Ghosting Your Grid Makes You Human: How to Come Back Confidently
Ghosting your grid makes you human: how to come back confidently
So…you ghosted your grid again, breaking the consistency streak you’d worked so hard to build. Maybe life lifed too hard, you got busy with clients (hello champagne problems) or maybe you just needed a break.
Whatever the reason you disappeared from promoting your business, this episode of The Art of Confident Content is the antidote. By the end, you’ll be ready to get back out there with clarity, confidence and zero shame around the ghosting in the first place.
You might wanna save this for the next time you break your consistency streak (we know it’ll happen…).
When you press play, you’ll hear:
00:00 Failing to be consistent doesn’t make you a failure
02:16 Sort this before you post anything
04:12 Nobody cares about your first post back as much as you do
05:22 The first one back will always be the hardest
06:07 How to get yourself out of the perfectionist trap that’s stopping you post
08:45 Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself (it’s what builds trust)
09:50 What to post when you’ve disappeared and don’t know how to come back
11:26 The thing that broke my 6 month posting streak (and what you can do to avoid the same)
12:48 How having a content plan can make you consistent with your content for 7+ months
14:29 If you can’t create a content plan for yourself, do this
16:10 Hear what my client has to say about The Robin Intensive
20:36 Don’t forget to claim your free gift to help you post confidently for your business…
Links mentioned in this episode
Listen to episode 2: You’re not posting consistently because of these 3 things
Done for you content with a twist (the twist being you) that’ll help you build (or rebuild) the consistent posting habit you need to start growing your business and making those steady sales.
Not seeing results from your content? After a comprehensive public facing audit, you’ll walk away with a detailed report telling you what’s working, what isn’t and the actionable steps you need to take to actually see results.
Get involved
Got a content question you’d like me to answer on the podcast? Is there a topic you want to hear my thoughts on? Or maybe you just want to leave me your feedback? (always welcome!!) Send me a DM on Instagram @robinrose.creative, I’d genuinely love to hear from you. And if you fancy appearing on the podcast, send your message as a voice note and I’ll include it in the episode with a link back to you and your business (unless you prefer anonymity).
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So I heard that you ghosted your grid again, or you stopped showing up in some way, whether that was because life was doing its thing and life-ing, whether you were too busy with clients, which is never a bad problem to have. Maybe you just took a break because you needed it, maybe you got burnt out. Whatever reason you have disappeared from promoting your business, this episode's gonna help you get back out there, and it's gonna help you do it without pressurising you, without making you feel bad about yourself. You are going to confidently show up again by the end of this episode, okay?
It might even be worth saving this one somewhere so that the next time you ghost your grid, you can come back here and you can listen to this all over again. Because let's be honest, you are going to fail at being consistent again at some stage because you're a human being. We talk a lot about why you're failing to be consistent in episode two of The Art of Confident Content. I'll link it in the comments. Go back and listen to it if you haven't listened to it already.
But as a reminder, not being consistent does just make you human, and especially when you're running a business, obviously you have so many other things going on. You're serving your clients, you're maybe packing orders, you're working on your website, you're speaking to your team. Whatever it is, you have so many things to do as a business owner that when you are overwhelmed and when you are really busy, content is typically the thing that falls off the face of the Earth. That's typically the thing that you stop being consistent with because it does take a lot of energy and effort.
Like, I do content as a full-time job. I've been helping my clients with their social media content for the last nearly 10 years. I know how much effort goes into creating content to promote your business. I know that it takes a lot of work, and I know that it is the easiest thing to let go of when you are super busy. And just in case you haven't heard me say this in any of the other episodes of The Art of Confident Content, your business is not going to fail just because you stopped being consistent for X period of time. You can get back to being consistent.
Let's, let's do it. Let's get you back out there. First of all, before you do anything else, I need you to take a look at what you're telling yourself. Are you telling yourself you are a bad person for not showing up? Are you telling yourself you're a failure for not being consistent? Are you telling yourself things like, "People are gonna judge me because I stopped posting. I don't know what to post to come back. The post that I need to put out there needs to be perfect"? What are you telling yourself? And ask yourself honestly, "Is this actually helping me get back to being consistent?" And obviously the answer is gonna be no.
And that means that you need to switch the story in your mind before you do anything else. Before you even think about that first post, you need to really have a look at what you're telling yourself and change it into something more positive, into something more empowering, into something that's actually gonna motivate you to show back up again. Sitting there and telling yourself, "I'm a failure for not being consistent," is not gonna make you consistent. Sitting there and telling yourself, "I can't wait to share this news with my community. I can't wait to show back up again on my grid. I can't wait for my audience to read this next post that I'm gonna share," they're the sort of things that are gonna help you show up again and be consistent again.
