Scorching temperatures have brought about heat waves, death, food scarcity and water shortages. People are feeling the heat, in the most literal sense, of climate change.

While this documentary focused on Pakistan, it’s not surprising anymore to switch on the news and hear about some devastating climate-related disasters in all corners of the world. Ice caps are melting, forests are burning.

I’ve always been careful with how I live. I try to consume less. I’m pretty minimalistic with the things I on. I can do with very little.

But that’s my personal life.

Now with the rage about working from home, I started to wonder how freelancers like me, solopreneurs, home-based business owners and even corporate workers who operate from home can be mindful about doing work in an eco-friendly manner.

Working from home as a content writer

I picked apart my own life as a content writer. I’ve been working from home since late 2018, the day after I left my desk job in an oil and gas firm.

Since then, I’ve been living a pretty nomadic lifestyle. My home office isn’t the only office I have. Where my laptop goes — that’s where work is. I’ve tried working from a desk in my sister’s house to the bed there, working while travelling, registering at a coworking space. Been there, done that.

I’m now living in Brunei with my parents. I have a small desk set up in my room where I lock myself in to work. I write blogs, social media captions, and website content for c-suite level executives, agencies, small business owners and solopreneurs.

My need to be eco-friendly started before I worked from home. I would say no to plastic cutlery and bring my metal ones when eating out. If I got a drink, I had my own straw. I would even bring food from home sometimes and use my own water bottle instead of buying from the store (unless I was dehydrated and had no other option!).

Living with my parents who are pretty set in their ways doesn’t make the eco-friendly quest easy. It’s taken me time to educate them about what I do. I try to get them to use less plastic . Fortunately, we live in Brunei where multi-chain supermarkets don’t give out plastic bags anymore, we bring our own. It’s a good start but there’s a long way to go.

While I can’t change the lifestyle of my parents, I can try to be more conscious when I’m working from home as a content writer. Here’s how I do it.

5 ways to be more environmentally conscious when working from home

Go easy with furniture

When I first moved into my parents’ home, I had no desk, no chair for work. So I got a sturdy yet plain, simple one — invested some good dollars in that and a good office chair because I know how posture is important.

Five years later, aside from some chipped-off paint, the table and chair still serve me well. I often need a pillow for my back (I’m getting old!), and I’ve recently bought a stationery holder from Ikea, but that’s about it. 

I’m extremely tempted to buy more stuff for my desk. A little shelf would be helpful to store my books and files but I don’t have many clothes so my books and files now are in my wardrobe. I also have a box of stationery I use for craft making but instead of fancy, I recycled a cardboard box for it. Done.

Do I still want a bookshelf? YES. But it’s the only thing I really want and I’ll probably only get it IF I actually need it.

Be mindful of technology

When you work from home, your office setup is everything. You need a good laptop or desktop, probably even a second display screen, some good microphone, a webcam setup, etc. There may even be a need for additional gadgets like a tablet, a ring light, a tripod — depending on what your profession is.

But that’s the thing. Some of us, even with a profession that doesn’t need all these fancy setups still want it. 

I’m a writer. I need a good laptop. I have a very old LCD monitor. On my old laptop, when my webcam died, I decided to get an external one. My tripod which was also a hand-me-down broke butleaning my phone on my tissue box works just fine. I’m not a videographer nor do I record videos that much, so why bother?

I do have two external hard disks, one of which I’m about to discard because it takes up too much energy. I don’t own a tablet because I don’t like writing on one and I think I need to minimise screen time, not increase it.

My point here is to get only what you need. It’s VERY tempting to see what’s in the market and hit add to cart. I mean, I’m obsessed with mechanical keyboards but I realise neither do I have the desk space to get one nor do I really NEED one. I’ll just go to the store and test it out and be satisfied for now! Take it out for a ‘test drive’. Haha!

Invest in sustainable stationery

I’m obsessed with notebooks, pens, highlighters. I’ve always been this nerd who hoards Pilot pens because… do I really to give you a reason? 😜

But because I’ve moved so much in my life, I’ve stopped being so attached to my stationery. Yes, post-its are still life-savers and I’m still tempted to buy that pretty notebook when I enter a stationary shop, but I’ve become better.

