the real reason I started a new Instagram 👀

In a recent podcast interview, I was caught off guard when the interviewer mentioned noticing I had a new Instagram account, and asked me for the strategy behind it.

(That account is here, if you hang out on Insta and want to follow 😀)

The reason I was so thrown off by the question is because…there’s not that much strategy behind it.

Not social media strategy or marketing strategy, at least.

As I told her, it’s more of a mental health strategy.

A way for me to find better founder/market fit for my business.

​You can listen to the whole interview where we talk about personal branding, content repurposing, and video workflows here.​

But I want to talk a little more about the new Instagram account for a sec.

Why am I starting over on a new account?

Like I mentioned in the interview, the longer we maintain our business or personal brand, the more open we need to be to letting things evolve to suit your current needs.

When I first started the brand that this business became…

When I first bought the domain BrittanyBerger.com and started blogging and using social networks like Twitter and Instagram professionally…

I was a 20-year-old college student building a portfolio to get a full-time job. No one “starting a personal brand” back then knew what we were getting into.

Thirteen years later, my goals and purpose for having a personal brand online have understandably changed over and over again, from getting an in-house content job, to succeeding at that job, to starting the freelancing, teaching, and consulting phase of my career.

And as my career evolved, the “industry” of social media did, too, along with what social media followers expected from a personal brand on there.

I started feeling more and more pressure as “personal brand” and “influencer” started becoming synonymous to more and more people.

Pressure to perform.

To be more “on.”

To share lots of personal stories and details in the name of “authenticity,” “relatability,” “being vulnerable,” and letting people build parasocial relationships with you.

I’ve been growing increasingly exhausted by it for awhile now.

(And I’m far from the only one. Personal brand burnout is so common that it’s been covered by mainstream publications like The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Vox.)

I was already questioning the sustainability and mental health consequences of a personal brand business when I started the Work Brighter brand back in 2018. I knew that with the chance to start over, I wanted it to be different.

That, while it would still be a “personal feeling-brand,” it would not be a “personal brand.”

Instead, it would be a company brand, and I would be the company’s public-facing founder.

It’s not like I hide my face or never share personal stories over there. But my personal life, personality, and face are not center stage in the production.

And I freaking love it.

It’s worked well enough for the brand, but it’s been phenomenal for my mental health, so the trade-off is well worth it.

Showing up on Work Brighter’s social media channels has always felt easier, lighter, and less performative than using my personal brand accounts had started to feel.

It’s one of the main reasons I hadn’t posted to my previous “personal” Instagram account in almost two years.

The other reason is that since it was just for my general “personal brand,” I never built the audience very strategically, at least not by my current standards.

If I had to guess, very few of the account’s followers would be interested in my current content business, which didn’t make the idea of using it to market my business very motivating. 😬

So when I decided to re-try Instagram as a marketing channel this year, I knew I wanted to start fresh with a new account, where I could find the kind of followers that would be relevant to my business.

I’m there for marketing, not influencing.

And while I’m not sure if I’m ready to fully move from a personal brand to a company one for this entire business, I’m damn sure that I’m done being a personal brand on Instagram lol.

Yes, it’s usually easier to grow an audience there as a person than as a brand.

But at what cost?

It’s “easier” because you’re making it easy for people to build parasocial relationships with you, relationships that you then need to maintain and deliver on the expectations of. Which “builds reciprocity” so they eventually buy from you.

And that’s not something that feels very easy to me anymore.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to “perform business” on social media, but for the most part it wasn’t a conscious decision.

I just burnt out on it. 🙈

So I didn’t stop with a plan or strategy to replace it with.

That’s what I’m looking to experiment with and figure out with this new Instagram account.

I’m ready to find a new way to show up on social media for this business and brand, a way that works for both the business and my mental health.

I hope you’ll follow along, but more importantly I hope you take the time to think through these same things for yourself.

A lot of us either became personal brands “by accident” (versus through a strategic or intentional decision) or because we were told it was the only or easiest option.

It can feel like a decision you’re “stuck with,” or can’t do anything about.

But you can change your business strategy—including your branding—at any time.

And if you’re going from a less intentional decision to a more strategic one, it’ll probably be worth it.

— Brittany

PS - I have some more thoughts on founder/market fit, particularly in the business-to-entrepreneur space, that I might share next week. Interested in a newsletter on this topic? Click reply and let me know.