The curve balls which freeze you

When did you last send an Email blast to your audience?

Last week? Six months ago? A year? Never?

Maybe you DID have a system but then you got busy (yay!) or life got in the way (uugh) and you’re paralysed or struggling to get started again.

Me too. Guilty as charged. My last Email blast was in late January.

Just when I was rolling gun-ho into the new year, with a talented roster of photographers joining my next Bootcamp programme, a list of discovery calls as long as my arm, some exciting Blitzes to edit, and some new collaborations on the horizon, ‘that’ call came: to get to my elderly parents’ rescue (and they live on the opposite side of the world).

Usually I’d have a few Emails pre-written, but I’d used those up (damn those Christmas holidays!)

After adjusting to the jet lag and turning my calendar on its head I noticed that every time I tried to start an Email blast or a social media post I got stuck. What to say? How to say it? And the longer I left it, the more paralysed I became.

Everyone gets stuck sometimes. When I do, I remind myself of these three things:

Done is better than perfect. Aiming for perfection is only going to prolong that procrastination.
Own your story. Honesty really is the best way, and can sometimes make for a more engaged audience.

JUST DO IT. Yup – that really is the crux of it. I set myself a time limit and have to press send. It’s the only way.
(All which I told myself today.)

As I settle into the rhythm of work back in the bleakly beautiful North of England, it’s actually all working out. Most my Bootcampers this round are in UK, Europe and USA – all Northern Hemisphere. I get to speak to them in my daytime, rather than at the crack of dawn.

And I might be missing summer in New Zealand, but in June I’ll be in Chiang Mai for the next Series Project workshop, so I can’t really complain.

If you’re in the same boat as I was, and struggling to write that Email, Instagram or Linked in post, it’s time to stop overthinking and just do it.