There are obvious drawbacks to sharing your life online. People you have never met form opinions about you. Friends know what you have been doing before you have had the chance to tell them. You have to decide which parts of your life belong online and which should remain private.
I share most things, but I don’t publicly share Cody’s face. He appears occasionally on my close friends story, but that is about as far as I am comfortable going. I wish I didn’t have to think about it at all, but that is part of the decision you make when you choose to share your life.
Beyond that, though, I don’t find many downsides.
I genuinely enjoy creating content. I also don’t need it to make me money, which probably helps. It occasionally does, whether through business opportunities, small amounts of revenue or free hotel stays, but none of those things are the reason I post.
The biggest benefit is much simpler.
People won’t remember you if they never see you.
A few weeks ago, a friend I hadn’t spoken to in years messaged me.
She had seen that we are living in Bali and was planning to visit…she asked where they should stay, then suggested we meet for a workout and coffee while they are here.
We haven’t met up yet, so I won’t pretend this has already become some profound reunion. But without social media, neither of us would have known our lives were briefly about to cross again.
She knew I was in Bali because I post about it. She knew I train because she had seen the gym stories, Hyrox classes and running posts. She had a fairly good idea of what my days here look like before she ever messaged me.
That is the part of sharing online that I think people underestimate.
It keeps you in people’s minds.
This obviously has a commercial benefit too. I could send 100 messages to potential Toucan clients today and easily fail to reach a single person at exactly the right moment. They might like us, trust us and need our help eventually, but Amazon might not be the problem sitting at the top of their list today.
If I continue showing up online, I don’t have to predict the exact day that changes.
We have won plenty of clients this way. Someone follows my content for months, sometimes longer, and eventually sends a message saying they have been watching what we are doing and now need our help.
Sometimes they are people I have contacted before who didn’t respond. The first message reached them at the wrong time. The content made sure they remembered me when the timing changed.
I wrote previously about your online presence becoming the new CV. In a world where anyone can use AI to produce a polished application or make themselves sound like an expert, a body of work created over several years is impossible to fake.
Most posts won’t generate a lead. Most stories won’t restart an old friendship. You rarely know which person is watching or what might cause them to contact you six months from now.
That doesn’t mean the individual post did nothing. It means the ROI came later.
”Most opportunities don’t come from being discovered. They come from being remembered.”
Most mornings in Bali start in exactly the same way.
I go to Blacklist for an iced americano. I usually arrive at a similar time, sit in the same area and see many of the same people.
There’s a couple I see most days. After enough mornings of seeing each other, we eventually started talking. It reached the point where continuing to sit near each other without saying hello would have felt much stranger than introducing ourselves.
We discovered we had plenty in common. They have since recommended restaurants, places to visit and quieter parts of Bali that I probably wouldn’t have found myself.
Nothing forced that relationship to happen. We all just liked the same coffee shop enough to keep returning.
The same thing happened last year.
Last year, I kept seeing a guy at the same run club and Hyrox classes. After a couple of weeks, we started talking. He is now one of my best friends and the person I raced Hyrox doubles with in Jakarta.
If either of us had constantly changed gyms, classes or training times in search of something new, we might never have become friends.
Routine gets discussed as a productivity tool. It reduces decisions, protects good habits and helps you get more done. All of that is true, but one of its best effects has very little to do with productivity.
It repeatedly places you near the same people.
Strangers become familiar faces. Familiar faces become people you say hello to. Occasionally, those conversations turn into friendships, clients or opportunities.
Even when they don’t, having a quick chat with someone you recognise can make your morning slightly better.
There is another reason I love routine: it gives me a genuine sense of calm.
My ideal morning here is not particularly adventurous. Coffee at Blacklist, breakfast at one of two or three favourite places, then training at Body Factory. I know I’ll get a brilliant coffee, eat something I like and train in a gym I enjoy.
Moving to Bali and then constructing almost exactly the same morning every day might seem like a waste of living somewhere with so much to explore. Abby and I both love routine, though. Neither of us needs every day to produce a new restaurant, beach club or hidden waterfall.
People are obsessed with discovering new places to eat. But once you have found a brilliant restaurant that serves a dish you love, what exactly are you searching for?
You are risking a disappointing meal in the hope of finding another brilliant restaurant with another dish you love…which is precisely what you already had.
Of course, we still try new places and explore Bali. I’m not suggesting that everyone should eat the same breakfast for the rest of their life.
I just think novelty receives too much credit and familiarity doesn’t receive enough.
Repeating something doesn’t automatically make life boring. If you have found a routine that makes you happy, being able to repeat it is a pretty good form of freedom.
The routine also creates a small sense of community. The baristas know me. I recognise people at the coffee shop and gym. There are conversations built into my day that only exist because we all keep choosing the same places.
That happens at home too. I have Starbucks in Beaconsfield, David Lloyd and coaches who have become friends because I’ve spent so much time there.
It turns out the hidden benefit of routine isn’t only that you know what you are going to get…it’s that people begin to know they are going to see you too.
”Maybe freedom isn’t about having endless options. It’s having the ability to choose the ones you want again and again.”
There is a clear connection between the two ideas.
Online, showing up consistently makes you memorable. In real life, showing up consistently makes you familiar.
Neither produces an immediate, measurable return every day. But over time, both create relationships and opportunities that would never have existed if you had kept disappearing.
So I’ll keep posting the gym stories, ordering the same iced americano and training at the same gym.
You never know who might be paying attention.
That's issue seventeen.
See you in your inbox next week for another chance to stay front of mind.