Posting about your business during challenging worldwide times

The world feels heavy right now and a lot of small business owners are quietly asking themselves the same question:
is it wrong to keep posting about my business on social media when so much is going on?

In this episode, I talk honestly about the guilt, the pressure to speak up, and trying to stay financially stable while everything feels uncertain.

This isn’t about telling you what you should do.
It’s about compassion, mental health, and finding a way forward that feels right for you.

Learn more:
Resources, free downloads, and links mentioned in this episode can be found in the show notes at smallbusinessgrowthaddicts.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and thank you for joining me for another episode of Growth Addicts Podcast. Thank you for being here. Today's episode is very different from our norm. And before I get into it, I do want to do a trigger warning to make sure that you know what we're going to be talking about today. And if that feels like something you don't want to hear today, then absolutely switch off. And I completely understand. The topic of our subject today is around still using social media as a marketing platform for your business while the world is on fire, for want of a better term, you know. I'm talking today about atrocities worldwide. That includes death, war, witnessing dead bodies on our TV screens and on our phones and on our social media pages. I'm talking about mental health. I'm talking about epilepsy as part of my own experience. So I want you to be aware of those things that I'm talking about today before you decide whether to listen or not. And like I say, if you decide not to, then I completely understand. If you decide to stay with us and listen, then I hope that this episode helps you manage what we're going through worldwide. Today's a little bit of a different episode, but one I really want to talk about. Don't feel a need to talk about it, don't feel pressured to talk about it. We'll get into that as the episode of the conversation goes on. But one that I want to talk about, we can't ignore the fact that the world is heavy right now, isn't it? It's very heavy. I don't need to name the various atrocities that are going on worldwide. I know that you know, but what I do want to talk to you about is the guilt that small business owners are feeling just now about using their social media platforms to promote their business. The reason I know that you guys are feeling like this is because, for one, I too have felt it and I'm working through that just now. And you're telling me that you're feeling that is very much in my DMs at the minute. It's very much been talked about in our mentorship group. We do a community hour every week where we all, life-permitting, do our best to come together for an hour to sort of brainstorm, give each other feedback, ask questions, you know, just anything goes, anything goes. And it's the first time in over a year of having that space that I have I've opened up with. What I'm seeing here today, the world is heavy right now, it's scary. We have members worldwide in my mentorship group, so there are people that are directly affected by this, and there's others that are further away and are still impacted by the ripple effect of it, of all the various things that are going on worldwide just now, you know. And it's the first time we've had to open community hour by saying, if you want to talk about this, then we're here for that as well. We're here, you know, at its core, Scene Get Sales is a social media mentorship group, but it's so much more than that. It's a community of small business owners holding space for each other. I know that term is thrown about a lot just now, holding space, you know, but really that's what it is. We're there, we're opening the floor for anything that you want to talk about. And I'm glad that we did because a few members did come forward and say they're struggling. And this is something that came up about feeling gross, feeling disgusting, feeling so ashamed, guilt about using your social media platform to promote your business. And this is what I want to talk to you about today. So, like I say, I'm feeling this too, I'm working through it. You know, we're opening up our social media feeds, we're turning on the TV, and we are witnessing horrific, horrendous things, bodies in the street. I, you know, witnessed someone being shot in the street by a government official this week. I've seen witnessed, I've I've seen it online. I've seen bodies piled up. I've seen quotes from Anne Frank that are resonating with what is happening around the world today. It's it's a lot. It is a lot for any human being to take on. So I took a day out to just have a good think about this and do some research and and and see some uncomfortable things and read some uncomfortable things. And geez, the weight and the fear, particularly for me having young kids, I felt that. We're all feeling it, whether you're a parent or not, I know that. But I just speaking personally, I felt that particularly heavy. Having young kids and the responsibility of being a parent and looking after them and even bringing them into a world like this, like you can really spiral. So I did, I took a day out, had a good think, did some learning, did some journaling. I do that. My journaling is very unhinged though. It's very much a blank notebook and a brain dump, but it really helps me get thoughts out. It was also helping me articulate this episode today as well. And I guess the sort of conclusion is it a conclusion, you know, that signals that something has ended. It's just my sort of where I'm at just now. And I shared this with some other small business owners and they're telling me it's helping. So I thought I would share it here too. I do feel that you can care deeply about the state of the world right now and still run a business. We're often caveat at in things by saying, you know, oh I know there's worse going on in the world, however, you know, look at this product or this service that I'm offering. But thing is, guys, there's always been worse things going on in the world, and there always will be. There's always someone worse off than you, and that person might not be millions of miles away. There might be two