Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / Are you addicted to your phone?

Transcript

Are you addicted to your phone? · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

• 0:02
  Becca: Are you addicted to your phone?
• 0:05
  If I was to have a look at your screen time report, would you be embarrassed
• 0:08
  or would you be pleased that you haven't used your phone as often as maybe I have?
• 0:13
  Do you know what?
• 0:13
  I got so embarrassed about my screen time.
• 0:15
  I turned the feature off.
• 0:17
  As business owners, we can be totally absorbed in our devices and
• 0:20
  we can waste so much time, and we give away so much of our attention.
• 0:25
  So today I'm gonna be talking about how we take a step back and put the phone.
• 0:32
  I am Becca Pountney wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger,
• 0:35
  and you are listening to The Wedding Pros who are Ready to Grow podcast.
• 0:39
  I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
• 0:43
  examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
• 0:46
  If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
• 0:50
  and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you
• 0:53
  love, then you're in the right place.
• 0:55
  Let's get going with today's episode.
• 0:59
  As we dive into this topic, I want you to know there is absolutely no judgment.
• 1:02
  I'm not here to make you feel bad.
• 1:04
  I use my phone as much as anyone else does, but I also know deep down
• 1:08
  that it's not what I wanna be doing, and I'm always looking for ways to
• 1:11
  try and back away from my phone and get back with it into real life.
• 1:15
  So I just wanted to share very honestly some of the tips that I've tried
• 1:18
  in the past and some of the things I do to try and stop myself being
• 1:22
  totally absorbed and addicted to my phone, I really think it's a pitfall
• 1:25
  that we fall into as entrepreneurs.
• 1:27
  We're always striving to do more post more content, get back to inquiries quicker,
• 1:32
  and it can mean that we're totally addicted to our phone, but sometimes
• 1:35
  we do need to set better boundaries.
• 1:37
  So I'm gonna be sharing with you a bunch of ideas that I've tried myself that
• 1:41
  help me be less addicted to my phone.
• 1:44
  So first of all, number one is scheduling your social media posts ahead.
• 1:48
  Now, sometimes I find this hard to do, but when I do get ahead and schedule
• 1:52
  social media posts ahead of time, it does mean that I'm not on my phone as much.
• 1:56
  I'm not thinking every day I need to go onto Instagram,
• 1:58
  I need to go onto Facebook.
• 1:59
  I need to post some content because it's already done this way.
• 2:02
  I'm not doing it in the moment either.
• 2:04
  I can sit down at the start of a month and I can plan out and post
• 2:07
  a whole month's worth of content onto my grids, and it's gonna.
• 2:11
  Away so much of that scrolling time that I do in the week.
• 2:14
  So why not think about whether you could go ahead and schedule your
• 2:18
  posts for the rest of the month rather than just being there.
• 2:22
  Every now and again, you go ahead and actually schedule them all at once.
• 2:26
  This will save you so much time.
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  You can use something like Meta Business Suite to do this, and if you
• 2:30
  use some kind of template, like once a week, you're gonna post a sales post.
• 2:34
  Once a week you're gonna post a testimonial.
• 2:36
  All of a sudden this is a lot easier.
• 2:39
  The second tip I have for you is to create certain social media check-in times.
• 2:43
  If you're anything like me, you find yourself checking your Facebook and
• 2:46
  Instagram multiple times a day and often right in the middle of tasks,
• 2:49
  and it really is not a productive way to be during the working day.
• 2:53
  It can be really helpful to set yourself certain times when you're
• 2:56
  going to check your social media.
• 2:58
  So, for example, you could say, I'm gonna check my social posts just before the
• 3:02
  day starts, before I get into my work.
• 3:04
  Then during my lunch break, I'm gonna do another check-in
• 3:06
  before or maybe after lunch.
• 3:08
  And then at the end of the day, before I finish work, I'm gonna do it again.
• 3:12
  Now, I know this feels a bit contrived and it's hard to stick to, but when we
• 3:15
  know that we've got certain times to check in on our social media, we don't
• 3:18
  need to be doing it every five minutes.
• 3:20
  And let's be honest, nothing is updated that frequently.
• 3:23
  The third thing I do when I've got a particularly big piece of work
• 3:27
  or a tight deadline, is to just put my phone on do not disturb.
• 3:30
  Something as simple as that allows me to continue listening to music or
• 3:34
  listening to a podcast, but actually get on with my work without being
• 3:37
  distracted by notifications, by pings or by me just picking up my
• 3:40
  phone and going onto social media.
• 3:42
  I often do this while I'm recording a podcast, doing a live video or
• 3:46
  just doing a really heavy piece of work, and it is really simple, but
• 3:50
  really effective because you're not impacted by those distractions.
• 3:55
  Talking about notifications, I've actually turned my notifications
• 3:58
  off on both Instagram and Facebook.
• 4:01
  I was finding I was getting pings every five seconds with people posting,
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  commenting, liking, sharing, or doing something on one of my social media
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  posts, and it was driving me crazy.
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  Since I've turned notifications off, it's really impacted the way I'm distracted.
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  If I don't know the notifications there, I don't have that same urge
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  to go in and check it straight away.