I only use post-its for reminder items. Instead of buying new notebooks, I scrap old paper and flip it to the blank side for my scribbles. My biggest problem was my planner. I have a notebook that I use as a diary but I’ve always used paper sheets for weekly planners. That was until I found a magnetic, erasable weekly planner. All I need is that and two coloured whiteboard marker pens. No more wasting paper!

Find a routine

What are your ‘working hours’? This might not be the typical 9-to-5 if you’re a freelancer or a business owner working from home. 

I typically work in the afternoons, once I’m done with lunch, all the way until just before dinner time. When I head up to my room, I carry a full bottle of water (I have a bottle of my own that I use — it’s not plastic!). 

As I live in a country with a tropical climate, afternoons are usually pretty sunny so I leave my curtains open and do not switch on the light in the room unless it’s cloudy and I have a call. 

I also don’t have a habit of repeatedly charging my devices. I charge my phone and laptop once a day. The work I do on both my devices aren’t very visual (phone more than laptop, actually) and with my new laptop, the battery can even last me up to two days. I also don’t like to use my laptop while it’s charging so I charge it while having lunch/dinner until it hits 100%. This isn’t only eco-friendly for the planet but also healthy for your laptop’s battery life, I believe (correct me if I’m wrong, please!).

That’s it. It’s a simple act of knowing what you have to do and creating a routine out of it so you don’t use up more than you should.

Understand your space

I mentioned how I understand the lighting situation in my room when I work in the afternoon. This is just part of understanding the space I’m in.

What else do you need to know? I know when my room is sunny and what I need to do if it gets cloudy or if I work at night — duh, the lights.

But what about the heat? I’m not fond of the air-conditioner because (1) I have sinusitis and (2) I have old lady bones (not an actual diagnosis, but yeah, lol). I only switch on the aircon to cool the room down for about 15 minutes IF it gets unbearably hot. Once in a blue moon, I also switch on the aircon when I have a big call or need to record a video because my fan can get noisy. I also shut the curtains when I’m not in the room so the heat from the sun doesn’t come in — leaving the room cooler for me to work in.

My workspace is just my desk and my chair. I often change things up just to give my workspace some freshness but I have a certain order that I like. With the addition of essential oils to my workspace (they help me!), I needed to move my notebooks around a little. I do my best to use little plastic or single-use disposables on my desk so I don’t feel guilty about not taking care of the environment while taking care of my clients and myself.

Start now

There you have it. There are obviously many more ways you can conserve energy in your home. Less plastic, composting, switching things off when not in use, taking care and maintaining your electronics well, etc. The idea here is that you need to find what works for you. 

Being eco-friendly is not easy. It’s a whole shift of mindset to STOP using the light when it’s sunny outside. It’s hard to always remember to bring your canvas bag or Tupperware when taking out. We have to make a very conscious choice to live and work in a more eco-friendly manner for the betterment of our own planet and our own future.

What will you do as a start?

www.manishadhalani.com 

And I did.

I wrote an article about how I learned content marketing from my mother on my old website, but technology dies on you when you most need it and the article got lost in God knows where.

The article I wrote was inspiring (to me, at least)— it showed how we can learn even from the most unexpected source. I never in my wildest dreams thought I could learn ANYTHING about marketing (except maybe the fish market kind) from my mother.

But I did.

It’s sad that the article I wrote almost a decade ago is lost. 

But it’s alright.

I’m a writer. I can write this again.

Here goes.

A little background about mother dearest

My mother is in her early 70s.

She isn’t the most social (although she has the ability to be the life of a party) and she’s quite the homebody. My sister and I — guilty probably for living so many miles away from her at that time — decided to get her an iPad about a decade ago.

At that time, I didn’t live with my mother. I lived in Singapore for work but would often travel back home to Brunei.

During those trips, my mother would always ask me a question or two about apps on her iPad. It started with Facebook, and then she wanted to create photo collages for relatives’ birthdays (yep, she’s that kind), and she wanted games. Games, games, games — to keep her away from boredom.

One day, I was fidgeting with her iPad more than usual. I was actually making sure none of the apps she tried downloading herself were scammy so I was doing a mass clean up for her — also to ensure she wouldn’t have storage issues after I leave. 

