Life Unfolded
Join us as we unpack the trials and triumphs that shape our lives, offering practical advice, heartfelt encouragement, and inspiring tales of transformation. Whether you're navigating a difficult phase, seeking motivation to chase your dreams, or simply looking to enrich your perspective on life, "Life Unfolded" provides the wisdom and support you need to thrive.
Life Unfolded
Social Media Detox and the Power of Focused Growth
Taking a break from social media was a game-changer for my personal and business growth. I'll reflect on how stepping back from platforms like Facebook allowed me to channel more energy into MJ Media Productions. Drawing insights from Neil Postman's "Technopoly," I'll explore the complex relationship between technology and personal well-being. My journey into social media management with a consultant from The Boutique COO was transformative, reshaping my approach to online branding. Celebrating a big milestone with our first print feature in Active Media, I'll emphasize the value of perseverance and self-belief in achieving dreams. Join me for a heartfelt discussion on technology, creativity, and resilience.
View the video version of this podcast here.
Some of the following links include affiliate links from which I may earn a small commission from purchases made through said links.
References from this episode:
Whoopi Goldberg - Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother and Me
The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines
Technopoly by Neil Postman
The Boutique COO
Find gear used in the episode here.
Follow Melody on Instagram:
instagram.com/mjmediaproductionsllc
instagram.com/melodyjordansings
To work with Melody, visit mjmediaproductions.net.
Please note that the content of this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or mental health concern.
Today I'm super excited because I'm actually recording a video version of this podcast as well. I got a little studio set up in my living room and I'm using a bunch of new gear that I got for my media productions company, like a monitor so I can see more clearly. My Sony cameras have little screens on them and you can actually flip them, so if you're recording yourself you can see, but it's such a tiny screen so if you have it like far away or it's just hard to see details. So I got a seven inch monitor that I have hooked up and make sure everything's clear and in focus and so excited about that. Not only is that going to be great for doing video work, but also for product photography, which I've been getting really into. So having it hooked up to my camera while I'm taking pictures helps me not have to like hunch over and squint at the little screen, and when I take the picture then I can see okay, yeah, everything's where I want it. It's just it's going to make things so much more efficient and, I think, definitely improve the quality of the work that I'm doing too, so that's exciting. I also have a different mic hooked up today, so we'll see what the sound quality is like compared to previous episodes, name of it. But it came in a bundle with my Zoom pod track that I use to record audio for podcasts and videos, and I love that. It's great for recording spoken word. But I'm going to be doing some vocals today too, and so I hooked up the MXL um, just a little bit nicer for singing, I think. So that's what I'm doing for the podcast, so we're just going to hear the difference. I've got a pop filter and also a like an isolation hood wrapped around the mic, so when I'm singing later it'll help absorb some of the room sounds, the echoes, and I mean, ideally I'd be in a totally padded room, um, but you can make it work so easily now with all these cool accessories and, um, yeah, I'm excited for that.
Speaker 1:The well, I guess, since we talked last, I had a song come out. It's on all the major music streaming platforms spotify, amazon, apple, youtube, um, it's called ringleader. So just, uh, look up ringleader by melodyody Jordan and you can listen to it. It's been really fun to talk to my Amazon devices and tell them to play the song. The one that I'm working on today is called Playing on Repeat and it's a song that I wrote in 2000. It was 2012 or 2013. I can't remember the year exactly. It's been long enough. Um, but I lost my sister suddenly and, um, you know, unexpectedly, in a pretty sad way, and it was a song that I wrote about how I could just hear like her voice, you know, like an echo, um, and so it's called playing on repeat, and one of the lines is your love is just a ghost, your voice is an echo playing on repeat in my heart. So that's, uh, where the title came from playing on repeat and um, it's going to be some cool effects with, like the echoing, and I'm just really excited to hear how it comes out. The producer I've been working with has been great at understanding the feel and um, overall vision for the songs, like ringleader, I think, was captured really well and this one, I got the instrumental track back and it sounds so good. It's not as rockin' as Ringleader. It'll be more melodic and, you know, emotional, heartfelt and just really happy and excited for that. So that's what I'm going to be doing after I record this podcast.
Speaker 1:Last time we chatted too. I mentioned I was considering taking a break from my personal social media and ordered a book called Technopoly by Neil Postman, and so, yeah, I I did get off of my personal account, my Facebook account. Um, I mean, it's still there. I just haven't been using it. I've, and I've taken that time and really focused it on social media for my business, for MJ Media Productions, and not only that, but like putting energy into honing my skills and practicing more.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, like the first day that I stopped using Facebook, I noticed myself reaching for my phone like so frequently. It was amazing that that pull that we have to check. Is there anything new? Is there anything exciting? Is somebody trying to talk to me? Is there this? Did they like what I posted? What is everyone else doing? Is there something like you? Just, it's like that dopamine hit like that reward. You open it and there's. So what am I going to get this time? You know, and the first day was pretty much the only day that I just felt that pull so frequently to check, and I had deleted the app off my phone so that you know it'd be easier to stick to my detox and I would catch myself just grabbing my phone and then putting it back down, and then I didn't.
