Just Because You Don’t Like Something, Doesn’t Mean You Can Ignore It

Like most people, I have a long, loooong list of things I don’t like.

In my offline life, these things include:

• self-absorbed conversationalists
• cocktail shrimp
• when people don’t delete a Craigslist ad after the item has sold

The list of online, business-y things that I don’t like? It’s even longer. For the longest time, I eye-rolled at:

• Facebook (I resent that they’re constantly changing their algorithm)
• SEO (it seems confusing and isn’t it enough to give my posts obvious titles?)
• Pinterest (I don’t use it so surely I don’t need to worry about it ….. right?)
• Pop-ups
• Webinars
• That string of emails you get when you sign up for someone’s email list
• #amillion #hashtags #on #everything

When I’m My Best Self and I see people using these tools, I smile and internally intone “Good for them, not for me.”

But when I’m grumpy or tired or envious, I’ll roll my eyes and congratulate myself for keeping my business “pure” <- aka referral-based and not particularly strategic.

Then, like a Greek fable in which someone suffers for their hubris, I looked at my analytics and realized that 94.45% of my traffic comes from Facebook. (This is how I felt.)

Now imagine that happening again and again and again.

I hired an SEO expert and grew my pageviews by 30,000+ each month.
I installed a pop-up and doubled my sign-ups.
I started making my blog post images Pinterest-friendly and watched this post go viral.
I can only imagine what will happen if I start doing webinars.

I’m not suggesting that you force yourself to do things you hate or to utilize business practices that feel unethical or intrinsically wrong to you.

I am, however, suggesting that you maybe do a tiiiiiny bit of research or, you know, try something before you write it off completely. <- that’s mostly a note to self.

I’m gently nudging all of us to reconsider the things that give us a knee-jerk reaction of “that’s too hard” or “that’s not for me” or “I don’t need to do that.”

Of course, I’m not just talking about marketing and promotion tactics that we “don’t like.” I’m talking entire sections of our businesses. And our lives.

Just because you don’t like math, money, or numbers doesn’t mean you can ignore your budget. Or taxes.

Find a great accountant. Use Shoeboxed to track your receipts. Set your bills to auto deduct. Ask your friends how they manage their money.

Just because you don’t like self-promotion, doesn’t mean you can keep your work a complete and utter secret.

Gather testimonials, post them somewhere obvious on your site and let them do the talking for you. Write blog posts and articles that showcase your expertise without braggery. Write helpful how-tos and tutorials that show us how much you know.

Just because you don’t like exercise or vegetables or water, doesn’t mean you can avoid them forever.

Dude, just get a cute water bottle and keep it on your desk. Walk to the coffee shop that’s a mile away. Drink a smoothie once in a damn while. Moving and sleeping and eating green things help you write better and work better.

So let’s make a pact. Let’s take a hard, honest look that the things we don’t like about blogging and online business. They might just be the things that could make your business amazing.

What aspects of online business do you think you hate? Have you really, actually tried them? What have you changed your mind about? 

P.S. How to feel unproductive and worthless in one easy step!