Hello my fabulous people! Welcome, welcome welcome! I am so stoked for y’all to read this blog because it is going to be so helpful for those of you who have recently started blogging, have been doing it a while, or want to start.
This post is discussing exactly that! HAHA!!
Recently, I recorded a podcast with @myhautesociety (online) speaking about staying true and authentic to yourself as an Influencer. You can listen to the podcast here. Below I elaborate a little more!
There are so many of us bloggers out there and recently I have actually been satisfied and happy with blogging! However, I did not always feel this way.
When I started blogging, I honestly had no idea what on earth I was doing. I had no direction, and was just sort of going with what other bloggers were doing. Then I started to realize that blogging is a lot like life. You have your own life to live and each persons life is different. Some people have stages in life that they reach earlier than you. Others have stages in life that they reach after you. The cool thing about YOUR life is that it is not a comparison race. Regardless of what society states, your pace is your pace. God gave you this life and things will happen for you in HIS timing. His timing is the timing that will work the best for you.
In blogging, there have been so many times when the comparison game had gotten the best of me. From wishing that I had grown faster like them, to wondering why I did not get that certain collaboration and they did. That comparison made a negative attitude affiliate with blogging. That comparison led to jealousy, that jealousy led to me basing my self- worth in something artificial and unfulfilling……numbers.
Numbers. Those arbitrary things that we have set, which in the blogging world are supposed to determine our happiness, purpose and validate our belonging. Numbers are what get us approved to the “elite blogging community” instead of the depth of the actual people who make up those “numbers.”
One day earlier this year, I was thinking to myself. I only have 3787 (insert your # here) followers?! Ugh! Then I stepped back and caught myself. WOW I HAVE 3787 (insert your # here) followers! And to be honest, it freaked me out. That could fill a small stadium. That many individuals CHOSE to look into my life. They were PEOPLE. Not numbers. Each and every one of those people were following me to see my page and liked what they saw! WHAT! While extremely cool, also daunting because it felt kind of creepy. At any moment those people could just take a look into my life. That made me realize. Wow we are all Influencers in our own ways. Whether we have 12 people following us, 50 people following us, 500k people following us or 15 million people following us. It’s not just numbers. They. Are. PEOPLE! Imagine being in a room with all of the people who follow you, and you’re standing on a podium and whatever you throw on your social or blog is what they will see! Crazy right! Perspective is literally everything! These people are being influenced by us and we are influenced by them. Now, whenever I get discouraged by the “numbers” I try to put things into perspective and remember the PEOPLE.
When I would compare myself, I’d try to make myself like them. When I made myself like them, I was neglecting the reason, and the person who started blogging in the first place. Me.
That was when I had to do some self-evaluation. I started not taking it so seriously. SCREW THE NUMBERS! SCREW THE COMPARISON! SCREW THE JEALOUSY! I made a pact to myself that I was not going to do anything on here that was not me. Whether that meant not liking and commenting on someones picture because I was “supposed to”, to not posting in a month (gasp!), to saying no to a brand that just wasn’t my vibe. THAT my friends, was when I started to figure out who I was and reminded me of why I love being an Influencer. I mean come on! How are we supposed to be positive influences if we are not constantly feeding ourselves with inspiration? (Now that I think of it, that’s a lot like a relationship with Jesus!) Now of course, there are things that are so important when it comes to blogging. The problem arises when those things become more important than your REAL life…. oh NO HONEY! Take a step back, step into the real world, get inspired, and then come back. That is how you stay true to yourself and be the Influencer that you want to be!
Podcast for My Haute Society: Here