doors down. It's always been the case and always will be. But by choosing to still run your business, you're not choosing business over compassion. You I think you're choosing stability in a very uncertain time. Small business supports lots of things, and you're not posting on social media just for the likes. You're posting because it's your livelihood, and social media is simply a marketing platform for a small business owner. Your business, whether you even realize this or not, supports communities and local economies, and this all contributes to the bigger picture as well. I mean, you might think at the minute you're a one-man, one-woman band and that you don't employ anyone or anything, so that's not relevant to you, but you might be using an accountant to help with your accounts, your bookkeeping, your tax returns. You're paying that person and you're therefore helping them support their family. Think of anything else that you might outsource or use another business or professional service in your business. That ripple effect of small business supports local economies and goes on and goes on and goes on because that accountant that you hire, they hire someone else to help them with the influx of tax return requests in November, December for January. We know that happens. And it all contributes to the bigger picture and it's the bigger picture that's at stake right here, right now. I'd say it's absolutely okay to pause. It's okay to acknowledge issue or a cause that's going on. Of course it is. But if you were to stop completely and feel like you were doing almost like the way we do a moment silence to pay our respects, if you were to go on, you know, a social media blackout for a week and not post anything but your business this week, it might be part of a cause that that's close to you and that's something that you're doing as that collective and all power to you if that's the case. I'm very much advocating here for individuals, for you doing whatever it is you want to do. When I'm sharing my thoughts and experience and process that I'm working through just now in the hope that it will help someone figure this out too. But at the end of the day, you do what you want to do, absolutely. But what I was saying there is if you know if you step away from social media completely, when we know that social media is a marketing platform for your business, then what does that look like for you? What stress would that put you under financial pressure? You know, is that making business life harder than it already is? I think what I just want to really get across here is that you're not doing anything wrong. I think we all have a responsibility to live in a better world, but it does not mean that your business has to suffer because of what is going on. I mean, there's a narrative on threads just now, not by everyone, not by a long shot. I have seen it pop up a few times saying that if you have a social media platform of any size, of any anything at all, then you have a responsibility to use it to speak up about the state of the world right now. And I just can't get on board with it. I can't get on board with it as a 100% absolute. It's shaming people for continue to earn a living, and that's not right. And if you look at some of the atrocities that are going on in the world where people in certain countries are protesting for better life and better economy and better employment and work opportunities, then how on earth is I shaming each other for using a social media as a marketing platform to further our business, which we know contributes to local economies, which contributes to the larger economy. How on earth is that doing good? If you want to use your platform to shout about things, or if you're just not comfortable with that, or if you just don't feel educated enough to hold your own in an argument about this, listen, I get that as well. I often feel like that. Like I'd love to get into this, but I don't feel confident enough in doing so. And I probably won't be able to hold my own because there's so many sides to all of this. And I'm really feeling just now like the largest acts of kindness are often the quietest. I mean, maybe you opened the door for someone today in the supermarket and let them go before you. Maybe you pulled a trolley out for someone at the supermarket and gave it to them before getting your own. Maybe you stopped traffic to let some school kids cross this morning. Maybe you went a bit further and you asked your local coffee shop to, you know, you gave an extra fiver and asked them to pay for the next person's coffee anonymously. A random act of kindness. Maybe this, this is powerful stuff that you don't see in social media. And we have to acknowledge that just purely because someone is not shouting about the awful stuff that's going on in the world just now doesn't mean they don't care. Just because they're choosing to try and remain stable and play their part in the bigger picture and keep themselves financially stable. Doesn't mean they don't care. Not at all. Doesn't mean you don't care. Like I say, largest acts of kindness are often the quietest. And if anything, if I was encouraging you to do anything, I really believe in what Gandhi had said, be the change you want to see. And the likes of Mother Teresa spoke about, if you want to love the world, go home and love your family. I'm going to next talk about how I can relate this back to my own personal situation, and again, just purely in the hope that that helps put some context around this and helps you manage this situation that we're in at the minute. I have twins, boy-girl twins, and when our son, one of our twins, was diagnosed with this rare and catastrophic form of epilepsy when he was just eight weeks old, called infantile spasms. I mean, our world crumbled in so many ways. But I also felt the responsibility that I had to do more on social media. We were seeking advice and information and knowledge from various charities, and I was so grateful for that that I felt I had to give back in this way of I have to tell people about epilepsy. I didn't know anything about epilepsy myself. I thought it was all light triggered, and actually, only like 2% of all epilepsies is triggered by lights, photosensitive. And I felt this huge responsibility is the word that keeps coming to