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From Consumer to Content Creator and How I Kept My Sanity Through It All

The trials of marketing yourself and your work as you begin your small business journey.

Lauren Mercedes

6/18/20262 min read

If you're being absorbed by the content machine and marketing yourself/ your business is exhausting you this post is for you.

Everyone who starts a small business has the realisation sooner or later that they'll need to promote themselves. It's a full time demand that you don't quite anticipate despite it being obvious you'll need to get yourself out there somehow.

And it really does become a full time job as your brain subconsciously scans each moment of your life for the content machine and you're faced with the question should I record this or should I live it? A question you ask yourself more often than you care to admit particularly at the start of the journey.

I was a happy consumer. Chronically online consuming endless Instagram reels of stranger's cats, holidays, lives, work and advice. Simultaneously thinking it could never be me. Now it is. I was one cog in the machine and now I'm another. Trained in two jobs on the factory line and switching from one to the other when the shift manager demands it.

But Lauren, you don't need to constantly produce sacrifices for the content Gods to build your business.

I know this and there are other options, like writing blog posts for your website, but they're slow burners and I operate only in 6th gear so this was the route I took. Don't get me wrong Instagram is not an overnight thing. I was posting for a month and only just hit 100 followers (still proud of that though).

How do I stay authentic to me without being absorbed into the content churning machine?

The obvious one is boundaries. I made the decision not to join TikTok. I stuck to the one platform I was most familiar with and put in the boundary that I'd only have one social media. Likewise there's content I wouldn't make even if it was trending. I only do and share what I'm comfortable with.

Save some life for you. It's so easy to just hit the record button because you look cute or you're doing something you know will interest people. Get in to the habit of not taking your phone or making it harder to reach.

Not everything you do or make has to be content for your socials. Respect your own privacy. This doubles for safety and for wellbeing.

Setting challenges can help you segregate content creation from the things you enjoy. I did a 30 day flower challenge to give myself a break from thinking of things to post. The challenge also confined what was going into my content, stopping me from spilling over into the other things I was doing creatively, or using my life to try to snag followers and likes.

Put rules in for yourself that you would for your child (even if it's a metaphorical child). No phones at the dinner table. Get out in the fresh air. Go connect with people in person. Screen time bans and limits. Develop an inner parent that nags at you to do things for yourself. This is one of my superpowers that I admittedly worked on through my friends. I am the stereotypical mother duck amongst most people I know so I turned that behaviour towards myself. Most of us can quickly identify what is bad for our friends and families but fail when it comes to ourselves so take a minute to ask yourself what you'd tell a friend who is going through what you are.