What have fish got to do with my Business?

In short, nothing & everything!

I have always struggled with the amount of personal information shared on social media, I rarely post from a personal perspective and although I have business accounts on multiple platforms it’s always been a source of frustration.

I’m an ambivert, very comfortable with meeting individuals or groups face to face but the online world was a very different challenge.

I have always resisted the advice to share more about me, I’ve tended to stick with more business focused posts even though I I’m a firm believer that we buy into people before we will ever consider their products or services.

And whilst I do feel I was showing authentically, it was only a very small part of me that I was making visible.

After a lot of pondering, I came to the conclusion that whilst I didn’t want to share personal information, I was happy to share more about my personality, what my passions were, what made me laugh, smile, what made me excited and inspired.

I started to share about my passion for the underwater world in a LinkedIn series called #fishyfriday , I thought people already knew about my interest in marine life and scuba diving, my company name is based around a diving principle, but it turned out that many didn’t.

I was also becoming increasingly frustrated with the negativity and pushy sales posts on social media.  The very thinly veiled “buy my stuff” posts and the constant vying for attention in an already noisy world.  I needed something less challenging before winding down for the weekend and if I could inspire just one more person to take an interest in marine life then that was a good outcome.

It’s interesting that I always have a great response to the posts, there’s no Call to Action, no thought provoking questions for discussion and yet it always results in a stream of comments and interactions from people who I never personally met or haven’t spoken to for years.

It started as a no agenda, genuine desire to share what was important to me and that is still the case but when I think about it more deeply it also links to my belief that we should show up in business in a way that works for us, not stick with the formula prescribed by the gurus, the ones who tell you how to build a 6 figure business in 6 easy steps but in a way which is uniquely YOU.

I would encourage you all to think about how you want to show up online and in person, what makes you uniquely YOU, enjoy it, celebrate it and always have some fun!