Social Media Slack

Busy Body.

Sunday, April 7th marked 3 months since I started my business, The Bridal Binder. Since launch day I have booked 2 weddings, designed a wedding announcement for a client, currently working on a welcome bag order of 14, planning my best friends bachelorette party and bridal shower and currently designing an evite for another client (fun fact: my mom ) along with other little projects in between. Needless to say, these past 3 months have kept me super busy and I couldn't be happier. I love staying busy and organized - if you haven't already noticed.

Reflecting on these last 3 months, I am so happy that I put my trust in God as well as trusting myself to pursue this business. Aside from The Bridal Binder, I do have a full time job working from home Monday through Friday and I also picked up a spring job working for a dance competition a few weekends. I enjoy a good side hustle (maybe a few side hustles) but staying constantly busy has had a few setbacks.

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Social Media Slack.

When I first launched The Bridal Binder I made the initiative to post on social media (at least Instagram) every other day to keep it consistent and bring people to my page and website. I've had success with both Instagram and Facebook (I booked both my weddings through Facebook) and wanted to keep that going. However, now that I have been traveling with the dance competition and while working on current projects for The Bridal Binder clients (all on top of my full time job), I've noticed that I have been "slacking" per say on the social media outreach. Before I go into my initial stress over this, I have accepted the fact that life happens and I have learned to not stress the social media outreach but to embrace it.

To be honest at first I was upset with myself that I wasn't staying productive enough with my posts. I thought, "If I don't post, I won't get views and I won't increase clientele." I found myself scrambling to choose a topic to post about but nothing was relevant to anything I was currently working on or I didn't think the posts would be good enough.

This stressed me out even more.

I then decided to utilize Sundays (when I wasn't traveling) to plan out my posts for the upcoming week and save them as drafts to save me time during the week. This mentality helped my outreach briefly and kept me organized but then I struggled again and had periods of not having anything to post about. This pattern continued, I prayed about it and finally had clarity.

In reality, I took a step back and realized I can only do what I am capable of, when I am capable of doing it. With traveling a lot the past few weeks, I've had to put The Bridal Binder aside for a few days while I focused on the competition, enjoying my travels and meeting new people. This business is not my career per say but a side hustle as I mentioned and I am trying not to stress myself out over it. I LOVE planning and working on projects (they never stress me out) but this social media outreach is definitely a challenge. It's a learning process and I know once I pick up more business, my outreach will increase and get easier overtime.

Writing this blog and thinking about my social media posts this week, I've only posted on Facebook once and Instagram three times - I am happily content with that when two weeks ago I would've been so hard on myself. Progress.

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Blog Brain.

When I first announced that I was starting this business I wrote 2-3 blogs a week for the first two months. Now 6 months later, I am writing one blog a month. Looking back I think the fresh mentality of the business and having so many ideas at first, writing blogs was easy as I had more topics and day to day progress to talk about. Now that the business has launched, day to day progress has slowed down a bit and I have had to find the time to sit down and write. I think I've done a good job on my personal blog so far with just staying consistent and giving an update every few weeks. My personal blog is mainly to see my own growth and to keep my friends and family updated briefly as well.

On top of writing for my personal blog, I also started a blog directly associated with The Bridal Binder - call me crazy for adding another task to my agenda. I have published three blogs for The Bridal Binder thus far and I have a list of topics to publish in the future.

https://www.bridalbinderevents.com/blog-1

I thought starting a blog associated with my business would also help with outreach and bring others to my website. I publish each article to Facebook, people share the article (thank you if you are a part of that circle) and that has brought increased traffic to my website. My current mindset for The Bridal Binder blog is to published every few weeks or at least once a month. Running this business by myself (with the help of my husband) I am a one man show doing everything on my own but I am embracing this experience in its entirety.

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Conclusion.

I feel that I have rambled on and on this blog. I've explained my struggles and setbacks but I hope I inspired you to continue to push through your setbacks. Each season will have its ups and downs but admire the growth you gain from each struggle or setback. One step backward can spring you two steps forward.

Jeremiah 29:11 keeps me motivated and is my favorite bible verse.

What or who keeps you motivated?

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."