mind. I don't know if it was necessarily I want. It was just I felt this responsibility that I was getting so much information from so many places, and I was in this such a scary situation that I didn't know anything about before I was faced with it. And so I knew that other people wouldn't know anything about. I wanted to just tell the world about epilepsy, and then it went more than that. I wanted to give back to the charities, so I got involved in, you know, running and walking and climbing and fundraising and whatnot to give back to them. And then it went a bit further again when I was joining parents of children with epilepsy sort of groups on Facebook and whatnot. And I was scouring for comments that I could help because I was just so scared that someone else would miss the signs that we missed, and it could end up in such a worse situation for them that I could prevent it. And I had that responsibility, you know. As I'm saying this, my God, this is a lot. I also was at the time managing, living in hospital with newborn twins, a baby who was seizing round the clock, get every medication under the sun, nothing was working, no sleep, living in a hospital room during lockdown, no visitors, completely cut off from our family and friends. But at the same time, I was doing all of this stuff. At the end of the day, it was like constantly picking at a wound and not allowing it to even attempt to heal. And what it ultimately did, which I discovered then a few years later, yes, years around two years later, that what that did was massively worsen my PTSD around everything that I was going through at that point. I feel like my intentions were poor, and I don't regret any of this, by the way, because I know I did help people at that time. I would never regret that. I know I helped a few families I spoke to on Facebook get early detection because I know they went to AE quicker than they would have done already. I know I helped some of them figure out what was a seizure that they didn't know was a seizure from video that I did help. I know I managed to raise money for epilepsy research and all sorts of charities. I don't regret any of it, but I learned a huge experience. And I guess it comes down to that whole putting your own oxygen mask on first. There's a reason for that. And also that help I was given at the time, that help was coming from a deep-rooted fear. I was so scared of someone else going through this as well. I was so scared personally, and I think I was putting that energy into helping when really what I should have been doing is helping myself first be as strong as possible for my family, for me and for my family. It's that putting that oxygen mask on first. And so, yeah, about two years later, I was in a terrible state and I had to pull back from all of it. I had to leave these Facebook groups. I couldn't handle seeing a new one pop up every day. Hi, you know, my little girls started making some really odd movements. Um, could this be a seizure? And I'm like looking through the video, and every video I looked at and every post I read was bringing it back again. So I had to pull back to be charitable to me first and foremost so that I could feel whole again. And then in turn, that ripple effect, like I talk about small business, supports local economy, which supports the larger economy. By me being charitable and putting my oxygen mask on first, I was able to look after myself, look after my young family, look after my extended family. And that ripple effect, then they were able to help as well. We were all able to help each other. That was before I could even think about helping anyone out with that circle. And so I want you to know that as well, that your mental health matters amongst all of this. We are opening our phones and switching on our TVs and witnessing things that we never asked to see. And we care deeply. And like I say, we might be doing our own thing in our own way. And if that for you is using your social media platform to talk about the atrocities that are going on in the world, then like I say, all power to you. If that's not for you, then that's okay too. It's okay to still care deeply and still want to run your business for all the various reasons we've spoken about today. On that note, I'm going to end today by asking you to come and join us in my small business community because it's so much more than just helping to grow on social media. It's a community of people who are there for the wins, the wobbles, and everything in between. We are there for you. Like I say, we have members worldwide who are all feeling the weight of this in different ways. For some, it's closer to home than others. And we are supporting them through still earning a living during this time by using social media as a marketing platform without guilt, without shame, and in a way that feels right for them. As I keep saying, whether that means acknowledging things that are going on just now in the world or not, where it means, you know, small, quiet acts of kindness in the background in their own life, we're there for all of it. So if you like us have been struggling with this, then doing this call to action to show you that this does not make me a heartless, money-hungry business owner. I know that what I have on offer here is a caring, compassionate community with members worldwide. And it can help you if you are feeling like this. And I hope that there's a message in itself by me ending with this that it's okay for me to offer that to you, and it's also okay for you to offer your product or service or you're offering to the world right now. If you are struggling with this, then reach out. I am on Instagram, amandahughes.uk. You can generally find me there. That's where I hang out most. My inbox is always open. And of course, there are other organisations as well. We've spoken about mental health there, we've spoken about epilepsy. So I'm going to put some links in there as well, places that you can go for support if you're struggling with anything like that. Hang in there, guys. Take a pause if you need it. Think about the direction you're going in. Think about how it's making you feel, what the wider effect is on your family, on yourself. Ultimately, do what feels right for you, not what someone else is telling you that you should do. Take care.