When Did We Stop Doing Things Just for the Joy of It?

We say we don't have time for the things we love. And then we scroll for hours.

That is not a time problem. It is a permission problem.

In Episode 3 of Field Trip Marketing: The Podcast, Kirsten shares what 26 women revealed about joy, offline life, and what gets in the way. And ends with a direct invitation to go on a real field trip this week.

Because the most resonant marketing you will ever create might come from the moments when you were not trying to create marketing at all.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Field Trip Marketing, the podcast, a podcast which is all about looking at marketing differently. I'm Kirsten, a marketing coach and consultant, the host, and the idea behind this show is simple. Each season I'm gonna pick something worth exploring, and we'll go on a field trip together. Different angles, interesting conversations, and one big question. What does this mean for how you build your business and show up in your marketing? This season, our field trip is all about joy, and I think it's gonna change how you see everything. I can't wait to get started. Thank you for being here. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Field Trip Marketing Podcast. I am Kirsten, your host, and I am so glad that you're here with me today. So, in the last episode, I talked about the things I've been noticing online when it comes to what a lot of people are craving these days. The pull toward the tangible, the analog life, the crafting, the hobbies, the offline. And if you didn't tune in, I'd actually love for you to go back and listen to that episode. It's episode two, it's around 13, 14 minutes. It's a short one. And I think it's really going to give you the context for where we head today, because it's really about following that thread of what I talked about. Because here are the questions that stayed with me after I finished that episode. If people are posting about how much they love doing things for themselves, the simpler things, the smaller moments, the things that bring them joy, then why do we not do more of this? And what is the relationship between joy and life and all the screen time that we have going on at the moment on our desktops, our laptops, our phones, our TVs? And does it mean anything ultimately? Because this is why you're here for your business and your marketing. So I wanted to find out. As I said, this podcast is about being curious, about going on a field trip. I wanted to find out the answers to some of these questions. And so I ran a very unsexy survey. And because the women that I work with are predominantly female-founded entrepreneurs, that's who I focused on. And I asked these women about their relationships in the survey with their hobbies, with their offline time, with doing things just for themselves. And 30 women completed the survey, which I think is a pretty decent amount, and it gives us enough to go on. And what they told me confirmed what I had been sensing, what I'd been sort of hypothesizing in my brain. But there was a layer underneath that I didn't expect. And today I'm going to share what I found in that survey. So I kicked things off with asking them, how do they actually feel after spending time scrolling on their phone? And these are some of the answers that came through: drained, guilty, restless, like they'd wasted time. And then I headed to this. I asked them how they felt after they did something offline that didn't involve a screen or their phones, because that tends to be the device that we're on the most when it comes to screen time. You know, reading, baking, walking, making something with their hands. And the answers that came through were completely different. They said they felt calm, they felt grounded, they felt accomplished, they felt inspired. And one phrase just kept showing up and up again from all of these women who didn't know each other. Obviously, they're completing a survey anonymously. They're from different ages and stages of life. They all wrote this phrase, or at least a good group of them, more like myself. More like myself. Not more productive, not more successful, more like who they actually are. And this stopped me because to me, that is joy. And, you know, as I go through this podcast, I'm also coming up with my own definition of what actually is joy. But I do believe saying something like more like myself actually is part of a definition of joy. Because this is exactly what joy feels like. And these women didn't call it joy. They just knew that they wanted more of it. So what else did I find out? This is where it got interesting, the results. Because when I asked what actually gets in the way of doing the things that bring them joy, you know, the reading, the baking, the walking, the making something with their hands, the number one answer was time. I don't have enough time. And I think we can all probably relate to that. Life is very busy for all of us. One of my pet peeves is hearing, oh, I'm so busy. Yeah, we're all busy. Because and I understand life is full for all of us listening to this. It's full for me. There are real demands on your time. And I'm not dismissing that. But I do want to challenge us to think about something because it's something that I've been reflecting on and sitting with since I saw these results. Is most of us say we don't have enough time for the things we love the reading, the baking, the crafting. But then we spend hours scrolling on our phones. And it's not intentional. And it's definitely not joyful. It's often really mindlessly. And it's almost as a default we pick up our phone because it's there. And I do it too, you know, especially in the winter months. You know, I live in a colder climate. You'll often find me at the end of the day after dinner is done, the dishes, you know, are put away. I just want to sit on the couch and I do want my mind to turn off. And so I pick up my phone because it's become a habit. And my husband does it too. We're sitting in front of the TV and we're both on our devices. And every now and then I look up and I say, like, why are we doing this? Like, what are you looking at? Neither of us can really answer what it is that we're looking at. We're just kind of mindlessly using our phones. And this did come through in the survey as well is that, you know, this woman wrote that she hears an inner voice say that there are more productive things she should be doing, and yet she scrolls because scrolling doesn't feel like a choice. It just happens. So I do wonder if when it