124: I Stopped Using Social Media And Had My Best Month Ever!

In this episode, Jules White shares a personal update about stepping away from social media and what happened next. After stopping using social media in her business, Jules went on to have her best month ever.

Rather than presenting it as a magic formula, Jules reflects on what actually changed. She talks about the mental space created by removing social media from her daily routine, how that helped her focus on the right activities in her business, and the alternative ways she’s been connecting with potential clients.

Jules also revisits the four core problems she focuses on solving for business owners: visibility, conversion, making social media optional, and turning your website into a reliable source of enquiries and sales.

Through client stories, practical examples, and honest reflections, this episode explores how focusing on SEO, relationships, and strategic visibility can help create a more sustainable approach to marketing.

Key Takeaways:

• Breaking up with social media: Why Jules decided to stop using social media in her business and what changed as a result.
• Where to focus instead: Why building relationships, speaking in communities, and sending regular emails can be more effective than constantly posting online.
• Real results from SEO and Google Business Profiles: Client examples showing how small strategic improvements can quickly lead to enquiries.
• The power of search visibility: Why SEO allows your website to work for you even when you’re offline.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Episode 105: Why Your Brain and Business Deserve a Break from Harmful Social Media

Episode 042: Google Business Profile Live Strategy Call with Jane

Join the Website Growth Club for step by step website and SEO support
https://thewebsitesuccesshub.com

Book a Website Potential Discovery Call to explore how your website could bring in more enquiries
https://thewebsitesuccesshub.com

Transcript

Jules White: Hi. About five or six weeks ago, I broke up with social media and then went on to have my best month ever.

It's Jules here. Welcome back to the Website Success Show.

Introduction: Breaking Up with Social Media

With my content and my programmes, I focus on solving four core problems that hold many business owners back.

The first is visibility, getting your business to show up where people are actually searching for what you offer.

People are out there searching for what you do, and I help you to show up when they are.

The second is conversion, so turning real website visitors into bookings and sales.

The third is making social media optional, and this is all about optimising your website so it does the heavy lifting for you.

This way you're not relying on constantly posting and constant content creation.

So building your website that helps to make you sales as well, and that becomes your hardest working team member.

So it is just all about breaking free from social media dependency and marketing your business in just a calmer and more sustainable way.

So a month ago, as I say, about a month ago, I made that decision.

I have been skirting around breaking up with social media for forever, really for the whole time I've had my business.

I've always shilly-shallied around it and danced around it.

I finally got to the point where I thought, well, what's the worst that can happen if I give this a try?

If I fully embrace this as I have done with the podcast?

Which I've grown to over 11,400 downloads without promoting it on social media or paying for ads, and I've always been really proud of that.

I've always really loved the fact that I can say that about the podcast.

I've never promoted it on social media, and I've just finally decided to actually go all in on that for everything else in my business as well.

I wasn't spending that much time on social media in terms of actually posting, but it was still taking up time.

I was just thinking just before I came on how long I think I would've spent on social media.

I reckon at least 20 minutes a day would be a really conservative estimate.

Even just going in, checking groups, checking messages, you know, the rabbit holes that you inevitably get pulled into.

Connecting with people and then not really doing anything with it.

Even just clearing that bit of mental space of it even being something that's on the table for me has massively helped I think.

The Four Core Problems I Solve

This definitely isn't a strategy that's right for every business.

If your business heavily depends on social media and most of your clients are coming through social media, then you may need a plan.

You may need a bit of a strategy, and I think probably even if you are doing your marketing through social media right now, then you'll need to put something else in place.

And I think that's the big thing with social media.

I talk to so many business owners who are spending so much time and energy and so much of their mental bandwidth on social media, and then not really getting much back from it.

Why Social Media Feels Mandatory

I heard it described in a group that I'm in as social media being like the naughty kid in class.

It shouts the loudest and demands the most attention, but doesn't necessarily put anything back.

It doesn't necessarily help the school to actually hit their Ofsted targets or whatever it is.

