A (2:03)

Something I've, I've like entered the year, like full force.

B (2:08)

Like, I didn't.

A (2:09)

I just kind of came back on.

B (2:10)

January 5th and I've been in it ever since.

A (2:15)

And I don't necessarily feel like I took a break, but I feel like I've been going really hard since, since the beginning of the month. But something I'm hearing from a lot of designers and artists out there is that they're still feeling burnt out. And so that's why I thought this type of topic might feel good.

B (2:35)

Yeah, lead on. 2025 was so hard. I mean, I can understand why people feel burned out. I. I did take a little bit of time off and I was like, I'm not ready. I'm not ready for this.

A (2:48)

And for a moment there, you know, maybe 24 hours, I was kind of like, oh, 20, 26 feels good.

B (2:54)

It's going to be a good year for 24 hours.

A (2:58)

And then, you know, Everything.

B (3:01)

Everything. Yeah.

A (3:02)

Did you do goal setting, by the way, Liz? So I didn't. I have. I still have some loose goals. I was teaching a workshop this week about creating a marketing plan, and I did a sample marketing plan for that. So within that, I did set three goals for myself, but I still have to think about them. I did, however, determine my word for the year, which is resonating and working, it feels like. And that word is focus. And really honing in on the things that I need to focus on, that I want to focus on, and just like, digging into those and not. Not getting distracted by the other things.

B (3:41)

I like that focus very.

A (3:43)

How about you?

B (3:45)

My word for the year.

A (3:48)

I did choose it, but I don't like it.

B (3:52)

But I can't think of, like, a better word. Like, it doesn't feel like it's exactly right. But the best I could come up with was peace.

A (4:03)

I like that. But, like, the thing I don't like.

B (4:06)

About it is it's kind of vague. And often people use peace as the opposite of war. Like, that's just how it's used. And that's not exactly what I mean. Although we could all use peace in many ways. And so I haven't quite found a way to, like, hone it exactly into what I want it to mean.

A (4:27)

There are. So we had a great conversation and a Stagold Collective group where everyone shared their word of the year, and there were some really good ones that came up. One that people really liked was soft or softer. And that kind of feels like it might work for you. Just like taking a softer approach to what you're doing and how you're showing up.

B (4:52)

I like that, too. I think something like that.

A (4:57)

Calm.

B (4:58)

Yeah. Softness. But, yeah, that's kind of the vibe. I'm going for the general vibe.

A (5:05)

I like it. And that aligns with another presentation I was working on. And maybe we could cover a little bit of it here. But kind of how to think about marketing this upcoming year. There is this kind of we need to take a softer approach. And I guess this episode's kind of about that too. The, you know, getting away from that feeling of I have to show up or I have to keep posting, and then all of the content you're putting out there loses its meaning because you're just kind of saying stuff and there's no, like, core message or real reason for the posting. And so I want to take the pressure off everyone to show up as intensely as they have been showing up.

B (5:51)

I need to take that in for myself.

A (5:54)

You're always posting.

B (5:57)

I do feel an anxiety about taking a beat. It feels hard to do that.

A (6:05)

It's hard to do that. And we were just talking about before we hit record about this 2016 trend that's happening. It is trending. And people are putting up posts of, like, recapping their 2016s. And I just started seeing it last night and this morning I started digging through feed to, like, pull content because I'm like, oh, of course I have to do this. But it brought up a lot for me and I don't think I can work through those feelings to get a post up by this afternoon.

B (6:34)

You know, I know I told Liz.

A (6:37)

It was one of the hardest years.

B (6:39)

Of my life, but it was also the year I started my business, so I, like, feel kind of obligated to honor it in a way.

A (6:48)

It was the year I started my business too.

B (6:50)

Yeah.

A (6:50)

So 10 years. It's wild.

B (6:53)

10 years, but yeah.

A (6:55)

Larissa, you're always posting. You're always showing your face. My goal, one of my goals is to show up on social media and my goal is to do that weekly. Like once a week, show my face on stories for the 30 second clip. That feels soft and attainable, you know? So thinking about showing up less frequently but just more intentionally.

B (7:23)

Yeah, I like that a lot.

A (7:26)

So the purpose, the reason, I think we got into that a little bit in all of our chatter here, but just kind of to help everyone and Larissa stop feeling so overwhelmed by content that you need to put out there and build intentional visibility that supports your business rather than this, like, constant, constant anxiety about posting something or sending an email.

B (7:50)

I think for a question I have about this approach, and I'm sure you will talk about it, is like, I know I work with a lot of people who thrive on, like, structure. So if they don't have someone recommending to them or they don't know, like, oh, I need to be doing X, Y, Z every week. I don't really understand this, like, intentional thing. How do you still, like, create structure around that?

