I picked up a new book. One Million Followers: How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days by Brendan Kane. You might have noticed I like reading books about my current business obstacles. As a man who shed his social media mask over six years ago, the thought of coming back is giving me flashbacks of that cyclical dopamine addiction that I thought I saved myself from. I see now that it is can be used as a social currency tool instead of a mirror of self-esteem issues. Hopefully the last six years I’ve spent cementing those tricky esteem and friendship foundations in my Maslow pyramid will keep me grounded before attempting a social experiment such as this. In my last run, I only got about a thousand followers in my Instagram but that was during a time when I was stopped giving a f#%! what people thought and just let myself be swept into what I dub as my hippie phase. It was all about love for a stranger and tasting the sweet nectar of life. Life is not always so sweet. Responsibility always pulls us back to the basic necessities and the world runs on money. Money to me means freedom from the workplace and for that dream I decided to tackle this social media monster.
The surface seems to be about finding your tribe. When there’s a genuine interest in developing products for not only yourself, but for people in your niche, I believe there’s a magic formula found only in authenticity. I discovered a necessary partnership between the dreamer and builder archetypes. If you’re a dreamer, then you need to experience the thing and let the vision come to you. If you’re a builder, then you need to listen to what the dreamers are telling you and show them the path. One cannot succeed without the other. Sometimes in the beginning, you have to play both roles and that’s what makes it so difficult for most people. Not everyone is blessed with an equal balance for both roles. It’s like being a single parent. That’s why you need to work on yourself first.
Become strong enough for all roles. I thought I could barely scrape together enough time to start this side business while I’m working two other jobs. But I did it. And my next plan with social media will require more time. The work put in now will snowball into a future where I can quit my jobs and do it full time. The pain is temporary. In the same effort it took me to sustain this blog (which it’s almost been a year, yay), I’ve showed up and put out content twice a week as promised. I don’t have a million followers but I’m setting up the foundation of a person who creates content consistently. Now I also have a year’s worth of blog posts of topics I took an interest in. This can serve as a solid foundation of topics for videos or perhaps a future book. Most importantly, it’s a collection of my thoughts that I can share with my son when he’s old enough to understand. I worry about him sometimes but I know if I trail blaze a path for him, he can follow it and take it to greater heights for the future and get our family out of the poverty mindset. I’ll keep you posted on this journey. Keep hustling.