And I'm not going to try any more.

As some of you know, I’ve stepped back from posting on social media in the past few months. I still enjoy a good cat video as much as the next person, but I find social media for my business really hard. And I don’t mean the algorithm or the strategy of it, even though that is a huge pain in the bum, I mean the actual act of trying to put my work, to explain what it is that I “do” or what is possible when you work with me, into that format.

Everything has to be condensed to this bite-sized perspective. And I look at the different angles of what I want to say, and I feel I can’t really do that. I really can’t. I can’t talk about my work in eight slides and a caption. It’s one of the main reasons why I’ve stepped back, because trying to do it was just absolutely frying my brain. I admire those who can, but I know their work is quite different to mine, and their brilliance can shine on those platforms in a way that doesn’t deplete them.

And then, for me, there’s also the ethical quandary. Do I want to support Meta? In any way? And I do still have accounts there, I haven’t fully stepped away, yet. But deciding to give myself a mini-break (that may be a permanent break) from posting on there, well, it is something that for me felt like a relief — personally and professionally. And I’m truly not judging anyone else’s decision to stay on there. For a lot of people, it’s a vital piece of their business, it’s a way of connection with community, it’s important.

So these are not black and white conversations for me. For some people they are — it’s very clear for them: I hate Meta, I want nothing to do with any of their products, I won’t shop on Amazon, etc. That’s really clear for them. For other people, it’s more like I’d prefer not to, but the fact is this is what I need right now, this is what’s available to me right now. And I can see the point of both of those positions and everything in between. But I also feel that the way in which we choose to interact with systems ultimately has consequences, for ourselves and others, and as the prevalence of social media has implications that reverberate daily throughout the world, we are being asked to choose what kind of systems we want to ultimately support.

And, as I’ve become more comfortable over the years with occupying my full space professionally, I’ve realised that social media, particularly Instagram and Facebook, was requiring me to be a more compressed version of myself, not just my business, not just my work, but my whole self felt squished every time I would try to create on there. And I’m just no longer comfortable with that, personally or professionally. I might find a way to make it work differently at some stage, but right now I’m choosing not to spend my energy trying to figure out how not to be compressed there. I’d rather explore the spaces that allow me more expression with more ease, so I can expend that energy more enjoyably.

I think this is partly why I’ve always been drawn to longer form, to email, to spaces where something can breathe, where I don’t have to cut the nuance out in order to fit. Somewhere I can sit with the contradiction and not resolve it and trust that you’ll stay with me. I’m hoping Substack is one of those places, but I’m not certain yet either, given how much AI writing I see here (please if you’re reading this, hit me up with some recommendations of wonderful people you follow in the comments!!).

Because we can all point to famous teachers who’ve built a whole industry from a more simplistic, less nuanced perspective. And I get why. Nuance doesn’t perform very well. It doesn’t fit in a reel, it doesn’t give you the clear, shareable takeaway. And sometimes the clean takeaway is useful, but sometimes it’s just one more thing to nod at and scroll past.

So I’d rather be here, saying something a bit more complicated, where you can return to it if you want to. Where are you with all of this? The compression, the pressure to be simpler than you are? Where is that showing up for you — on social media or somewhere else entirely? I’d love to know.