comes to doing the things that bring us joy, maybe it's not really that we have a time problem. Could it be that we have a permission problem, that we're not giving ourselves permission or breaking a habit to do something that we love that would bring us joy and that would ultimately spark something else, perhaps, especially if we're entrepreneurs that have our own businesses. You know, going with this idea of permission, we have not given ourselves permission to do the things that actually fill us up. We have decided somewhere along the way, you know, that doing something just because we love it with no outcome attached isn't productive. It's indulgent. And that maybe we need to earn that before we can actually do that. So I know that's a lot to unpack and to think about. And I'd love for you to challenge me on this, you know, over on social media at Kirsten J Marketing or or send me an email at hello at KirstenJordan.me. But, you know, this is about getting curious about something here. And I am curious about if it's not a time problem, because technically we could have time if we're sitting on our couches scrolling our phones. Could it be a permission problem? Are we not giving ourselves permission to do the things that we love? And is this belief exhausting us? And is it actually translating over to the marketing that we're doing for our business? And let's go there. Why would this matter what we're talking about? Why would this survey actually, you know, matter for the marketing that you're doing for your business? You know, cool results, Kirsten. Yeah, people want to do more hobbies. They want to do more crafting, blah, blah, blah. But just think about it. The people you are trying to reach are the same women that filled out my survey. And they are craving something that feels offline. They're craving something that feels tangible, that feels real. They're drawn to that stale male newsletter that I mentioned, that bookstore crawl in the last episode. They're hungry for marketing content that feels like it came from an actual human who actually lives a life too. And the other thing is when you give yourself permission to be offline, away from your phones for a stretch, you come back. And this is something I do truly believe in that when I'm not on my device, when I'm not on my phone, I come back to the table with ideas that are different. And I think that's really important as a person who has their own business. When you're not on your devices, when you're doing something creative just for fun for you, it's actually gonna spark something for your marketing. You're gonna have fresher ideas, more specific. And maybe that's what your audience is actually craving right now. They're not looking for another polished social media post, but they're looking for something that actually came from a real person who actually has a life and went for looking for something different. And I think that the most relatable marketing you'll ever create will probably come from the moments when you're not trying to create marketing at all. So, you know, think about it. The marketing content that you've created over the years, what has been the marketing content that's attracted your dream clients or your customers to your business? Maybe just something worth thinking about, right? So, on one hand, the survey gave us clues around, you know, what are actually people craving? What do they want to see more of when it comes to marketing? You know, they want to see the tangible, they're real, you know, they want to feel like it's an actual human being who's behind a business. And then on the flip side, as a business owner, you know, you might have heard yourself in some of those survey results that I mentioned. And what would it mean to actually put down your phone and actually do something for yourself? And could it actually translate into you being more inspired about your own marketing? So here's what I want to say to you as a business owner who's probably a little bit tired and a little bit frustrated with marketing is put down your phone. Just try it this week for a stretch of time and do something you've been putting off because it feels self-indulgent. Go take that pottery class. Go take that, you know, there's a studio that I've been wanting to check out in my community, Studio Moy, M-O-O-I. They run classes, I think, daily, like learn how to play mahjong is something that I've seen them offer. Go do something for you. Go to the bookstore, cook the meal that you want, walk somewhere you've never walked before, even take a different street on the walk home after you drop your kids off at school. Do something for this first time. And this idea of doing something for the first time is is interesting because I think it does actually spark joy in a different way. And I did this for myself a couple of months ago. And I don't want to get too much into the story because I'm gonna bring this particular business owner onto the podcast, but I actually went and painted for the first time at a studio run by a woman I I call friend Nancy. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't really have a lot of expectations of this painting I was gonna create. And on the way home after this experience, the idea started firing off in my head. What I had just done over the last two hours translated into better marketing content for my business. And that's what I want to give you this week. Give yourself permission to go on a field trip without your phone, no agenda, no outcome, and just do something for you. And just pay attention to what comes up because that might be where your next great idea for your business is waiting. And I would genuinely love to know what it is that you do. So come and find me, as I said, over on Instagram at Kirsten J Marketing, or send me an email. And in the next episode, I'm gonna actually walk you through a more practical episode because I know we've been honing in on sort of this theoretical, this kind of, you know, breadcrumb y, I feel like Pansel and Gretel here, following the bread crubs. But I'm gonna give you a practical exercise you can use to bring that same thinking into your marketing, something tangible that you can do right now. So I'll see you next time. Thank you so much for being here with me today. And that's a wrap on today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me. Come find me over at fieldtripmarketing.ca or on Instagram at Kirsten J Marketing. I'd love to hear what you thought, and if you have any ideas on where we should take this field trip next. See you next time.