How many people read your blog? Why do you keep putting out videos to a few 100 subscribers?
I keep getting these questions. For context, I’ve written 75+ blogs and produced 50+ videos.
People usually expect me to give a goal-based/outcome-based answer. Like “I want 100,00 subscribers”, “I want a passive income” or “I want to have 100,000 email subscribers” etc.
The questions come from an assumption that I’m striving to reach something or somewhere. And most of them are bored by my answer.
What keeps me going is the act of doing. I write and I put out videos because I like doing it. I would be lying if I say I don’t look at metrics. But that’s NOT why I write.
Every number that comes out of this is just a by-product. Not my goal.
I often catch myself trying to recall a random idea that occurred to me during the course of the day. And I promise myself that I’ll work on it later.
It’s 9 AM next day, KA-BOOM I realise that I don’t even remember the trace of the idea, the train of thoughts or anything remotely related to what I was thinking.
I overcome this with a simple hack
Write everything down. However stupid or trivial the idea is. Write the keywords connected to the idea.
Because we always overestimate our ability to remember things. I rather use my energy to process information, than store information.
Across personal and professional life, we’re stuck in 3 kinds of scenarios
Know it- One where we know the answers. We’re confident about it, and we feel we can wing it.
Clueless- We can seek answers or stay curious about various questions. Relentless questioning always leads to better outcomes. Nobody ever knows the ‘right’ answer on a consistent basis.
Know-it-all- We tell ourselves we know everything and close out the opportunity to seek answers.
Fears drives a lot of my decisions (or drive away a lot of decisions). I was always looking for an answer on “How” I can overcome my fears. I was just looking for THE magic bullet. But there’s isn’t one.
At appropriate magnification, if we choose to pay attention and decide to care, each of our fears exist for a different reasons.
We need to get in touch with them. It means looking deeper, introspecting gently and mitigating the specifics. Always ask
What’s the worst that can happen?
Because sometimes not realising the worst case stops us from acting on fears. After all, you might end up realising that the worst case isn’t that bad after all!
Disclaimer: This is an observation from my anecdotal experiences. If you’ve serious conditions dealing with stress or mental conditions because of your fears, please get a consultation from an expert.
Most consumers wouldn’t even recognise that we are putting out a work that we’re 100% NOT satisfied with.
But you would. That’s the beauty and curse of being a creator. Or creating. Successful creators don’t wait until they’re 100% satisfied.
Because they know it takes far more courage to put yourself out there, and feel great about it. With deliberate practice, your 96.5% could well become aspirational for a lot of consumers.
I used to think personal branding as a one time activity. Have a blog, a social profile, and do good work, you would have people flocking to you!
And because I had a perception that it was a one time thing, I was perennially in search of THAT one idea, THAT moment of inspiration, and spent countless hours on ‘figuring’ out the right channel to ‘brand’ myself.
Then hit the realisation
Personal branding is never about a hammer hitting plate glass.
How I See Personal Branding Now
Personal branding is always about the power of small assets we accrue over time.
Drop by drop, until they brim out of the status quo, break the chains of inhibitions , and create a flywheel. Sure, the first act of putting things out is exciting. Everyone lines up to cheer you. Tell you how awesome you’re.
And then starts the journey of grit. The people who cheered you have moved on celebrate someone else’s first act.
You gotta keep going despite not getting ‘expected’ virality.
You gotta keep going despite your analytics nosediving every single day.
You gotta keep improving with deliberate practice despite little to no feedback from your audience.
You gotta keep going NOT because you want a personal brand. But because you love doing what you’re doing.
And KA-BOOM one fine day you have THAT one asset that’s gonna pull you through, proving that you were doing the right thing all along.
I loved the book “The Art Of Thinking Clearly”. It speaks about the 99 biases we all have while taking decisions. I spoke at the 6 that resonated with me the most.