And if changing the thoughts that you have on repeat is something that you don't really know how to do, I have a free resource for you that you will find if you listen to the outro of this podcast. So make sure you stay here, listen all the way to the end, and I will take you through the exact process that I use to switch the story on repeat in my mind, and it's the exact process that I've helped my clients with over the last ... It's probably about eight years since I developed the process. But it is super, super helpful, and it won't just help you with showing up with your content, it will help you in any area of your life when you've got that negative self-talk going on.
Once you've sorted your mindset and you're feeling confident in yourself, I want you to remember that nobody cares what your first post back is going to be. Nobody cares about your content as much as you do. And- in some ways that's awful because we put so much time, energy, and effort into our content, and at the same time that can be really freeing to know that nobody's gonna sit there and obsess about the fact that you haven't posted for three weeks or three months or three years, and now you're posting again.
Nobody's gonna be like, "Oh, well, this is what she was saying three months ago and now all of a sudden this is what she's saying" or, "Oh, she hasn't been here for a while. She's not apologised for the fact that she's disappeared." You do not need to apologise or acknowledge for the fact that you haven't been consistent on your social media. You don't need to come back with an excuse or with a reason or trying to justify your disappearance. You just come back with a post, a post that doesn't need to be the best thing that you've ever created, a post that doesn't need to be perfect, a post that you don't need to be obsessively proud over. You just need to come back with something that can be anything as long as it is a post.
Because once you've posted that first one back, the second one's gonna be that little bit easier, and then the third back is gonna be easier, and then the fourth and the fifth until you've rebuilt that consistency habit. So all of a sudden you're back in the flow of showing up regularly and maybe because you know what your life is like, you will have scheduled a few posts in advance so that you're always on top of yourself, you're always on top of your content, so that the next time life does get really busy or you get an influx of clients or whatever it is you are doing, you've still got the content going out so you don't fall back into this post consistently, ghost your grid, overthink your comeback. We wanna get out of that cycle and just be posting consistently and confidently.
One of the questions that I was asked by someone when I gave a talk at a Mums in Business networking group a few months ago was from somebody who had had this exact thing happen to them. They had got really busy with their client work, they had so much going on, they literally physically did not have the time to show up and post for their business and they said to me, "I really don't know what to say to come back." They said, "I'm trying to make it perfect. I don't know the right thing to say. I'm really struggling with what to put out there."
And in response to that I said, "You really need to trust that whatever goes out is gonna be the right thing for you at that time. Let's not even think about your audience in this moment. We need to think about what is the right thing for you in this moment. What is gonna be the easiest thing for you to post? What is gonna be the quickest win for you to get something out onto your socials?
Yes, we also need to trust that the right thing is gonna be heard by the right person at the right time, but most importantly, this is your obstacle that you need to overcome in terms of not being able to show up again because of overthinking what to post. This is your thing that you need to get over. So what is going to be the easiest thing for you? And if the obstacle for you is putting a post out after disappearing for a little while, then whatever you put out there is gonna be the right thing. Trust that it's gonna be the right thing for you."
We as business owners, especially as women, I feel like women do this more, we are very guilty, um, I don't know whether I wanna use the word guilty, but we often make things harder for ourselves. We overthink things. We overanalyse things. We so want to be perfect. We so want to do a good job. We so want to feel like we're doing enough to grow our business, and that overthinking really keeps us paralysed. Whereas if you just put something out there, you're breaking that cycle of not showing up, and then you're getting yourself into a new cycle of being consistent.
So whatever you post, it doesn't need to be the best thing in the world. It doesn't need to be perfect. You don't need to be that proud of it. Obviously, don't just put out a pile of shit or something that's unrelated to your brand or don't put out something where you go, "I'm ashamed of this" obviously. And I mean, shame is subjective, right? We're all our biggest critic, so obviously we are gonna be a lot harsher about our posts than the people that are consuming them. But put something out there that you know is enough.