Lo and behold, that little moment where I just wanted to clean up her iPad became a lesson I remember to date. 

Keep reading to find out what content marketing tricks I learned from my senior citizen mother.

Hack 1: Follow the best

When I opened up my mother’s Facebook, I noticed that she had already found some of her old friends. I was proud of her for this but I wanted to make sure she wouldn’t be caught in anything scammy. You never know with these old folks and their excitement sometimes.

I did a random scroll up and down her feed only to realise my mother was actually following some very insightful pages. Aside from recipes, she also followed a lot of motivational speakers, devotional groups and local communities where she would keep herself abreast of the latest deals and event happenings (not that she would actually go anywhere!).

I asked her where she got these sources from and she shrugged.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Sometimes I see it on the homepage (feed) and I follow them.”

I realised she was seeing ads. Fortunately, the ads she was getting were relevant to her. She did ask me about some dodgy ones but I explained how scams worked to her and she agreed that while some of the information was good to follow and good to know, she wouldn’t take action on any of it until she cleared it with another person she trusted like me, my sister or my dad.

To date, my mother seems to know where the best supermarket deals are. She is also the first to try a new recipe she finds on Facebook or YouTube — and then shares it with her friends if she thinks it’s good enough. Talk about thought leadership. 

How is this content marketing, you ask?

How is it NOT?

She’s doing what any good marketer would do. Follow the knowledgeable people who trickle down information that is useful for your scope of work — for you to stay ahead of trends, tips and news to learn from and share with your audience (or with your clients, if you work for others).

Hack 2: Compile what’s good

My mother’s knowledge bank didn’t stop there.

After I close her Facebook, I went to check if she has enough storage for photos in her gallery. I found out two things:

1. She had enough storage
2. My mother is a photo hoarder

There were TONS of photos in her gallery. No, not of selfies. No photos of friends or family.

But a lot of photos with birthday messages, devotional quotes, inspirational words and what have you.

I asked her why she kept saving these photos. Her reply? Just in case it’s someone’s birthday or someone is feeling down, she sends them the relevant quote/image to make them feel better. For instance, she had birthday messages for daughters, sisters, brothers, and even a few to pick for her husband. 

Talk about having a bank of information at your fingertips that you can use!

Isn’t this the same with content marketing folks? If you run a blog, for instance, you can use the same tip to have an archive of stock photos that you can use. The same goes for social media — have a bank of captions that you have ready to use, with a bit of editing, whenever you need to. 

I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t actually use this tip my mother indirectly shared with me until much later when I was listening to a podcast by Noah Kagan where his guest shared how we should compile all the kind words we receive for (1) motivational purposes, and (2) social proof!

Mums do know best.

Hack 3: Show up

My mother clearly doesn’t hoard all this information for no good reason. Like I said earlier, she shares all the good stuff with her friends.

My mum is on Facebook every day. She’s on YouTube every day.

Her Facebook mission is simple. She logs in every morning to wish anyone celebrating a happy birthday, checks her devotional group page, and then logs off to do what she needs to in the real world. 

She logs in later in the afternoon again to see if there are any interesting recipes or quotes to share.

When she’s run out of dramatic soap operas and Bollywood serials to watch on YouTube, she doesn’t just switch it off. She continues finding news stories, again with the recipes, and she’s even learned how to share YouTube videos on Facebook now. All by herself.

I’ve caught my mother saying “yeah, you can find it on Facebook” or “I got the recipe from YouTube, I’ll share it with you!” so many times now that I live with my parents again.

The consistency that my mother has with her iPad routine amazes me. While I find myself on my phone a lot too, I don’t think I’m as disciplined with the things I need to do on social media as she is. I end up scrolling aimlessly when I should be engaging or thinking of content ideas. If not for my mother’s example, I would never come out of the endless scrolling mode and get work done, I swear.

So thank you, mum. You’ve taught me well.

www.manishadhalani.com 

A while ago, a friend approached me to help her market her new product. At that point, she hadn’t even ordered stocks of her product yet. She wanted to start marketing it and collecting orders first. It was her way of validating the idea and getting in some cash before accelerating the business.

