Hi ,

I grew up in the time of newspapers and magazines, so you pretty much controlled what you saw. You bought the print media you wanted to see, and you scanned and then skipped what you didn't want to read. Your print media wasn't constantly changing its articles based on what you read, because the publishers didn't know what you read after you bought.

Now we live in a world where media (social media) is "free." Except that it isn't. While you might not purchase your time on Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn or any other platform, you are fed very selected "news" based on what you have "read" before. And the price you pay, rather than dollars out of your pocket, is to have your habits and opinions shared with consumer companies who then serve you advertising based on your consumer habits on social media.

I'm not here to argue if that's good or bad. I'm saying that's the way it works now.

So in the past few weeks I've seen several people on Facebook especially announce to their Facebook world that they are leaving. Some are leaving because they feel like they spend too much time on something that doesn't really feed their soul. Some are leaving for political or personal belief reasons. And of course, that's perfectly OK because, after all, you're free to be on whatever social media (or none at all) that you desire.

You've seen me email to you before to say that you should protect your customer base by having your customers and prospects on an email subscriber list, just like this one. It is especially important to your business now, with people moving off of social media (or to other platforms you are not on and have no base of followers on).

Meanwhile, if you are interested in controlling what you see on social media you might read Joanna Stern's article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "Social Media Algorithms Rule How We See The World. Good Luck Stopping Them." (If you can't see the entire article you'll have to go to your online library and pull up the article, since the Wall Street Journal is subscriber based.)

Here's what Joanna says about Facebook. "In a web browser, go to the home icon at the top of your feed, scroll through the menu on the left side. Select “See More,” then “Most Recent.” In the mobile app, go to the three horizontal lines on top or bottom right of your screen and look for “Most Recent.” Just know, you’ll be bumped out of this feed when you close the website or the app." In other words, every time you leave FB the settings will revert to what FB wants you to have, and you'll have to reset it back again. !!

Here's the deal for me

I'm all for meeting up directly and "in person" using Zoom these days, so that I can hear directly from people I want to connect with. Or, over on Clubhouse. So here are the options:

• I'm on Facebook with no plans to leave, and you can pretty much find me there a few times a day.
• I started Let's Talk which meets 3 Mondays a month for women who want to meet up, talk about business or personal life, and connect over a cup of coffee. It's a tiny but fun group and if you are female you are welcome to join in (there's no cost). Click here to get access information.
• Right now I'm playing around with Clubhouse. Some of it is awful, some of it is interesting. If you are on Clubhouse you can find me @suepainter. I'd love to hear your CH experiences if you're on there.
• My paid group for women business owners is the CEO Circle, and there is space for about 3 people to join in right now. It doesn't matter what sized business you have - large or small. It's a place to connect, get support and accountability, and hone your strategies as a business owner yet keep things simple and clean.
• You can also hire me for one single hour to talk about anything related to your business, generate new ideas, or get an outsider's view on your plans.

We thrive in life and business by our meaningful connections. So be aware where and how you are spending your energy, and how that benefits or detracts from your life.

To your sweet success,

Sue Painter