s paper. I see so many coaches showing up perfect online or showing behind the scenes that make it look like they sell millions while folding laundry with their eye masks on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so proud of any woman that’s out here crushing her business. It’s just not me.
I’ve learned that If I don’t act 100% in accordance with who I really am, telling the gods honest truth of where I really am, it takes a serious toll on my mental heath and therefore my business. So I’ve decided to give this one last real go, but this time it’s a REAL go. I will be writing a “Diary of a Female Founder” to tell the world exactly what it’s like to be me…a single mom of 4 running a brand new podcast and running a brand new coaching business. It’s a lot, but it’s a lot of what I love. When I’m true to myself and making genuine connections, it’s LITERALLY the best, but when I’m pretending like I’ve got it all figured out in hopes that will create some sales, it’s literally the worst. Can anyone else relate?
So my promise to you with this Dairy of Female Founder is for you to feel seen and less alone in how the day to day of your business is going. I promise to share the good, the bad and all the honest in between. My promise to me is that I get to be creative and authentic in how I show up talking what it means to run a business and how I so genuinely want to help women start and run their businesses they love.
So here’s my first entry…
I Hate This
Dearest Gentle Reader,
(Ok I’m still workshopping the opening for this series but I just caught a Bridgerton vibe and I’m going with it, lol.)
I hate this. How many times have I said that this year? I don’t say it all the time, because I also know that this work is really important and I feel very passionate about it, but I have definitely said to myself “I hate this” more times than I care to admit. Here’s the thing. Running a business is hard, no doubt, but if I hate it, that’s on me. It’s MY business. If I hate it, only I have the power to change that. I can change what I offer. I can restructure. I can close it. I can also change my relationship with how I show up for it. Hint Hint, I chose the last one and I feel more at peace, in flow, happy, creative and inspired in 1 week than I have in a year. See, it turns out, this business is such a personal assignment. So often we feel like our work is a reflection of our worth, that we have something to prove, that we have to do it perfectly. Can anyone else relate? Those are the things I spent the first year “undoing” in terms of my personal growth. It’s this last bit that needed to unlock…the last bit of being brave enough to show up as 100% authentically me. I am a business coach who is selling how to start and run a business, while I sit in the absolute mess of starting and running a business.
Speaking of mess, lol, here is some of my honest truth for how this week went:
I was ready to dive all in as this genuinely all in inspired version of me and my mom had a stroke. Thankfully she has made a full recovery, but I dropped everything and flew to Florida to be with her and couldn’t think straight for days. There went my clean perfect fresh start, but who cares!! She is well and I’m starting now!
I did my first post and forgot to save it so I could then post it on TikTok. Ugh. Is TikTok getting banned? I don’t have time to really figure that out. I’ll deal with it when it happens, if it happens.
I boosted the post on Instagram for $30 over 6 days and I’ve gained a nice amount of followers. There has also been some nice engagement. Once that ad is done I promise I’ll share the results so you have them as benchmarks. So far it’s seeming like money well spent because for some reason this account can’t seem to get picked up by the algorithm. More testing and learning to come!
I am writing this blog post in my bed, in sweats, with a glass of wine, surrounded by laundry while my kids watch their iPads. Unless I’m on camera for an interview or a meeting, I am pretty much never the polished girl you see in my reel covers.
I know deep in my bones that in order for me to love this, it has to be 100% honest, there has to be creativity in every piece I share online, it has to have an element of storytelling and it has to have feelings. I love feelings, lol! Those are my most natural gifts and just thinking about each post with these principles makes me excited and happy to show up. What are your natural gifts? How can you infuse that in how you show up online?
You guys, I’m feeling better already. Maybe it’s the wine lol, but I know it’s showing up in the most truthful way. Does it take a business years to become profitable? YES. Mine included. So no matter if this business is a booming success or I close it one day, the personal assignments of growth and authenticity that have come out of it are some of my greatest gifts. Turns out, now that I’m being true to myself, I actually LOVE THIS.
Until next time.
Xoxo,
Gossip Girl
Just kidding…it’s me! Betsy!