MBA1174 Off Social Media for a Year: Lessons Learned

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I share with you why I did it, what I've learned, what are the pros and cons of being off social media and what am I going to do in the future? And if I'm being totally honest, I do have some fears about going back to social. I'll share those as well. I needed to do this episode because many people have asked me why I'm off social, what are the benefits, what did I learn? But also I needed to do it for myself so I can force myself to really think about what I've gained and is it worth it to go back to social media? Everything has a price. Am I willing to pay whatever price I need to to be part of that ecosystem? I got a Lot to share with you today. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Back In September of 2017, I decided to take a hiatus from social media. All platforms. That means not being on it, not commenting, not reading, not writing, just completely blocking it out of my life. And I committed to doing this till the end of 2000. So a little bit over a year now. Why did I decide to do this? Well, one, I was feeling overwhelmed, to be honest with you. I had a lot on my plate. I was building two businesses, two brands, the hundred dollar MBA as well as Webinar Ninja. Webinar Ninja just released its new platform, 5.0. Our team was growing, we were building, and I needed time to focus on building a great company. It was really a pivotal and critical moment in the business where I needed my attention to be focused on that. And I felt my attention was being spread too thin. Trying to be, you know, the person on social media that everybody loves and response to all the questions and just being like the PR person for the company. And that was a horrible mistake because it requires so much of your attention and time and always being on and affected not only my business life, but my personal life. I wasn't ever able to shut off. If there was a moment, say for example, where I was out for dinner with Nicole and she went to the restroom, that was like a cue for me to take out my phone and catch up on social media. Instead of me just relaxing and enjoying the evening, I shouldn't be working. I should be recharging my batteries so I'm able to go 100% when it's time to work. I was getting annoyed and I was looking for some solutions. I read a lot of articles about people that do get off social media. I just finished reading Deep Work for the second time, a great book by Cal Newport, somebody who is totally off social media and has a perfectly functioning successful life. I was considering it for some time, but I was at a conference. I met up with an old friend, Matthew Kimberly. Awesome guy. If you don't know Matthew Kimberly, check him out. Matthewkimberly.com, a friend of his show has done a guest lesson here on the NBA show. He advised me, hey, why don't you just take a break from social? It seems like it's causing you more stress than it's actually giving you rewards. And he was totally right. I needed a break. I made an announcement. I pinned the post on my social media platforms or profiles. I was really only just on Facebook and Twitter. I had a presence on LinkedIn, but I wasn't really active. But I wanted to make sure people know, hey, I'm going to be off for some time and I won't be responding to you. If you need to get in touch with me, feel free to reach our customer support team. They're super, super helpful. And those who want my email, go ahead and ask them for it and we'll be in touch that way. And the experiment began. And at first it was a little challenging, but I deleted all the social media apps on my phone. I used a great plugin called Newsfeed Eradicator, which eradicates the newsfeed on Facebook. Just in case I did get on Facebook by mistake through a link or through a bookmark or something like that, it would just kill my newsfeed. So I wouldn't be tempted to comment on any kind of post. And I lived my life. I built my business. I continued to work on the things I wanted to work on. So here is what I've learned. Here are the pros and cons. The first thing I learned is you can change your habits, you can change things, even as addictive as social media. And it is an addiction. I did have the feeling I wanted to check my phone even when social media was not on my phone anymore. That's the definition of addiction, where you are compelled to do something just out of habit. Another thing I learned is that your business is not really going to take a huge hit. In fact, we had some good growth this last year. Even though I was off social media, surprise, surprise. But I also learned the power of social media. And in a lot of ways, when you're out of sight, you're out of mind. And I'll talk about that in my pros and cons. Let's start with the first pro of being off social media, and that's not being exposed to negativity. There's a lot of negativity on the Internet generally, but it's heightened on social media. Whether people are ranting or complaining or posting about something that they're upset about. This is all forms of negativity and it does affect you and your day. It affects your focus. And by not being exposed to that, I had more control over the way I felt and my general mood. This is a real thing and I really felt it when I was off of it. Wow. I don't feel upset randomly all of a sudden because of something I've read. So great. Pro number two, this is huge. Huge, huge. I had more time, more time if you're not spending time on social media, you're going to have some extra time to do something else. I had more time to do other things. I had more time to read books, which I love doing. And I really felt the benefit of that this year when I read a lot of great books. The year before that I committed to reading 50 books. This year I read a little bit more. 52. But I had more time with my company, with my team. And that leads me, number three, focus. I have more focus. So much more focus. And I was intentional about it. I wanted to leave social media so I can focus more on building a better company. And I really got to build and cultivate a fantastic team around us through the hundred dollar and webinar ninja. We had some teething problems, of course, like any company, but we really, really are proud and are really happy about who we work with every day. And that's because I dedicated the focus to do that. I was super intentional about this. I wanted a better company, I wanted to build a better product, and that happens only when you build a better team. Another pro is that I was more present in life. I wasn't always checking my phone. Basically when I wasn't working, when I was in the office, I didn't even use my phone. I realized how much battery power I was saving. My phone never died anymore. I had plenty of battery power because I wasn't checking my phone, I was checking notifications and it was great. Another pro is my mind wasn't constantly working. When I wasn't working, my mind got to rest a little bit, I got to relax a little bit. I can go to the restroom in peace without feeling the urge to check your phone. We all do it. I know, but when you're off social, it's less of an urge. And the last pro of being off social media was not feeling that burden, that obligation to be on social, to post, to share my life, to share my business goals, to share my thoughts. When you say, hey, I'm off social, don't expect anything from me, then it's kind of like, hey, you have an out, you don't have to participate anymore. And you don't have that burden in your head of like, oh, I gotta post, I gotta do something, I gotta let people know what's going on. And we chalk it up to like building our brand or whatever we wanna call it. Really, it's just a headache. It's just a burden that's just lifted off your shoulders when you're not a part of that. System. I know this sounds kind of weird, but when you're not participating in social, you don't have that burden. And I feel that was something that I didn't expect to have experienced. But that burden was completely lifted off my shoulders and I felt so much better. I felt more in control. Alright, so what about the cons? What about the cons of being off social? And I'm going to be completely honest with you, this was interesting. There's only one con and it's a big one. And the fact of the matter is, when you're off social, you're less connected, period. There's just less connection between you and the people that you want to be connected to. Other people in your industry, friends, family, business acquaintances, people that you just met at a conference. I'll give you a perfect example. I went to the We Are podcast conference, met some fantastic people at the speaker's retreat and we got to know each other and it was great. But after the conference, everybody continued to build upon that relationship on social, on Facebook in particular, and they cultivated that relationship. I know this because Nicole's on social and she tells me and I just look like a jerk. I just look like, hey, I'm not participating. And the fact of the matter is I'm just not on. But I'm missing out on that opportunity to continue to build connections and grow current relationships, relationships that I have. There are people that I'm out of touch with now that I like to stay in touch with. It's just more of an effort. When you're off social, when you're not commenting on their posts, when you're not mentioning them in posts, if you're not seeing them show up in your feed, you're kind of out of the loop. You don't know when people are having babies, you don't know when people are selling their businesses. You don't know when people have met milestones. It's kind of like the only way you can really know what's going on is if you make a concerted effort to email them. And I love email, but it takes a whole lot more effort to email 50 people consistently on a regular basis than to be in touch with them on social. So definitely social media does keep you connected and keeps those relationships and your network alive. And I, I'm going to admit that is true. That is just something that I did miss out on. I've been out of sight, out of mind, and I felt the result of it. I feel like I've lost touch with some people that I really like to stay in touch with. And I did try to make an effort. I did email these people, but just not as frequently as I should have, just because it was more of an effort. So what am I going to do now? That's a great question. I've been thinking about this for a while because I do enjoy all the benefits of being off social, but I don't want to lose out all the benefits that I got from being off it. So what I've decided is that I want to continue to have social off my phone. No social media on my phone. That way, when I'm not working, I'm still present and I'm still giving my brain a chance to take a break. Number two, I will use social just to stay in touch with the people I want to stay in touch with, to comment on their posts, to congratulate them, to give value and, you know, just be a good friend. Number three, I will not feel compelled to post. I don't need to post anymore. No one's expecting anything from me anymore. So if I post, it's only because I feel like it's necessary, not because I feel like I have to. And lastly, I'm gonna track my time and make sure I spend less than an hour a week on social media. That's my goal. I'm actually looking into using the tool Time Doctor that allows you to track how you spend your time on your computer. The founder of Time Doctor is a good friend of mine, Rob Rossin. So I'll be using that to make sure I hit that goal.

