Am I a Brand? (Part 3)
Where I have landed - for now
The process of working on my branding and website with Maker + Made has been much more existential than I expected. It’s been a process of clarifying my professional identity and making intentional choices about my work.
I started the process wanting greater clarity about where to put my time and energy. I was all over the place, doing too many professional activities, and starting and stopping social media accounts. Everything felt disjointed. Some of the work I was doing felt soul-sucking, but I wasn’t sure what to give up. I didn’t have a good sense of what was worth the time investment and what wasn’t.
Basically, I wanted Maker + Made to help me figure out what to do with my life! Of course they can’t do that for me. Instead, I had to grapple with some hard questions.
And yet, talking it through with my branding team did help me.
My internal struggle with my own ambition showed up during this process. Part of me feels like I should do more work, more marketing of my business. Write more books, give more talks, and build a bigger platform on social media. Many of my professional peers are doing these things, and an ambitious little voice inside tells me I should too.
On the other hand, I don’t want to work too much, and I know I won’t keep up with much more than everything I’m already doing. I just don’t want to be stressed all the time. I’d rather work less and have more time to relax and do the things I enjoy with the people I care about.
I’ve tried to land in a place of balance. Here’s my plan:
Create and share my work when I feel inspired to do so. (And don’t when I don’t.)
Be authentic. Share openly and honestly, but keep my boundaries with personal, private information.
Don’t worry about things like algorithms, likes, and numbers of followers. It’s not important to me, and I never want it to be!
Pace myself and resist the false sense of urgency about posting things online. Instead of hustling, slow down. Take time, regularly, to disengage from it all. Prioritize living my real life, without feeling pressure to post anything about it - unless I want to.
Be selective about my online presence. I plan to occasionally post essays on my Substack and blog, continue the eight-year labor of love that is my podcast, and thoughtfully share on selected social media sometimes (see next bullet point). And that’s more than enough!
And, finally, be intentional about social media use.1 Wean myself off of the social media platforms that aren’t working for me anymore.2 Keep Substack3 and one,4 maybe two,5 other platforms to engage with. Be selective about who I follow,6 and aim for a generally healthy relationship with social media.7 Don’t join any more/new platforms,8 and remind myself that I’m not missing out on anything important by staying off the platform du jour.
The months-long process of soul-searching about my brand identity has resulted in more than just a beautiful new website. It’s helped me to streamline my work and have a more coherent sense of what I’m doing. I understand myself better now and feel a greater sense of peace about my professional life.
Thanks for reading about my journey!
I’m a clinical psychologist, co-host of Psychologists Off the Clock, and author of the books ACT for Burnout and ACT Daily Journal. You can find me online at drdebbiesorensen.com.
I’m still trying to figure out what exactly this looks like for me, and I think I’m getting closer. I probably won’t delete the social media accounts I’ve posted to in the past, or stop them all immediately/“cold-turkey”, but this is the direction I am heading. So far, engaging less with social media feels good!
That is, most of them - especially you, Instagram, you addictive little beast!
Substack is most in line with what I want in a social media platform these days. Thoughtful, creative, longer form pieces, fewer trolls, and a good place for writers and readers like me to gather online.
Ugh, I think I might stay on LinkedIn, even though I don’t love its schmoozing vibe. A lot of my professional colleagues are on LinkedIn, and it’s a good fit for my burnout work. If you’re on LinkedIn too, please find me there!
I think I’ll still peek at Facebook now and then, too, because so many people I love still post pictures there and some of my social groups coordinate on Facebook. (See, this is why it’s so hard for me to leave completely!) Lately I’ve only popped on infrequently and briefly, and that seems to work fine for me.
In Part 2 of this series, I wrote, “I want something deeper and more nuanced. I want to laugh and learn and connect and feel inspired.” These might be good criteria for who I do and do not decide to follow!
As in, keep mindless scrolling in check.
Unless, of course, I have a good reason to switch platforms in the future. It’s important to be flexible in this ever-changing digital world!
I just love how thoughtful you've been about the process of getting work done on your website/logos. I love that it was existential! Thanks for letting us readers in on this process, Debbie, and for sharing the valuable insights that came out of it. I'm really glad you're on Substack:)
We are so much on the same page, Debbie. I am really trying to find what feels right for me. I've really pulled back from Instagram and that feels great, but considering doing a little more on Linkedin and of course, continuing on Substack. I think what I've learned the most is to experiment and label something as an experiment so I know that it's temporary and leaning into flexibility.