Speaker 1:It wasn't as much, like I didn't think about it as much for the next like five days, the first week, and now it's kind of like if I even think about checking my personal Facebook, I kind of get like a wave of anxiety, like it used to be. Or maybe I thought it was excitement of seeing what's there, but now it's kind of like anxiety, like an overwhelm of notifications, a lot of which seem like spam to me anyways, just notifications like why do I need to be notified of this? We have so much information coming at us all day, every day, with these platforms like this page posted an event you might like, this person responded going to an event, this person did this, this person did that, some posts from a group you may have missed, and here's your top badge, because you just so many things and it's like does this stuff really even matter? Why am I wasting energy and brain space on this? It's, it really is. Once you take that out of your life, the thought of seeing all that again, I feel like anxiety. I don't even want to look anymore.
Speaker 1:And it caused some reflection too, where, if you're frequently posting on social media and you see the likes and you may have the same group of people who tend to like everything that you post on there and then when you don't go on social media, there's just way less communication. It's like, unless you're popping up at someone's feed, are they really thinking about you? It just really drives that point home. Like I was saying in the last episode, how social media creates this like false sense of relationships and connection and support. Where, if you disappear, are those people? Do they really? Do you have a real, genuine connection, like an actual relationship with these people? Or is it just because when you pop up in each other's faces you just like and scroll? It's just. It's more of like a reaction than a relationship, is all that it is and it gives us the sense of being connected. But when you don't have that anymore, you realize you're not connected to hardly anybody. You know social media has changed our definition of friendship. It's not normal to have 2,500 friends or 5,000 friends. Nobody has that many friends. You get off of your social media and, like the 130 likes, you don't talk to 130 people. I think it's just created a really unhealthy view of relationships and connection and healthy self-esteem too.
Speaker 1:So I've been reading that book, technopoly, and it's 199 pages long, so I feel like I should have gotten through it fast. But it is like it's really interesting and there's some really valid points there. I mean, the book was written in 1992, I think. But applying it to where we are now with technology, it's just so true, just really impactful. So true, just really impactful. But it is like a little more dense information and goes into the history of different systems and different cultures, and so it's taken me a little bit longer to get into.
Speaker 1:I think I've actually read like two other books since then too, which okay, let me just go off on this little path here. The magnolia story was just really good. It's really inspiring, encouraging, and those are chip and joanna gains, the couple from fixer upper. I highly recommend that book. It's a pretty quick read couple hundred pages. And then the other one I read was whoopi goldberg's memoir. My mom, mom, my brother, me. Bits and pieces, I think, is what it's called. And oh my goodness, that woman has so much wisdom to share, just like great nuggets of life, wisdom, so good. I really recommend that. I flew through both those books in the last week. But yes, so that was my little break from Technopoly. But back to Technopoly. Yeah, I started a notes section on my phone so each time I came across a section that really stood out to me, I kept track of, like the page.
Speaker 1:I think one of the thoughts that stood out to me the most so far is, when a new technology is introduced, the pros and, like, the excitement of that technology are pushed so hard that people don't stop to consider the cons, the negative effects, and who is actually benefiting from it. It's really pushed on consumers of social media that it's going to benefit us, it's for us, right, it's for our good, it's to bring us closer together, but who's actually benefiting from it? How much information is being collected and how is that information being used to keep us more addicted and is that really good for us? I don't think so, and I think the book really encourages us as a society to slow down. Like once a technology comes in, it takes over the culture and now our culture caters to the technology rather than the technology catering to us. Instead of it being a tool, now it's like our God, we serve it, and that's not good, obviously, obviously.
Speaker 1:So it's really just this break from using social media for personal purposes has allowed for those realizations and then really just getting off of that need to feel validated through false support, like artificial connection, and then having all the spare time. Did you know that the average person, the average teen, spends eight hours or nine hours a day on their phone? Can you imagine what more you could do, what else you could get done, if you weren't scrolling on your phone? And so I've taken the extra time and I've put it into learning new skills, further developing skills I already have, and that's been awesome, like I feel like I have this new energy in my business and more focus, and putting that time into marketing instead of personal like doom. Scrolling just feels so much better, and so that's something to think about.
Speaker 1:If you've been teetering on the edge of taking a social media break or, um, even starting to wonder if it's negatively affecting you, um, I recommend getting that book, technopoly, or there's so many podcasts you can listen to. I mentioned one last time Brendan Burchard's Motivation. With Brendan Burchard, he's got some episodes that mention social media and the negative effects on mental health and productivity and all of that. So there's resources out there. I recommend looking into it and considering it in some way, whether it's a book or a podcast or whatever social media, but I really think that our world needs a wake up call when it comes to to that, because it's causing so much division, it's causing more anger and upset. I really do think that the negatives outweigh the positives of it. I guess that's all I'll say on that for now. So next I guess I'll pivot over to social media marketing and how that journey has been.