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To wrap up Teddy's lesson, this experiment of being off social media is probably the most significant experiment. New habit I've tried in a while. I would put it up there with the same value that I get with reading, you know, 50 plus books a year. All in all, this is the takeaway. You have to be hyper conscious about how you spend your time, where you dedicate your focus and what information you allow in to your world, what kind of stimuli, what kind of negativity, what kind of positivity. It's your job to control your environment. No one's going to do it for you. You have to control the information that come to you. If you get oppressed, when you be vigilant about it. If you consistently see somebody that's posting messages that make you feel bad, remove that friend, remove that person, stop seeing that in the feed. Got to be vigilant about it. It's your world, it's your mind, it's your time, it's your focus, it's your responsibility. Thank you so much for listening to the 100 RMBA show. If you love what you hear, leave us on itunes rating and review. We would love to hear what you love about the show, what your favorite episode is, your favorite takeaway. I read every single review, so thank you in advance for that. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. This is tough to do. It was tough to share with you. It was tough to realize that hey, I was doing something wrong, I was spending my time in a poor way. And as I move forward, as I try to manage this properly, I may be wrong. I may have to say, hey, this is not working. I'm gonna be off social again. Or I might say, hey, this is working fine. This is a good happy medium. You gotta be willing to try things and be wrong and learn from it. And that's what I learned from this experiment. Alright, I'll check you in tomorrow's episode Q and A Wednesday. I'll see you then. Take care.

What do the steam engine, electricity and AI have in common? They don't just change how we work, they they transform entire economies. Where the Internet Lives is an award winning podcast from Google about the unseen world of data centers. This season we're going inside the AI revolution. From farmers using AI to analyze soil data to researchers discovering new medicines, a new era of AI innovation is here. Listen to where the Internet lives. Wherever you get your podcasts.