1 Step Back, Phone Is Life

Happy Monday!

I hope you get some time off to relax this week. I’ve been trying to button up as much work as possible to prepare for travel. I’m taking my first vacation all year this week! I’m so stoked.

This past week was a difficult one.

Let’s get into it.

1 Step Back, 2 Steps Forward

I think the hardest aspect of starting my first business has been organizing my priorities (as they relate to the business) along the way. I jumped into this endeavor business strategy-first.

All of that is important, but less important than establishing and improving the quality of our services. At least, right now. I’ve been trying to bounce too quickly from step to step. In doing so, I’ve neglected to recognize the importance of being able to actually perform the services of our business myself.

So we’re going to take a break from posting for about a week or two. This will allow us to reboot our content strategy, create a longer-term game plan, and execute it.

I’ve learned that the entrepreneur doesn’t need to have the same skills and knowhow as a technician. The entrepreneur’s job is to be the organizing force.

However, I’ve also learned that it’s a lot easier to be only the big-picture organizing force behind a business when you have the resources to find and hire the technicians necessary to build and/or perform the business’s teams and core services.

We don’t have those resources right now (no matter how many times I’ve tried to work it out in my head) so it’s all hands on deck.

For me, this looks like shifting my focus from learning about business strategy to learning about how to perform the services we provide to our clients. So far, this has included a ton of youtube videos and articles about how to grow instagram accounts, improve engagement on social media, build an effective content strategy, and create content that pleases audiences and the almighty algorithm.

I’ve come to terms with needing to adjust my role as it stands. Like I said above, I realized it’s going to be important, especially while building my first business, to be working at all levels. In the beginning, at least.

By no means are we throwing away any of our work or slowing down. But we are going back to the drawing board. We’ve learned a lot so far and we need to adapt our game plan to include our new knowledge.

One step back to take two steps forward.

Phone Is Life

From the start of my work building Garden Unit Media, I’ve been trying to reconcile the fact that the business requires me to be on my phone and social media platforms SO much with the fact that I’m someone who LOVES going off the grid often and experiencing the world (in large and small scale ways).

Spoiler: I haven’t been able to do it.

I’m not sure what the answer is here. Like most things, the answer is probably: “many things” or “balance” or “you’ll discover it along the way and adjust accordingly”.

I can accept that. But it’s a little frustrating sometimes. I think it’ll probably look like adjusting my boundaries around my technology usage depending on the urgency of the highest priority business tasks and my own mental and physical health.

I’m excited to continue to explore my feelings around this boundary impasse. So far, I’ve been able to pull back when I need a break and to make a finish-line-push when appropriate.

In the meantime, I’m stoked to have much more off-the-grid time while on vacation this coming week. My eyes really need a break.

I wish I had more to share this week. Unfortunately, things were pretty one-note and frustrating. I’m really looking forward to a bit of a break while on vacation this week. It always feels so good to reset and renew my enthusiasm for the work I’m doing in my everyday.

Wishing you a rejuvenating week.

With compassion,

Will

P.S. The name Will Barnes is an alias. As mentioned in my first post, I can’t leave my current job until I have another comparable stream of income and I’d like to prevent my boss from firing me first. Please don’t seek out my real identity. I will reveal myself when the time is right.

You can reach me via email at [email protected] or on Twitter, Instagram, and Threads @BosslessBlog.