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Do you ever feel like you just need a break from Instagram? Summertime brings a different schedule, often vacations, and at the time of this taping we’re in June, 2022! So, you may be thinking – when do I take a break? Is that a bad idea? That’s a valid question! Another thing to consider is, maybe you’re, well, tired of it. Like you’re just over it? Usually this happens because we’re burnt out on posting or just have too much on our plates or maybe it’s a busy season. This happens to me just about every 90 days, and I know it happens to my mentorship members and clients, so I’m sharing ideas with you for how to know when to take a break.
You’re going to hear a candid conversation with Brenda McDearmon of Texas over 50, where she just kind of faded out and took an unplanned break from Instagram of about 3 months (you can hear the discouragement in her voice). So I gave her a bit of advice on taking Instagram breaks. Then, you’re going to hear a clip from my mentorship zoom where we discussed my own break on the heels of a launch earlier in the year. If you’re thinking of taking a break, this episode is for you. And now, listen in!
Resources
Listen to Ep 39: How to come back to Instagram (after taking a break)
Listen to Ep. 50: Time management for the Christian entrepreneur
Listen to Ep. 82: Maximizing Your Online Presence: Strategies to Fit Instagram into Your Busy Schedule
Learn more about the Insider Mentorship
Ep. 38: When to take a break from Instagram
Ruthie: I have missed your presence. I don’t know. I’ve taken an unintentional break, and it just seems the back burner is shut down at the moment.
Brenda: So nothing wrong or anything. It’s just I just have found myself taking a break from Instagram.
Ruthie: You’re not alone. A lot of the people that started with us in that summer and fall and winter of 2020 have just needed a break. So I totally get it including myself. I needed a break too. I spread my breaks out a little bit shorter, but I get it.
Brenda: I’m not sure why have you analyzed that to know why it feels like that?
Ruthie: I just think because there is so much change and it seems every day something’s different. And then there’s a lot, it’s just a lot of people over there right now. It seems like it’s not like it used to be.
Feeling overwhelmed
I think people are overwhelmed with video and Reels. I think also sometimes we get in our own heads because we see other people succeeding. Why aren’t I succeeding? What is different about me? And it’s very easy to fall in that trap and get a little bit discouraged and just decided I’m just not gonna, I’m not going to be here right now, but sometimes you actually really do need to recenter, to focus on other things.
So I’m hopeful that you and others will be able to get some renewed wind in your sails and come back stronger and be able to post more in the next quarter. But I think it’s good to take it quarter by quarter. And just say this quarter, I see this coming and I need to back off a little bit, maybe not totally off.
So that was the first part of my conversation with Brenda, and then when we met with our mentorship on the Zoom after that, I had just come off of a break myself, so here’s what I did. You’ll hear me refer to my conversation with Brenda, and the hope in her voice because she’s back in the game.
So last week, I totally took a break from Instagram except for stories.
Actually it was almost a two week stint. I will go through shifts sometimes where I’m like, okay, I really need to ramp this up. I’m going to do more Reels. I’m going to do, you know, in a post every day or whatever.
Then I do that. And then I just am like overwhelmed and tired and honestly, I get tired of going in and commenting. I get tired of answering comments and I get tired of interacting with people. Additionally, I get peopled out. That’s the introvert in me. I have a sweatshirt that says social on it. And my family jokes with me– my daughter last week said will you just please let me embroider “anti” in just little letters because this is not you.
I’m like I’m social on social media, but I really am not. I’m like an extroverted introvert. I used to be a one hundred percent introvert. That’s Michele. That’s a lot of us, I think. It was a lot, like I just wrote down for Q1. I did a meeting with my business coach and she said,
Write down what worked in Q1, what you accomplished and what didn’t work.
Well, this is everything that worked. It’s a lot. Everything that works, that shows you how much I did in Q1! This is everything that didn’t work, which was not very much at all. So here’s the thing. I was exhausted because I was building and managing a website.
It includes a lot of copy, a lot of proofs, and a lot of Zoom meetings. It’s a lot of selecting a new logo trying to figure out how do we want to present this on social? What colors do we want to go with? What colors do we want to mute? The whole thing was a lot, but also I was teaching my very first, I think, online marketing school, the new brand that I’m doing. And so it was just wearing all the hats, you know, and then here I am trying to still build my community on Instagram and all this.
So I had that morning meeting with my mastermind I’m a part of that my coach teaches and she took us through Q2 and I knew that was important. I knew I needed to be there.
That’s where I got clarity.
For one hour, I made myself sit down, look back and look ahead. It was community and it was accountability. And that’s where you start to take a break from Instagram. That’s how you do it. So that day when I met with Brenda, she didn’t expect a pep talk and I didn’t expect to give her one, but that’s what we had there.
I gave her just some practical points for how to get back and what to do.
That is where we’re going to leave off this week, because next week I’m going to play the second half of my candid conversation with Brenda, and what I told her to do to come back and be present on Instagram. Because once we take a break, we can’t stay gone because we’re building a platform.
But just for today, know that it’s ok to take a break from Instagram.
It’s good to take full weekends off, or at least 24 hours. You will get burnt out if you do Instagram all the time, all year round. At least take a week off once a quarter. That’s what I do, and that’s what I advise my members to do. And then, when you come back, you’re fresh and ready to roll again!
Alright y’all, if this has helped you would you please tap the 5 stars and leave a short review of the show? We love fresh reviews, in fact, here’s one from listener and Instagram follower, Laura Beck, who says, “I started listening to this podcast about the time i started posting on Instagram. Ruthie walked me through some of the most mysterious and scary parts of the platform through her encouraging words. She is a joy to listen to and so helpful with insight. Plus she isn’t just about the follows but about real community which is what I was trying to build. I also joined the free Facebook group. Her challenges got me to jump out of my comfort zone and into new exciting territory. Thank you Ruthie!” – @laurakbeck. Thanks so much for this review, Laura, and thanks for listening! Be sure to come back next week for the second half of this series – how to come back to Instagram after taking a break. Remember to share your message, your way, in your own authentic voice. Be yourself! See you next week.