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  There is something that happens in our brain when we're told
• 4:22
  something's happened, but we can't see it without going into the
• 4:24
  app, which forces us to go in.
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  But when we don't know, we don't have that same urge or desire.
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  So I.
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  Urge you all actually to go ahead and turn off the notifications
• 4:33
  on your Facebook and Instagram.
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  You can go in at those check-in points.
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  You can go in regular points of the day to go and have a look at
• 4:38
  what's there, but you don't need to be interrupted frequently when
• 4:41
  you're busy doing something else.
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  The fourth thing I wanna urge you to do is particularly in regards to Facebook and
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  that's to leave any unnecessary groups.
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  I recently had a look at the list of groups that I am in
• 4:53
  on Facebook, and it is vast.
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  I mean, some of them have been out of date for years and years
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  and years, but quite frankly, we often don't leave Facebook groups.
• 5:00
  Now since the invention of this new at everyone feature, I've become aware of
• 5:05
  groups that I'd forgotten I was part of.
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  And sometimes I get fed up of getting notification after notification
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  after notification of being tagged in these various groups.
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  Now, I know as a group owner that the at everyone tag can be really useful
• 5:17
  for getting your content in front of people, but is also a good reminder
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  to you of the groups you don't need to be in if you are getting tagged
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  in post left, right, and center.
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  For a group that is no longer relevant to you or you don't really enjoy
• 5:28
  being part of, then why not free yourself and leave that Facebook group?
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  It's gonna mean you're gonna get a lot less notifications.
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  And instead of getting annoyed about the everyone button,
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  instead just do the right thing.
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  Leave the group.
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  If it's annoying you, you probably don't wanna be in the group in the
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  first place and well, Yeah, we don't need to be in that many Facebook
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  groups, quite frankly, and have a look at some of them that you are in.
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  I bet you're in some that are really old.
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  I'm still in some Facebook groups from when I was at university where
• 5:53
  we were planning our projects.
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  That's just ridiculous.
• 5:57
  Okay.
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  The fifth thing that you can do if you really wanna have a breakaway from your
• 6:01
  phone, or if you're fed up of constantly being on Facebook and Instagram is to
• 6:05
  outsource your social media posting.
• 6:07
  When I outsource to one of my team members, the posting for Vicinity
• 6:11
  Weddings, this was a massive wake up call to me because not only did I have
• 6:15
  to not worry about scheduling it, I didn't have to worry about it at all.
• 6:18
  And those posts go out without me even thinking about it.
• 6:20
  So I'm constantly showing up as vicinity weddings, but I never even.
• 6:25
  At the account, or hardly ever because someone else is doing it on my behalf.
• 6:29
  And that is so freeing.
• 6:31
  So if you've got the resources and the budget, why not consider outsourcing your
• 6:35
  social media posting to somebody else?
• 6:37
  Maybe talk to me at the Wedding Pro Agency.
• 6:39
  We can post for you five times a week on your Facebook and Instagram
• 6:43
  grid for a really affordable rate with one of my team members.
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  And therefore, your content is going out regularly.
• 6:48
  You're showing up every single day, five days a week without
• 6:51
  actually ever having to.
• 6:53
  On in the app.
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  The other thing is you can check those scheduled posts in Meta Business
• 6:57
  Suite, so you don't even have to go onto Facebook and Instagram to
• 6:59
  check what the posts look like.
• 7:02
  Yes, you need to go in occasionally to reply to any comments or reply
• 7:05
  to any messages, but if you've got even more budget, you could even
• 7:08
  pay someone to do that as well.
• 7:10
  If you want more details about the Wedding Pro Agency, all of
• 7:12
  the links are in the show notes.
• 7:14
  That outsourcing really is worth the money cuz it takes that stress
• 7:18
  away and it means you're not as constantly on social media as you were.
• 7:23
  The next thing that I wanna talk about when it comes to our phone isn't so much
• 7:26
  about social media, but about email.
• 7:29
  I think so often we feel like we need to be able to get
• 7:31
  back to our couples instantly.
• 7:33
  Couples contact us all times of day and all times of night.
• 7:36
  And we feel this pressure to reply, well actually, we don't
• 7:39
  need to be on call 24 hours a day.
• 7:41
  We're not on call paramedics.
• 7:43
  It's not life and death.
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  And yes, we wanna respond to people quickly, but we do need
• 7:47
  to set our own boundaries.
• 7:48
  And it's important to make those boundaries clear to our couple.
• 7:52
  So, for example, if a couple that has already booked you when they
• 7:55
  first meet with you, once they first sign your contract, you can
• 7:58
  explain to them your working hours.
• 8:00
  Say, I'll be contactable between this hour and this hour.
• 8:02
  If you have a question outside of those times, feel free to send it to me, but you
• 8:06
  won't get a reply until the next morning.
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  When we set out our boundaries, people are more likely to respect them.
• 8:11
  However, if we don't have any boundaries, people feel like they can contact
• 8:15
  us day and night, we start replying and then they carry on doing it.
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  You know that saying, give them an inch and they'll run a mile.
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  Well, that's exactly what our couples do.