You can tell that I don't have kids, so this is not my area of expertise, but it's a bit like that with social media.

It's demanding our attention, and that's how it's set up to be.

I talked about this back in episode 105, why your brain and business deserves a break from harmful social media.

The algorithms are set up in the same way that gambling apps are set up to actually keep us there, to keep us hooked.

They keep us scrolling and keep learning more about our buying habits or scrolling habits so that they can then sell more advertising space.

The companies can sell us more stuff, basically. That's what it all comes down to.

These platforms are not there as benevolent beings that are there to help us grow our businesses.

It's just not true. So anyway,

Social Media as the Naughty Kid in Class

Coming back to the fact that I then went on after breaking up with social media, and the breaking up part of it for me was just basically stopping using it.

I didn't delete my accounts and I wouldn't suggest doing that if you've spent some time building up a social media presence.

Leaving it there is not going to do any harm.

It helps to show that your business exists in the places that people expect.

If someone can go and find you and connect with you, and this has happened to me.

I have had a few people send me messages on Instagram, which I can actually get in my CRM.

That's nice because then it means I don't have to log into Instagram or anything, but it just means that you've still got that presence there.

So I would suggest if you've got the apps, just leave your accounts there and then just find ways to actually not log in and use them if you choose to do it.

And this is one of those things that it's the optional part about this that I really believe.

I believe social media is optional, and I think that's the thing when I speak to so many business owners.

It's not seen as optional, but rather as an absolute necessity. You have to have social media.

My Breaking Up Strategy

People have asked why I think that I've then gone on to have my best month ever.

And whether it is down to breaking up with social media, and I definitely think it's part of it, but it's not like it is a magic formula.

There is no magic formula, unfortunately.

I've been working on some other stuff in my business.

I've been doing a sales series with the NatWest Accelerator, which is focused on spending some time working on your business and not just in your business.

So working on ideal clients, what your goals are, and how you're actually going to connect with people.

And I definitely think that's helped.

It's helped me just to have that focus on what I am selling over the next few months.

How can I really connect with people and where can I put my attention?

It has allowed me to put my attention to other places without diluting it by just feeling like I've got to be everywhere.

Feeling like I've got to be doing all the social media stuff, or feeling like a bit of a failure if I'm doing it in a half-hearted way.

So it is something that I would definitely say it's not just about the fact that I broke up with social media.

What Actually Led to My Best Month

I think it's about the mental space it's given me to then think about other things and to get out of that comparisonitis.

It helps avoid the imposter syndrome that often came up from social media and seeing what other people are doing.

The shiny object syndrome is probably the biggest one for me as well, where I would see things and that would spark ideas.

Then I'd think, oh, I need to go down that route, or I need to go down this route.

I think just being more intentional with my time and my energy has definitely helped.

Being more intentional with what I'm actually allowing to come into my brain has also been a major factor.

The Mental Space Benefits

I've been using AI a bit more strategically as well and not using it as the default.

I used to use AI for everything, for brainstorming and for talking things out.

It definitely has helped me, especially over the last year, which has been difficult.

We lost my dad in August and there's been lots of emotional stuff that I've found that AI has helped me just talking things through.

But I got to a point where it was almost stealing some of my grit and some of my confidence in myself.

I need to know that I can solve problems with my own brain.

It kind of contributes to the noise a bit, I think, really.

So I've just been using it a lot less actually, and not reaching for it as the default.

I've noticed with AI that the end of the conversations always want to keep you there.

They want to keep giving you the next step, which is a bit like social media.

There's always that next thing to look at and there's no closing of the loop.

I'm just being just a bit more thoughtful around that.

I am taking some time to make sure that I have some screen-free time and screen-free days sometimes as well.

I don't always achieve that, but I do try and at least limit my screen time.

It's just helped me to have a bit more mental clarity and a bit more space in my brain to focus on the most important things.

So, I don't know, that probably is a bit of a woolly answer I suppose.