And don't be afraid to scroll back through your content and choose a post that you created 6 months ago, 12 months ago, 3 months ago. Take that post and reuse it. Nobody's gonna remember that you said that exact same thing that time ago. Maybe rework it a little, a little bit. Like I like to repurpose things and rework things and not share the exact same. However, share something that you've shared before. If you are sharing content intentionally and you have the purpose behind the post that you're sharing, something you shared 3, 6, or 12 months ago is still going to be relevant to your audience. So it is okay that you are repeating that message. It is okay that you are reusing that post because also we wanna repeat our message over and over and over again. We might get sick of saying the same thing, but our audience needs to hear it so that they associate that message with you, therefore building the trust, therefore becoming a buyer at some stage.
So have a little think and decide right now as you're listening, you can even press pause if you want to, as you are listening, decide what that first post back is going to be. It could be something that you shared before. It could be a testimonial. It could be a snippet from a blog post. It could be a quote you like. It could be a reintroduction post to reintroduce people to your business. It could be the most basic thing. It doesn't need to be overthought. The first post just needs to be something that you get out there.
And whilst you are deciding and creating this first post, I would really encourage you to create two or three or four, maybe even five other pieces of content that you can schedule for the next one to two weeks so that you don't put one post out there and then all of a sudden think “Oh no, but now I've got to do the second post”. If you can have a little batching session where you create three, let's say three to six posts, that will cover you for the next one to two weeks, you're already gonna be building that consistency habit back up. Get them scheduled, and then when you've got them scheduled, continue to create content regularly again.
So don't schedule them and then it ends up being two weeks and all of a sudden the schedule's run out and now you're back to square one, where you're like, "Oh my God, I don't know what to post." Plan your content for the next month, for the next two months, for the next three months. I like to do 90 days. Does my plan change regularly? Yes, it absolutely does.
And whilst we're on the topic of my plan changing regularly, I was consistent with my content on social media solidly for over six months this year. That's really good going for me, and I had my plan for June, July, and August. But when the launch for the podcast didn't happen in June or July - when was it, July - when that launch didn't happen, my content plan then fell to shit because my entire plan was based around the launch of the podcast. And then because I'd been ill and because I'd had stuff going on, I didn't sit down to create a new plan. And because I didn't have a plan for myself, I stopped showing up because I find it really hard to post, like to go with the flow of my posts. I am very Type B, which ... Mm, am I - ... Yeah, no, I am - uh, I'm exceptionally Type B, I would say. However, when it comes to me actually being able to be consistent with my content, I need a Type A kinda plan, not so that I can follow it to the T, but so that I've got the ideas in front of me, and so that I can have those batching sessions to ensure that I'm batch creating and scheduling my content on a regular basis, and that really helps me to be consistent.
Having a content plan can really help you to build your consistency habit, and I wanna tell you a story about Jade, who y- you've heard me mention Jade before. She's one of my clients. We started working together in January. I created her 90-day content strategy and content plan. It was delivered to her in February, and since she had that initial 90-day plan, she has been consistent from February until we're now recording this in September. So that is March, April, May, June, July, August, September. Seven months of consistent content from that initial three-month plan. Because a plan can help you to build that consistency habit. And the, and the thing is, when you've got the consistency habit in place, when you've been consistent for 90 days, this is scientifically proven somewhere, but it takes 90 days to build a consistent habit. And once you've reached those 90 days, you're then more likely to continue with that habit.
And Jade's proof of that, she had her 90-day plan, and then continued consistently posting content for seven months, which is obviously a lot longer than 90 days. So if you can plan the next 90 days of your content, again, you don't have to stick to every single post. You can be flexible. You don't have to follow every single idea. But if you can give yourself a plan so that you've got something to work with to help you build that consistency habit, it is going to be much easier for you to not break your posting streak.
And this is something that I do for my clients. I have The Robin Intensive, which I've spoken to you about before. This is done for you content with a twist, and the twist is you. So I create your 90-day plan. I tell you what to post, when to post it, the type of post, the purpose of the post. I give you the hook that is gonna draw people in immediately. It's gonna grab their attention. And then I also give you the call to action that is so much more exciting than, "Look at the link in my bio," so that you're closing out the post in a way that encourages your audience to take action. And then all you need to do is fill in the bit in the middle. You've got the start of the post, you've got the end of the post, then you create the video, create the reel, write the caption, write the carousel, whatever it is, based on that content plan.
And having this done for you means you don't have to decide what to post. You don't have to make the decisions around, what's my hook gonna be? Should I do this as a reel? How am I gonna make more sales this month? How am I gonna grow my following? All of those decisions are taken off of your plate, so all you need to do is the creating. And the decision fatigue that comes with planning and creating your content stops so many business owners from actually showing up. It is one of the things that can really prevent you from being consistent because having to make the decision around what to post feels so overwhelming, so you overthink it, or you don't even decide what to post. And then you're like, "What, what am I even doing? I'm just not even gonna bother." Or you're gonna throw up random posts here, there, and everywhere that don't actually get you the results that you want.