A (8:15)

Totally. So I think having an idea of how frequently you show up is still important. It's just kind of this idea that we don't need to, like, constantly be, you know, we don't have to be posting every day. We don't need three to five stories a day. We don't need weekly emails unless you have a real purpose behind it, I guess. So we want to be visible, so purposeful in what we're doing. Repetitive in a good way, you know, consistent, really clear on what we're trying to say in our messaging. And when you think about, you know, rather than visibility, when you think about noise, it's a little bit just more like reacting to trends like, you know, posting about 2016, because everyone else is posting about 2016 when it doesn't align with what you're. You're focused on right now. You know, kind of just like, I need to get a post up every day. Let me just show something. Let me just like, you know, have a caption that doesn't really say anything. Maybe it's sharing things that aren't fully connected to, like, your why or, you know, it's just. It's just drained your energy. And there aren't necessarily, necessarily results when you're just kind of showing up because you feel like you have to. So I'm not saying don't have a system or a structure. I'm just saying, like, maybe loosen it a bit. If you're feeling like, really stretched, getting your seven posts up a week or whatever it is trying to do right now, roll it back.

B (9:45)

Yeah, that's good advice. And it's the kind of thing, too. At the top of a year, it's so hard for a lot of business owners to step back and be like, okay, I need to rethink my strategy. So maybe they have the strategy, same strategy they had like, in 2016, and it's time to, like, re. Redo it, rework it a little bit, make it work for you.

A (10:10)

So looking back at my 2016 posts, it's kind of wild because I don't know when stories rolled out, and I don't think carousel posts were a thing yet. But I was posting like, especially during, like, the couture show. I was posting like three pictures a day in my feed, and that feels crazy to me now. And I was posting like, kind of like every thought that was in my head, you know, like, I wasn't. Now I post a couple of times a week and I write like a long caption and I have like a full thought that I'm trying to say usually. And back then it was just like a whim. And it's just interesting people didn't have the same kind of strategies around, like, Instagram that they do now. And it's just Changed a lot. There's something really like pleasant about looking back, but there's also something very cringy about it too. Yes, for sure. I totally forget where we were, but one of the reasons people kind of just think that they should just keep posting, keep posting, keep, you know, keep doing the thing even when they feel like they don't have anything, you know, relevant to say, or it's feeling like it's a little bit flat or it feels like you're just doing it because you feel like you're supposed to. One is there's like a lot of anxiety around these algorithms. Right. It's like if I stop, if I pause on posting on social media platforms, I'm, you know, the, they're going to punish me or something. Or if I show up every day, then I'm more likely to get my content seen. Um, and that's, that's not necessarily true. Um, also looking at what other brands are doing can feel stressful because it's like so and so did this, like, I felt this a lot around during the holidays, like the final email of the year. People were posting their year end reviews and emailing out these great recaps of the year and takeaways and all of that. And I was like, I have to get this out, I have to write this email. And I did. But it was partially out of this feeling of everyone else is doing it.

B (12:24)

Yeah. And sometimes the fact that everyone else is doing something, that just means you're going to get lost in the noise too. So it's not necessarily a good thing to follow what everyone else is doing.

A (12:36)

It's so true. And you know, I think we say the word consistency a lot. Like consistency is super important that leads to success. But consistency does not mean constant. That doesn't mean you need to be constantly outputting content.

B (12:52)

Yeah, so true.

A (12:55)

And you know, this is, it's, we're still in January. It's a good time to be. If you haven't done this yet, look back at your past reports or look back at the past year and really look at what resonated with your audience and then hone in on those things and maybe focus on those types of posts or that type of content.

B (13:17)

Yeah. What I find when I audit brands is like at least 50% of what they're doing, like, kind of isn't contributing at all. And when they hear like, oh, I could be doing less, but with the things that are actually making impact, it kind of like blows their mind a little bit. And it does.

A (13:38)

Like you Know, leaning into your niche, leaning into what's working will lead to more traction, so kind of keep doing that. It's hard to let go of things, though, and it's hard to let go of the way things were and not to keep coming back to this, but thinking about, you know, 2016, like, in a lot of ways, I notice in myself how I kind of show up or like, you know, how when I'm consulting people on social media, they're like, oh, well, it's always been this way, or it's changed. Why has it changed? Well, it's been 10 years or, you know, it's been a really long time since Instagram first launched. So of course things are going to change and strategies changed. And they're con. They're constantly changing. So it's. It's really important to be nimble to.

B (14:24)

That and change with it. 10 years in digital marketing time is.

A (14:33)

Like 100 years or something.

B (14:36)

I know.

A (14:37)

It's a real. And it's like going so much faster now than it used to. Like, things used to change a little bit slower. Like, I saw this one post I did in 2016 that was like, I'm here to chime in on the Instagram update kind of thing. And now, like, I would never be able to chime in on every Instagram update because they're always happening. Yeah. Like, every day.

