In this episode of Business Minded Mama Podcast, Stephanie taps into her own experience of feeling overwhelmed and how she managed to beat burnout as an influencer. She shares practical advice on how to cope with feeling overwhelmed and stay grounded.

Stephanie also spills the tea on maintaining sanity during the lockdown and highlights the power of connections while being confined to homes. Her 30-minute rule for Instagram is one of a kind.

Tune in to learn insights for good mental health and how to escape the overwhelm of Instagram as an aspiring Influencer.

TimeStamps:

[2:14] Stephanie shares her experience with burnout

[4:52] How to deal with feeling overwhelmed

[5:22] The importance of online connections 

[6:31] The 30-minute rule to manage Instagram

[8:34] Where to learn more from Stephanie

Quotes

“You’re gonna grow, and that takes time, and it needs to take time to be really authentic.”

“I’ve been through the Instagram burnout just in a couple of years of doing this.”

“We are living in a state of now, and we’ve to got over it.”

Connect with Stephanie :

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/businessmindedmama

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephanieparenza/

  

full transcription below

Hi, today I have felt compelled to talk about this subject of overwhelm as a new influencer and not even just a new influencer. I’m feeling this way myself today as I speak to you. Um, but it’s something I’ve dealt with often on for the past year and a half close to two years since I first started this influencing journey and it’s been heavy on my mind again.

And so I thought, why not bring this topic to you because you too could be feeling this exact same way. And so today I want to just briefly talk about this feeling and what I do to try to get myself grounded and out of that feeling of overwhelm. So this feeling that I’m talking about with overwhelm is the over whelming factor of always needing to grow and always needing to be on Instagram and always needing to connect. And while I think these things are important, they’re important to build your business. They’re important to grow your community, but it can burn you out. And I have been through the Instagram burnout many times and just my short couple years of doing this. And when I first started, I would stay up until 2:00 AM, just scouring, Instagram, and reaching out to people and trying to connect with people.

And I would lose sleep. I literally would stay up forever until my eyes not stay open any longer. And just try to get my name out there and try to, you know, connect with all these other influencers and these other mamas and it, or me down so much. I, after doing that for so long, I basically just stopped it’s. It’s like I would go through these peaks and valleys where I would just do all of the connection and then I’d be so burned out that I would just let it go. And so I feel like I’ve been in this place and now there are so many other things going on in our world today that have, you know, played a factor into why I have not been as active on Instagram or why I felt burnt out on Instagram. So this is a different time, but like I said, I’ve been through this before as well, even when the world was perfect.

I think we all know it wasn’t really perfect, but in my, in my everyday life, there was nothing big going on. And I was just doing my thing and I still would have these burnout moments. And it’s because I think that if you are like me, we want things. Now we live in this state of now and we have to get over that, right. Easier said than done, but you just pour yourself in expecting, you know, changes or outcomes the next day and in the Instagram and influencing world. That is not how it goes. It’s not, I have been stuck, I guess, if you want to say stuck where I’m at, because I burned myself out. I burned myself out that I no longer wanted to give any attention to my Instagram account. And so the last couple of days I’ve been reflecting on that and that’s not really true.

I, I, I still want to do my thing on Instagram. I still want that to be a part of my life, but I’ve really have to do it in a different way. And so my suggestion to you is if you’re feeling this overwhelmed as well, and you’re feeling this need to always be on there so that you can grow one, go ahead and stop that. That’s not true. You’re going to grow, but it’s going to take time and it needs to take time to really be authentic. So slow yourself down, allow yourself to allow yourself to have time. And so, number two, this is my, um, this is my suggestion on how we move forward. This is how we keep ourselves from burning out and allowing ourselves to still maintain that connection. That connection that I currently feel is gone. And like I said, there’s a reason why the connection is also God, because we’re all sort of trapped in our houses or in our small bubbles.

So you may not feel 100% when it comes to your community and your connection with other people in this influencer world. But I think that if we just come back to allowing it to be free, it’s just more free and allowing yourself to just enjoy the time you’re on there and not feel that pressure of needing to grow and needing to grow overnight, that you can get that sense of online community right now, even in this time. And so what I’m proposing that we do is that only, and Instagram for 30 minutes, give yourself 30 minutes a day of outreach and connection, and you can schedule your posts and all of that outside of that 30 minutes, but just 30 minutes a day. And I’m only going to do 30 minutes a day, Monday through Friday, I’m still going to take my weekends off to be fully present with my family, 30 minutes a day.

I’m going to make sure I’m staying connected with the friends that I’ve made through Instagram. I’m going to take that time to meet new people in my online committee, unity. So I am proposing that you do this with me because I don’t want you to be in that burn out phase. Like I have been a few times in my short journey. I think the other thing to remember here is that you may not feel the feeling of connection and community right away after your first day of just doing 30 minutes, it will take time, but I think this will allow consistency and it will eventually get you to have the feelings that we once had with thriving in your community, thriving in your online community, and really building up your influencing business. If we can just consistently be there 30 minutes each day, and that’s it, we will move forward.

We will have that feeling again, the excitement of wanting to be on Instagram each day, not having that burnout. And I think, um, if we can just do this ongoing, we will grow more authentically and faster than we think. So I hope you join me. I’m excited to dive back into my Instagram community on a more consistent basis. And I hope to see you there. Come talk to me and my DMS or in my comments. I would love to connect with you. There can also find me a Facebook group. Business-minded mama. We are going to be sharing valuable tips there for all of you, influencers, all of, uh, all of the entrepreneurs and small businesses. If you need help managing the bookkeeping side of your business, come there, I’m going to be giving tips. I’m going to be going live with question and answers, and I would love to see you there and connect with you there.

Um, I am really, I’m really seeking my community again, and I am ready to dive in 100%, get out of this funk that we’ve been in over the last few months. And so, um, I will see you there.