When we first spoke about this, she had only designed her packaging and started an Instagram account. She also did a photoshoot and wanted to hire me to write captions for all the photos. Sure thing, I said.

A few days after the above conversation, I spoke to someone else who was also launching a new business. In this case, they had not created their brand assets, not ordered any stock, but they insisted that they wanted to fix up all their website glitches and operational flow before they started getting in their product and marketing in full force. Without even knowing if anybody wanted their product.

While I was (and still am!) more agreeable with the former scenario, I started to #overthink. Which way is better when it comes to launching a product?

Launching a product: putting it to test

Staying true to my marketing mind, I decided to test this.

Since the pandemic started, I’ve been actively promoting marketing tips and hacks, plus my services through my Instagram account @minimarketinghacks. 

When I first started, I tried out a lot of things. Instagram, at that time, was still pretty basic. No excessive stories, no guides, no Reels. It was probably the heyday for IG Live at that time, if I recall correctly.

So I went all out with posting little marketing hacks. I did basic engagement like following other accounts, and I made some great friends in those first few months. I showed up.

I also tested a lot of “beyond” Instagram stuff. I wondered if I should have a website. Or was a SaaS platform to showcase my digital products enough? Did I need a newsletter? LinkedIn? TikTok? I tested it all.

As I did that, people started approaching me for work. They started enquiring about my writing services. I wanted to just do it all. Take all those clients.

But then I realised. I am one person. I can’t service all these clients. 

I need a passive product.

Creating a product first, then launching

Fortunately, at the same time this idea struck me, I had become close friends with a few ladies who also created content — video, audio, stories, design. We decided to join forces and come up with an Instagram starter pack to teach our followers how to create the different types of content we are proficient in, in an easy, digestible manner.

Yay, passive income!

Lucky for me, I had already started drafting my first product — an ebook called Writing Hacks for Instagram. And this product was a great fit for the bundle! Perfect timing.

We talked about how we wanted to market this. We decided to complete our individual “items” first, and then get together and launch it in phases. The first, a pre-order to test the waters and also encourage others to get it with some extra bonuses, and then to launch it properly a few days after that.

The bundle was a pretty big hit. For people who were all in our early days of Instagram, we got a healthy number of buyers. We even relaunched the product a few months later (I believe it was on Black Friday/Cyber Monday) and got a few more buyers.

In this case, we worked on our product first and then launched it. We’re all good at what we do and because we wanted to stick to a timeline and be on the same page, we all worked on our individual deliverables first and then focused on marketing our item later. This really helped because we were left to our own comfort when we were creating our products, and then used our combined expertise to market the product, interact with potential buyers and get them to buy. We didn’t stretch our energy by doing two things at the same time. Imagine working on the product WHILE getting orders. We would’ve been tired of doing it all!

Announcing first, then working on the product

As I got a better understanding of how to collect passive income sales, I then decided to switch gears.

From time to time, I started working on smaller passive projects of my own. From my Udemy courses to my Kindle ebooks, I kept churning out small items that didn’t take me too long to work on. I would work on the project first and then talk about it when the time was right. Sort of “leave it on the interwebs and see who comes” sort of situation.

But I got tired of waiting around after a while.

I wanted to test the waters. See what people wanted from me.

So I sat down and went through all the conversations I had with potential clients that I never closed. What were their issues? What did they want? 

I realised that a popular service people were hiring me (on Instagram) was to write captions. A lot of people enquired about this, but budget issues (most of them are new business owners/solopreneurs) hampered their ability to sign up.

So I decided to work on a fill-in-the-blank caption template bank. Easy cut and paste solution for busy solopreneurs who want to create more posts on Instagram but are strapped for cash, time and energy.

Great, I thought. This would work.

Then I remembered. After creating so many courses and ebooks, not many people were buying from me. How would I know this idea would work? What if this was one of those things that I worked hard on but didn’t bear fruit?

So I decided to announce the product first.

I even went the extra mile to set up a product page and “launch” it at a pre-order price (massive discount). I shared what the product was about. I told myself I’d only work on it if I had 5 buyers. Lo and behold, after a few days, 10 orders and more started rolling in…

So I got to work. It took me about 18 hours to work on it and by the time I launched it, I had about 23 people who bought it at the pre-order price. A few more trickled in when I launched it at the full price, too!