B (14:59)

Yeah. And with AI content and all of that, I mean, there's just so much more to consider now.

A (15:05)

There's so much more to consider. And something to keep in mind, too, is that we're feeling burnt out as marketers and business owners, but the consumer's feeling burnout, too. From, you know, me as a consumer, I'm feeling burnt out by all of the stuff to look at. So if I'm seeing less from a brand I really love, but really intentional things, it's going to resonate more.

B (15:27)

Yeah. Or if they're. Even if they're shaking things up and trying something new and like, not communicating in the same ways that they have been communicating before. That will definitely catch my attention to.

A (15:40)

So a few questions to ask yourself before deciding you need to get content out there. One is, why am I sharing this? Just answer that question, who is this for? And what do I want them to understand or. Or feel from this piece of content I'm putting out there? So aligning everything you're doing with your goals is how you're intentional about it?

B (16:04)

Definitely, yes. And if you haven't set your goals yet, go back to our goal episode and do that first because otherwise you won't be able to answer those questions. I was thinking when, when you were asking those questions out loud just now, like, I think that a lot of solopreneurs are still enmeshing things regarding like their personal life in with like their business life. Not necessarily just on social media, but in general. And they kind of put out content like on a whim by what feels right. But I think there needs to be thought put into. Like what aspects of my personal life do I want to share that is still aligned like with my business goals? And how can I separate the two? Maybe you do need to like compartmentalize a little more in 2026. Something to think about.

A (17:00)

That's such a good point. I see that a lot too. It's just like some random personal things with no context. And I'm like, I thought what, why? Where are they? What are they doing? But if you give it context, if you're like, oh, here's a photo of my dog who's sitting at my feet while I'm working at my bench today, like, that's all the context you need to add. But it's also really good and helpful if you have a clear, clear boundaries and guidelines of this is what I do talk about within my business. And then these are things that are just personal things that I don't share because you know, you do have to share a little bit of yourself because that's another layer of, of marketing in 2026 is that it needs to be a little bit more personal within your boundaries because you know, knowing who you're buying from helps build trust. So that's an important piece of it. But just getting clear about what those things are and then giving them context and you understanding how they connect back to your business.

B (18:03)

Absolutely. Yeah, those are good points.

A (18:06)

A few types of content ideas that could help build visibility is who you are and what you make and what you stand for. Kind of just what we were talking about. But your origin story, your philosophy, like your, your thought process behind why and how you do things, why your work matters, why it's important to you, why you're passionate about it, all of that's really good content. Also your process behind the scenes content is really important to add in or to think about adding in this year. That's something that really performs well, that people are interested in. They want to see how things are made. And inviting people to engage would be another one to think about as a call to action. Now, rather than like click the link in my bio to shop. It's like, let's connect. I would love to.

B (18:57)

To have a conversation with you.

A (18:59)

Send me a message. Let's talk about this piece. Invite people to engage with you.

B (19:05)

And yeah, making it feel like a safe space over time, too, because a lot of people are nervous. Like, what message them? Like, I don't understand, like, what's going to happen? Am I going to feel pressured to buy? So that also has to have consistency attached to it so that your fans do feel safe to, like, interact with. With you as well.

A (19:26)

And the clearer you get about, like, the types of content you're sharing, you know, that really helps too. So maybe you have three to five core topics or core themes that you kind of rotate through. The consistency of. That's really helpful. And then it helps you stay focused.

B (19:44)

So for.

A (19:45)

For folks who need some sort of structure, like, get clear on what those themes are and then decide, you know, I'm going to post two to three times a week within these themes, and I'm just going to rotate through them. And that can be really helpful.

B (20:02)

Yeah. And help ensure that it's like, sticking to the strategy. Definitely.

A (20:08)

I find that really helpful. Although I am behind on posting on our podcast, Instagram. But I do find it really helpful that we have, like, we have four types of posts that we do and we just rotate through them.

B (20:22)

Absolutely. Yeah. And then people come to expect that they'll see it in the feed, they identify it back to the brand because it creates the repetition. And so there are many benefits to that.

A (20:34)

So I guess this episode is just your permission to show up less and more intentionally. Yeah. This is not permission for you to.

B (20:42)

Just be like, peace out.

A (20:44)

I don't have to do marketing.

B (20:47)

There's definitely a. No, it's a. There's a fine line between showing up less and kind of just checking out. You still have to put a lot of thought into the showing up less.

A (21:01)

Definitely a few things to reflect on before we wrap up is, you know, what content actually brings you clients and what content feels like an obligation. So kind of separating those two things and leaning more into what content is actually working. All right, so are you showing up with intention? Let us know. Visit successwithjewelry.com and if you love the podcast, we'd love to hear from you. Send us a message or leave us a review. Thanks for being part of our community.