Dear heart-led business owner, can we set something straight today?
The technology is not your enemy.
Louder for those at the back?
THE TECHNOLOGY IS NOT YOUR ENEMY
Nearly all the talented souls I work with have a story playing that technology is holding them back in their business; whether that’s setting up a mailing list or managing their WordPress site or using social media to promote their business. Sometimes this is due to ethical concerns about the tools themselves, and I completely get that; being conscious about which tools you embrace is super important in running a heart-led business. I’ll share some of the tools I use and why later in this blog post in case this is something you are finding challenging.
But I do see a heck of a lot of cases of soul-o-preneurs getting so tied up in their lack of skill (yet) with these tools that they hit a wall. And this drives me crazy; because none of the talented humans I see doing this are truly hampered, they simply believe they are.
And that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. “I just can’t wrap my head around this” she says as she spins 10 different plates at the same time. Hit pause for a sec. And check in with yourself.
Have you actually given yourself time, space and permission to figure these things out? All of these things take time and space to get to grips with – just like learning to write is a practice – no one is an expert and the technology is constantly evolving. As with all things running your own business, nothing is an overnight win.
Are you waiting until you’re fully proficient in the tools before using them? In my own circle, the people working with these tools are all self taught. I too, am self taught. Learning on the job is one of the inevitabilities of doing your own thing.
Is fear of getting it wrong stopping you from fully embracing the tech? Hey there fellow perfectionist, I’m definitely looking at you here. And jumping in with a big fat reality check; you don’t get to be proficient without first properly ballsing a few things up. The error part of trial and error is the best possible teacher when it comes to grasping new tools. That means there are a heck of a lot of people fucking up all over the shop. And they are learning from it. You may find it reassuring to know that there are few things you can fully “break” by having a go and most tools have version control, so you can roll back changes and undo.
The key to embracing technology in your business is your mindset
Instead of getting frazzled and worked up about the thought of using a new tool in your business, you’re going to need to adopt a more playful mindset and embrace your inner explorer. Technology often feels alien when you’re in the “business” of following your heart but many of the tools available to you can bring much more ease to your business and reduce the number of plates you are spinning. They can also make your potential/clients’ experience of working with you much more easeful. Which means it is absolutely worthwhile taking some time to tackle this issue.
What’s really holding you back is the story you are running. You need to ask yourself all of the above, and then explore:
– Do I really WANT to learn how this works?
– Do I really NEED to learn how this works?
Because you may find on reflection that you followed a squirrel or the crowd and went down a rabbit hole. Not every tool is right for your business / mission / audience. You don’t have to be doing all.the.things. And you certainly don’t have to do it all yourself. If you find that you really don’t want to learn how something works but it is something your business needs, perhaps it’s time to find yourself some support.
And go from there.
Some of the technology I use to power my heart-led business
- WordPress website – this gives me a “shop window” and a hub for all of my content with space to expand as I develop my offerings. My website is powered by WordPress and built with Elementor. I find WordPress very flexible to work with, although for total newbies it CAN be challenging to build from scratch. The key thing is that if you want room to expand, start with a website, not a blog – it’s really tricky to build a blog out into a website later.
- Mailerlite mailing list – this gives me the ability to manage my mailing list community and keep in touch with them. I moved away from MailChimp to Mailerlite this year because the functionality of ML has more scope for the smaller business owner and their data centres are based within the EU. From an ethical standpoint, I’m also much happier with ML’s policies. Mailerlite has loads of simple drag and drop functions that keep everything in one place; I can embed quick surveys in emails as well as building welcome sequences for new mailing list sign ups [by the way, you can join my mailing list here if you haven’t already]. You’ll be able to get the foundations of your mailing list community set up very merrily on the free plan – including having multiple emails in your welcome sequence.
- LinkedIn – this is the sole social media platform I use in my business. Ethically I don’t agree with Facebook and Instagram’s policies nor do I enjoy those spaces. I know that my ideal clients are at the very least dipping their toe in on LinkedIn, if not using this as their key platform. And this space feels incredibly easeful for me to use.
- Pinterest – is NOT a social media platform. It is a search engine. And I use Pinterest to help get my website and content found online. Getting boards set up and creating your own pin template *can* suck up lots of time but if you are conscious about the time invested in this and give yourself a limit, this can be a really powerful use of your energy.
- Canva – oh Canva, you are my hero. Canva is perfect for those of us without a design background or access to fancy design software. There are TONNES of templates for every possible item you might need to create and it’s simple to create beautiful branded items for your business – and resize them to suit different needs. I invested in the Pro version because the ability to save “brand kits” which includes logos, fonts and colour palettes helps speed things up for me when I’m working with multiple clients but you don’t need to invest in the paid version to start with.
- ScheduleOnce – I run my booking calendar through this tool to reduce the back-and-forth over emails with clients to book meetings in, to take payments easily and to maximise time in my business.
I’ll keep adding to and tweaking this list for you as things change – because that’s one of the keys about embracing technology in your business – the tools are always changing, sometimes with your needs and sometimes with the market.
What do you think about embracing technology in your business? Have questions about any of the tools I use? Let me know in the comments 👇