The verdict? 

So here’s what I learned after testing both options.

Work on the product first? Announce first, launch later? Or launch first, announce later? Which one works best?

In all honestly, like I said above, the announce/market first option gave me more bang for my buck. It helped me validate the idea, build momentum and curiosity and rake in more sales. This is why I was definitely on board with my client who wanted me to write captions so she can start posting about her upcoming product on social media before her shipment even came in.

However, I highly encourage you to work on the launch first, announce later method if you’re working in a group. Look at the strength of your team. Are they capable of working on a product in crunch mode (after receiving orders?) or do you want them to complete the product/project first before you are ready to announce it to the world? This method worked best for me when I had product bundles with my business buddies, but not so much when I was a lone ranger working and marketing my own products, possibly due to my limited resources.

Sounds like I’m ending this off with the cliche “it depends” answer? Yes, because, it does, really.

View all my digital products on my website @ www.manishadhalani.com.

You do it all. You plan the content, design the images (all hail, Canva), write the captions, schedule the content, engage with the audience … the list goes on.

It’s not easy work, this Instagram.

I speak from experience when I say sometimes I just feel like giving up on Instagram and hoping the forces of the Universe send me some clients by sheer good fortune.

Of course, I know that’s highly unlikely so I persevere. I may take short breaks from Instagram, but I ultimately come back with some posts and the occasional story show-up.

Instagram ain’t easy — here’s what I struggled with

Here’s where my struggle is with Instagram: designing posts.

I’m not a designer. I used to tinker around with Photoshop but my Adobe Creative Suite days are long gone.

When I use Canva I get distracted by the 112,348 templates and waste time making adjustments only to realise neither of them is consistent with my brand colours, fonts or overall look.

How did I solve this problem? I got some Canva templates.

Recommended templates: Social Media Canva Templates by Lookeesan Creatives

Naturally, there’s still work to be done. But I save so much time! I get these templates, change up the colours and fonts and voila. I just have to add my own text and decide which layout to use instead of spending hours scrolling through templates to decide.

Once the design was done, I would open up my Facebook (now Meta) Business Manager and schedule them in.

All that was left to do before hitting schedule / publish was to right out the captions.

Here are three questions I ask when writing Instagram captions:

1. Which content pillar is this post for?

For my Instagram account, I have three types of posts: educational, motivational and promotional. Knowing which post this is for helps me skew the message I have. For example, for motivational posts (usually a quote), I write a personal story and make it short. For carousels — usually educational — I get a little in-depth and share more knowledge in the caption.

2. What’s the call to action for this Instagram caption?

Answering the first question makes it SO MUCH easier to get this question right. Motivational post? Just get people to follow me. Educational post? Maybe a relevant resource to download or buy. Promotional post? Duh. Link in bio, usually.

3. Is this caption consistent with my brand message?

Ah, this one is more of a “check in” question just before I hit schedule / publish. I read through the caption one more time and try to put myself in the shoes of the reader. Am I rambling? Is this what I usually say or am I offering too much of a personal perspective (happens when I write in a bad mood!)? Is this caption truly beneficial to the reader? If not, I edit it before posting.

Pro-tip: run your caption through Grammarly before posting it, just to ensure you have no silly typos or long-winded sentences.

An opportunity to help others

Captions, naturally, come easier to me than design does.

Using the templates for design really helped me to batch create my content for Instagram and get the ball rolling by sharing my expertise and engaging with the audience.

This made me realise something.

If I struggle with design and there are templates to help me make my life easier, could I possibly make my followers’/clients’ lives easier with caption templates?

Introducing: my Instagram Caption Template Bank

This bank of 100+ caption templates has helped many of my clients and social media followers come up with captions much, much easier!

The Instagram captions are perfect for personal brands who want to motivate their followers, make announcements and launch products/services. There are even greeting-related posts and posts that help you share your expertise and resources with your followers.

The best part? These captions, although written with Instagram as the main medium, can be redistributed or repurposed for your other social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

Talk about value for money!

Hope these tips and resources have helped you. Feel free to DM me on Instagram if you have any other questions on this topic.

Get your caption template bank and other helpful resources via my website @ https://manishadhalani.com/shop/