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  And it's the same with inquiries.
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  Someone might inquire at 11 o'clock at night, but that doesn't mean you need
• 8:27
  to reply to them at 11 o'clock at night.
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  Reply to them first thing the next morning.
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  Once it's within your sociable working hours.
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  Don't feel like you need to be everything to everyone all times of day and night.
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  The evenings and the weekends maybe set aside to do something with your
• 8:42
  family, so don't take that time away from them because you are on your.
• 8:47
  Okay, now the next tip is something that I do all of the time, and it's kind of quite
• 8:51
  ridiculous, quite honestly, that we have to go to this length to get some time.
• 8:55
  Now, I, as I said, I'm definitely not judging you because I struggle with
• 8:59
  using my phone too much all of the time.
• 9:01
  So sometimes what I do, if I wanna spend an evening on the sofa, chilling out,
• 9:05
  relaxing, watching tv, watching a film, being with my family, playing board games,
• 9:09
  all of those things, I will actually leave my phone in a cupboard upstairs.
• 9:13
  Yes.
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  That is the length I'm going to, because even if I have the phone in the room,
• 9:18
  the urges to go and look at it, as soon as someone leaves to go to the toilet
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  or there's a breaking conversation.
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  Everything within me wants to go and look at that phone, which is scary.
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  So if I leave it outta sight out of mind, up in a room upstairs, I
• 9:30
  don't have that same temptation.
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  And soon I get absorbed into whatever it is that I'm doing
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  and I don't even think about it.
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  And then when I'm ready to go and look at it again, I can go ahead and do that.
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  So perhaps for you, that's all you need to do when you'll need to
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  watch a film or spend some time with family or, or focus on something.
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  Literally physically put your phone in another room in a
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  cupboard and leave it there.
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  I know it's simple, but it really does make all of the diffference.
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  Now my final tip is something that me and my friend have been doing a
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  little bit together, especially when we are together in a certain place,
• 10:02
  and that is having a phone detox time.
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  Now, this is where people kind of do what I said about switching
• 10:09
  your phone off and putting in a cupboard, but you do it together.
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  So a couple of months ago, me and my friend went out for lunch and
• 10:15
  we're both business owners and it was during the day and we had some lunch
• 10:18
  together and a bit of time together.
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  and we are constantly bombarded with emails and messages, and one of us is
• 10:24
  replying to something and we realize that we're not present for each other.
• 10:28
  And actually when we decided let's have a bit of a digital detox
• 10:32
  time, we said to each other, right?
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  We're gonna sit here for five minutes and just look through our messages
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  and reply to any emails or anything that we've got that we've seen now.
• 10:40
  And then we're both going to switch off our phones, put them in our bags and not
• 10:44
  touch them again until a certain time.
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  And we agreed a time.
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  And then at that time, we both turned on our phones just to check that there
• 10:50
  hadn't been any emergency calls from the school or anything like that.
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  And then we turned them back off again and did another couple of hours.
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  It was really.
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  Freeing to do this.
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  I love that we did it together because we're accountable.
• 11:01
  It meant that when we were together, we were able to really be together and have
• 11:05
  a good conversation and not be distracted.
• 11:08
  We don't realize how distracted we are by our own phones until
• 11:12
  we see someone else doing it.
• 11:13
  Do any of you ever have those friends or family members where you are in the
• 11:16
  middle of a conversation and suddenly you realize they checked out because they're
• 11:20
  looking at their phone or something's distracted them on their screen, or
• 11:23
  they've even picked up their phone and started replying to a message and they're
• 11:26
  no longer listening to what you have to.
• 11:29
  It can feel so rude.
• 11:31
  Yeah.
• 11:31
  I guarantee you've probably done the same thing to someone else.
• 11:33
  Cause we don't realize it.
• 11:35
  So having a digital detox during a meeting, turning your phone off, putting
• 11:39
  it in your bag, and agreeing right during this conversation, we're not gonna have
• 11:42
  any phones or during this day out as a family, we're not gonna have any phones.
• 11:46
  We're just gonna check at lunchtime for an emergency is a great thing to.
• 11:52
  . If you've got any of your own tips and ideas about how you have stopped
• 11:55
  using your phone quite so frequently and how you are trying to break the
• 11:58
  addiction, I would love to hear from you.
• 12:00
  As I said, this is an open conversation.
• 12:02
  I'm just sharing some of the things that I found helpful in my own life
• 12:06
  to try and be less addicted to my phone because I know it's a struggle.
• 12:09
  As small business owners, technology is great because we can be everywhere.
• 12:14
  Anywhere in the world, and we can contact people left, right, and center,
• 12:17
  but sometimes it is also damaging.
• 12:19
  So any tips to make this better and more healthy for us
• 12:22
  are always greatly received.
• 12:23
  If you've got any, why not drop me an email?
• 12:25
  Becca at beccapountney.com.
• 12:27
  Drop me a direct message on Instagram and let me know what your tips are there.
• 12:31
  If you send me some good ones, maybe I'll even share them
• 12:33
  in a future podcast episode.
• 12:35
  I'll see you next week.
• 12:37
  Now, put your phone down.