There's no definitive answer why I specifically now had my best month ever, other than I just feel like I'm putting my attention in the right places.

Using AI More Strategically

So I'm focusing on looking for places where I can connect with people, build relationships, and really get to know people.

I want to become known as the expert in SEO in different communities.

But I'm looking specifically for the places where I can connect with people outside of social media.

That's definitely been something that has contributed.

I've had a few new clients from doing in-person talks this month.

I have had some new Website Growth Club clients this month as well.

So I've been welcoming people into the Website Growth Club mainly through email, actually.

It's mainly people coming in from me emailing my list weekly and people joining through that.

Through the podcast as well, that definitely brings me clients in.

People hear about me, they hear about what's happening, and they like the sound of not relying on social media.

I think that's it. That's something that always seems to really resonate with people.

Last week at the NatWest Accelerator, we focused on messaging and your brand story.

I know definitely that's something that I want to share more about of actually these being the alternatives.

You don't have to rely on social media.

If you are spending all this time and energy on it and it's not bringing new clients, then it is time to take a step back.

Think about what you need to do differently. Do you need to work on your website?

If you are a local business and you're not working on your Google Business Profile, working on that can make a massive difference.

Where to Focus Your Attention Instead

I recently had a client of mine who I met at one of these local networking events where I stood up and did a talk.

She became a new client and we did a Google Business Profile optimisation intensive.

We did a session where we worked through her profile and optimised it together on Zoom.

Just a week later, she sent me a message saying that she'd had a new sign-up for her workshop.

They'd come through her Google Business Profile, and that was just over a week after we'd done that session.

I love hearing success stories like that from my clients.

My client, Jane, who's in the Website Growth Club, she's been working really hard over the last month on her corporate wellbeing workshop page.

Jane's a calligrapher and a mindset coach.

She was on the podcast actually, all the way back in episode 42.

We did a Google profile live strategy call, and she's really focusing now on corporate wellbeing.

She's focusing on going into companies and using calligraphy and mindfulness to help with their staff wellbeing.

As I say, she's been working on her pages around her corporate wellbeing work.

She is working on actually showing up for those kind of search terms.

She posted a little message in the group yesterday to say she got her first enquiry from Google for a corporate wellbeing workshop.

This stuff does work if you put the time in and put your energy and effort into actually creating a strategy.

Whether that is that you want to be showing up on Google or you want to be showing up in AI search.

Have a plan in place for how you can connect with people when they're actually searching.

Client Success Stories

I always think that social media is like trying to shout into the void and just trying to pull people into you.

Whereas when you're working on your SEO, people are already out there looking.

You are just purely showing up as the answer to their problem.

And that's the simplicity of it, and that's the power of it.

That's the beauty of it, that it can then still keep happening even when you don't feel like posting.

Even when you are off walking the dog, going for a wild swim, or lying on the beach.

Wherever you are, SEO can keep working for you and your website can become your hardest working team member.

SEO: Working While You Sleep

So if you like the sound of this, if relying less on social media and focusing more on things that can actually work for your business sounds good to you, then come and join us in the Website Growth Club.

We have step-by-step lessons and group support or one-to-one consulting.

If you prefer more tailored help and support for your business, you can book a website potential discovery call over at my website.

We'll have a chat about where you are, where you'd like to get to, and if any of my programmes or my offers can help you.

I would love to help more business owners to escape the social media overwhelm.

To get their website working for their business is such a big passion of mine.

I'm so pleased of what's happened over the last month because it feels like a real validation for me.

I've been looking for signs from the universe.

I'm not massively woo, but I have been looking for signs that this is the right path for me.

The conversations I've had multiple times over the last month and the fact that I've then gone on to have my best month ever is a real testament.

It shows that I'm heading in the right direction.

So if this sounds good to you, then come and book a call.

We can have a chat or come and join us in the Website Growth Club.

That's all for today. I hope you found this helpful. I'll see you soon. Bye.