Speaker 1:So I marketing and social media management. I may have that wrong, but it's all virtual. Like I said, they're based out of Portland. I don't think I said that. I said they were Oregon, but they're based out of Portland. It's called the Boutique COO, so you can find them online, their website and anyways, I just I actually found them because I was looking at job listings for freelance work, just trying to get some more gigs for video or photography, website design, anything like that and I saw a job posting they were looking for a social media manager and I was like, well, I don't want to do that, but this company sounds like they could actually help my business.
Speaker 1:So from their job listing I went to their website and ended up booking a session with their social media consultant and we chatted for like 45 minutes media consultant and we chatted for like 45 minutes and, holy cow, I got so much information out of that 45 minutes. That cause I was thinking, well, maybe I'll just hire somebody to run my social media for me, because at that point, like a month ago, I was just so done and burnt out on it, um. But talking to her, I was like, okay, you know, maybe I can do this myself. And so, 45 minutes, all this information, we kind of came up with a strategy and things for me to start implementing, and so I've been doing that and I've been seeing a steady increase in my reach and engagement is taking a little longer to increase, but I think it's slowly happening, and so I just I love that.
Speaker 1:I wanted to throw that out there. If you have a business that you run, or if you're an entrepreneur, you're trying to grow a social media following, I recommend reaching out to the boutique COO and having them help you out with that, and maybe now I'll share some of the tips that I learned. So I think my biggest takeaway from that session was treating your business Instagram like a website, and so your title and your bio should tell them right away who you are, what you do, who you serve um and how you serve them. And then the highlights on Instagram are really important and you create those from stories that you've posted, and so having those are like the page tabs on a website Like um. So I have a behind the scenes, I have a video, I have a product photography, a podcast and I can't remember. There's other ones, but it's like people go and click on those to see what you're.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like your portfolio right up front, rather than scrolling through all your posts. That tells them right off the bat like the different things that you offer, and so I've been utilizing more stories and then creating highlights from that. So when people are at my page, they can just click and see what my work situation is like. If they want to see what my methods are, they can click on the behind the scenes. If they want to quickly see samples of my work without having to scroll through my page, they can see all the products. If that's what they're interested in, or if they're interested in podcasts, then they can just click on the podcast tab Rather than scrolling through all my content to find the podcast post.
Speaker 1:Whatever they're looking for, it's right there and I just thought that was such a valuable piece of information, and so since then, I've gotten my highlights in order, and another piece of advice that she gave me was to download a template pack from Etsy, and branding is something that I can do. It's just it's harder to do it for myself. I found, like creating content for other people like that's my job, but then when it comes to maintaining my own, it kind of like gets put on the back burner, and so that was really helpful for me. I went on to Etsy and I found a template pack that matched the branding that I have been going for, and that's just made it so easy. It came with like so many different square templates and then stories templates and then even like highlight cover images, and so that way you have a consistent look throughout your Instagram grid, and so I think that's helped too. My grid has a more consistent look. Kind of like, if you go to my website and you look at my marketing materials, like my business cards and my brochures, they all have the same colors and fonts, and so now my Instagram is starting to look like that too, and that's something that I've taught when I do talk to people about building a brand and and doing online or digital marketing to have a cohesive look across all your platforms. That should be recognizable no matter where you go. And so I'm just excited to finally start getting that with my own brand and hope that is helpful for you.
Speaker 1:And I guess last thing that I'll talk about is a pretty exciting accomplishment for MJ Media Productions Our first print feature, media productions Our first print feature. I was brought on with a media publishing company, active Media. They're based out of Salem and they started a new publication in my area, community Advantage there's one for Lebanon and there's one for Sweet Home and so I started taking photos for their businesses that they're featuring. So a lot of them have articles written about the business too, and so they have a contributing writer who does the interviews. And then I go in and I get pictures of either the food or the team, the interior, exterior and all of that, and so a lot of my work was published and I'm really just so thankful and just kind of in awe, I guess.
Speaker 1:Um, it's pretty scary to take a leap and take a chance on yourself and start your own business and really just going for it, and there's a lot of discouraging times and I definitely have a long way to go still to meet my personal goals of what I think success is. I know that varies from person to person, but just to see that the work and the faith is paying off is really cool, and so I wanted to share that with you, not to boast about something that I've done, but to encourage you that if you are working towards something, whether it's a business or personal growth in some other area, a hobby or a skill keep going, don't stop. Keep going. It's going to be hard sometimes, but if you feel, if you know, like when you feel it in you that you're meant to be doing something like it's the right thing to do, keep going. I just hope that this little story encourages you to keep hanging on so you can experience your big milestones too.
Speaker 1:Make sure to stop and reflect and see just how far you've come already, even if it doesn't feel like it. If you're like me, you're probably always thinking about what's next, or where you want to go, or where you want to be or where you think you should be, and I think that's good, because it helps, at least for me. It helps push me to produce more and to be more productive. But when I stop and I look back and then realizing that you've probably done so many things that may not seem like that big a deal to you, but somebody else is like whoa, that person is amazing. I can't believe they did that. I could not do that. I have no idea how I would even start to do that, but you did it. So take time to reflect and appreciate where you are and where you've been and what you've learned and accomplished so far. Till then, till next time. Thanks for joining me on the Life Unfolded podcast. Talk to you later.