So I'm just gonna take a little second to share with you a testimonial from Jade, and she shared this at the Mums in Business event that I spoke at a couple of months ago. When we were going around afterwards, she shared her thoughts with everyone, so I'm gonna insert that here.
“Those of you that do know me know that I did content and stuff 13 years whatever. That doesn't necessarily mean I know it all. So when I set up my vibrant celebrant business, obviously I was putting content out there. I was getting people to retrain their brain to what I do or added service and stuff, but I wasn't getting the results that I wanted because I had my eye on other things, and my party page was doing really well. And I was like, "Why can't I get it to my party page is, like, thriving and I'm getting loads of bookings?" So that's where Rebecca came in, and I was like, "Help me." And basically what Rebecca did for me was the clarity was the thing that I took away from it the most. So- It was, yes, of course I know this stuff, but you can never not. Like, even watching the presentation, I was just like, "Oh yeah, I've still- I've got content ideas." And so I was writing content ideas down. So there's always, like, trying to learn, trying to, like, um, get clarity on things.
So Rebecca gave me a 90-day strategy, and I've been implementing it without any qualms or mistakes or, like, I just put it out there. Because I got excited about it, it was there in front of me. Like, I was just like, "Thank you," 'cause I, A, I didn't have to do that. Couldn't be bothered to sit and think about what I had to post. And then I was like, "Okay, well, I can post that, I can post that. I can do this. I can do that." And then I got into a flow. So month one, four weeks worth, I was like, "Okay, we'll just ease myself in." Second month was easy, and then the third month, it just flew, and now I'm into my fourth or fifth. I'm coming up, I think I'm in my fifth month now. So obviously the 90-day strategy then ended, but I was, I w- It's like a conveyor belt where you're now I'm peddling and peddling and I'm still going. I did say to Rebecca, "I know I will burn out because August is coming, summer holidays, and I will lose momentum." That's not a reflection on Rebecca. That's a reflection on the way I know that I'm gonna, I'm gonna be. And obviously my goals have changed. They will change to September, so I will be going back to Rebecca and using her again, but you made it really easy for me, and, yeah, took a weight off my shoulders.”
And if you would like me to create you a 90-day content strategy and content plan that is targeted around your business goals and is very focused on your capacity to create so that when life is life-ing, when you're super busy with clients, when something happens, you can still be consistent with your content because we all know that consistent, confident content is what is gonna get you the results in your business. It's what's gonna help you grow your business. I will leave the link to The Robin Intensive in the show notes.
And if you feel like the full shebang is a little bit too much to start with, or you want to try before you buy, if you like, then you can check out The Mini Robin, and I'll put together a two-week content plan for you so that you understand exactly what it's like to have that service, to experience that service. So I hope that by listening to this episode, you are now confident showing back up for your business. I hope that you now know exactly what your first post back is gonna be, and you're gonna go and create it right now, and you're gonna schedule it, and you're gonna post it.
And if you do, then feel free to send me the post on Instagram so that I can go and cheer you on, and I can go and celebrate the fact that you are back. If you've enjoyed this episode, then do subscribe, rate, and review. Rating and reviewing really does make a difference to the podcast. It really helps with growth. So I would really, really appreciate that. And if you found this episode helpful, then send it to your business bestie who's also ghosted their grid so that they can come back confidently again. And thank you so much for listening, and I will see you in the next one.
The Art of Confident Content is planned, edited and produced by Rebecca at Robin Rose Creative. If you've been thinking about launching your own podcast and want support bringing it to life, email hello@robinrosecreative.com. I would love to hear about your idea and discuss how I can help you with the concept, episode ideation, and launch content.
And when you're finished leaving me a five-star review, don't forget to check out The Robin Intensive. This is done for you content with a twist that will help you post consistently for the next 90 days at least. The link is in the show notes.
Oh, and one last thing. If you made it here, DM me the word gift, that's G-I-F-T, on Instagram because I've got a little something special just for you.
The Art of Confident Content is planned, edited and produced by Rebecca at Robin Rose Creative (that’s me in the pic!). If you've been thinking about launching your own podcast and want support bringing it to life, get in touch here. I'd love to hear about your idea and discuss how I can help you with the concept, episode ideation and launch content.
You’ll find previous podcasts planned, edited and produced by Rebecca here:
