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Why I stopped Caring about Followers and Focused more on the content

We all know those who want to be seen as famous or popular with tons of followers on their social media accounts. The impression that I get is that the people are forgetting the content is whats most important. Also I also like to have the correct mindset and let the people know I appreciate them for taking the time to follow me and etc.

One thing I like to do is surprise them by checking out what it is that they are doing. This is as if I am connecting with them on a more personal basis. I also do not like to follow people just for no reason. The misconception about it being a numbers game is very wrong. Well lets get this straight there are people behind those screens (not unless you buy your followers or just do follow 4 follow).

When I stopped caring about how many followers I have I feel my work and approach improved to connecting with people. Because the connecting is whats most important. I also took the approach about putting out better work each time. At times  feel when I post something “what the hell was I thinking posting that?” then I say “I could’ve put more time into it”.

The reason is I do not want to waste anyone’s time who decided to hit the follow button. Because I made the dedication to go above and beyond what other people who use social media do. A lot of people just get followers and only post things about themselves and never reply or converse with those who they follow and etc.

When your following starts to grow it can be a little overwhelming as if you’ve got to be someone who you were not previous. By that I mean you feel you have a standard you have to live up to. Well first off you should remain the same way that you have been. Just that over time you have to continue to improve. Because we all want to improve to get better and better. When we notice that we are improving its all worth it.

So stop focusing on getting so many followers. The way that you get followers is by posting regularly, connecting with people in your profession and talking with them. Then its really just keeping up when no one is watching or you’re not getting likes or subscribers. You have to learn what you have to do and put in the work. Nothing is going to happen overnight so if you think its going to be overnight you’re in the wrong game.

My 2 years of posting on Instagram and new things

When I first started posting my calligraphy work to instagram I had first the idea of I was going to do it  just for a year and I’ll be done. But the more I kept at it and the better I started to get I could not quit. The reason I did not quit after a year was because I learned the saying show up for two years and then people will start to notice you.

Well It has been working out pretty good for me. At first I was a little upset when I did not see growth. But you know what I am going to keep going no matter what. Because what I do with it will be up to me. On November 10th that is the date when I will be launching my store to sell calligraphy prints and etc.

And one more thing i will be starting to post youtube videos in about a week or so. I have currently 4 videos queued up to post. So make sure you follow me on twitter, instagram, facebook, twitter youtube

Why confidence is key

If you do not possess the skill of being confident in yourself then lets talk for a sec. Because confidence stems from you having belief in yourself and what you are doing. If you have belief in yourself it will give you the mental strength to move forward towards your goals.

A lot of people don’t have confidence to stick with what they are doing. The people start out doing for example creating youtube videos. They post everyday and then they just fall off the face off of the earth it seems.

One of the main things I see time and time again is people not wanting do stick with something until they see a result. Just imagine how much more confident you would be if you stuck with that hobby you picked up. Maybe if you stuck with writing those blog posts you would get somewhere.

But with this said people do not have the correct mindframe that I am going to keep doing this until it works. Another way is that I am going to keep doing this and figure out how I can do it full time. Because when you start something its difficult and you do not have loads of confidence. As time goes on you will develop more confidence.

Confidence gets stronger over time just as if you were lifting weights. The simple exercises you can do is by doing that thing you are scared to do. By this I am referencing to getting out of your comfort zone. Being in your comfort zone is not allowing you to experience the full capability of what your confidence can do for you. Confidence can be mistaken for arrogance.

Yes there is a difference being a confident person and an arrogant person. An arrogant person is one who is all about themselves and not helping others. A confident person is fine with helping others achieve their goals.

When I was younger I will be the first to admit I was not confident. I was not confident in what I was doing. Then I was not confident in myself in any way shape or form. But you know I learned to use the experiences to help me develop the confidence in myself. One day I realized that I needed to stop hanging around certain groups of people.

Because confidence is key. If you are hanging around people who are not confident in themselves you will not be confident in yourself. If you are a creative person such as a graphic designer you more than likely will not have confidence in showing your work. No matter what way you try to spin it you want to do your best to protect your work and not get put down or criticized.

But once you learn that those who are critiquing your work are only trying to help you. The results of what you do with it depends upon you. Learn quickly to use your experiences and surroundings to a positive advantage for yourself.

Time is precious

Recently I got hired for a new position at a way better company than where I was currently. But you know what I had to do was be honest with myself and believe I deserved better. Because things started to take a turn for the worse.

Then I had to be honest with myself and say you know what I need to be somewhere where you are appreciated and not tolerated. You know when you have the feeling as if I am being taken advantage of. But you cannot take the time to let that keep happening over and over again.

The reason you may let this happen over and again is because you have gotten used to the way things are. Another thing is the money how its so easily obtainable and etc. But let me tell you first that money is easy to be replaced and time is not.

So you want to either focus on your happiness and or your current financial situation. Because I for one know what finances are important. But you do not want to die with your dreams in you. There is a difference in regards to go about doing something the smart way and or the stupid way.

You for one do not want to say you know what fuck it I’m quitting my job and have no money saved up. That would be absolutely asinine and stupid to do. You want to go about doing certain things a special way. I for one will continue to use the overlap technique to achieve what my all time desired goal is which is to be a full time freelancer.

You cannot knock the hustle

If you have heard this phrase before you may or may not know what it means. But let me explain this to you. Because hustling has many different meanings. The one I am talking about is people who are putting in the work to achieve their goals.

When you are a person who puts in the time to achieve your set goals then you are hustling. Because you can sit and think about what it would be like to achieve the goal or work and get it done. So you do not want to knock or in other words dampen their progress.

 

Gaming Meerkat

If you do not know what meerkat it is a platform similar to periscope. Meerkat is a livestreaming application where you can broadcast to the world. But there are things that are not allowed on there and one of them is nudity. If you do plan to use meerkat there are somethings that you have to take note and I’ll explain the darkside to you of meerkat and how people find a weakness in a platform and use it poorly.

Well on meerkat if you become very active on there and a regular part of the community you will become familiar with people and the regular streamers. I will be the first to admit I am having more fun on meerkat than I would periscope. What I like most about meerkat is the comments do not disappear, show and tell and the cameo feature.

On meerkat you will notice there are people who are gaming the system that needs to be improved. The system is a point based system. The system gets abused every single day. There are people who go around liking and restreaming and following everyone. The reason they follow everyone is so as soon as that person is live they can be the first there to like and restream and then leave.

Liking and restreaming on meerkat gets a person points. The more points you have the higher you can go up on the leaderboard. The leaderboard is basically like a scoreboard for sreamers on meerkat. Some people got there through hard work and others got there through gaming the system.

The way that the meerkat points system reminds me of how youtube had to redo their algorithm when the reply girls found a weakness in the system. So meerkat needs to get on this and re arrange how the point system works. The points feel as if its basically a game and a rush to get to the leaderboard.

When you find a weakness in any social platform I do not see it as building longevity. More or less you are looking for a short term gain. This short term gain is one that will not last. The reason it will not last is because you are not creating a strong connection.

The way I go about using meerkat  is I will like and restream the people who I like. Sometimes I will just like their stream if I do not feel its worthy of sharing with my followers. Then I stay in their stream and participate. By participating and sharing your voice you are getting to know the person. You are having a conversation with them. If you don’t think you have the time to do such a thing then you have to rethink your strategy.

So with all this said if you are or if you do plan to join meerkat just know there are people who game the system using like and restreaming. The point that people do it on meerkat is pretty sickening and for some its an addiction of habit. The main reason is the leaderboard. If they get high up on the leaderboard they’ll be happy. But my thing is I don’t care about being on any kind of leaderboard if people do not know who I am through a connection I took the time to create with them.

Because at times I have thought about throwing in the towel with meerkat and moving to periscope. But the time I have put in with meerkat and knowing a lot people and making a lot of friends there it would be stupid to throw it all away just because of an action done by people. If you join a social media network become a part of the community don’t just take advantage of the system and bring it to its knees.

Someone can always do it cheaper

If you are someone who has the mentality of I can find someone to do it cheaper you need to take a look at yourself. By that I mean why would you think finding the cheapest option is the best. Would you want to find the cheapest tattooer and get a shitty tattoo? I think not..

Because always the cheapest option is not the best option. You want to take the time to invest in what you believe in. By that I mean you want to not skimp on what matters. If you were to lets say have your friends son who has no skill in design creating a logo for you just because it is free.

Just take the time to think of how much your branding is apart of who you are. Especially in business its not something to be taken lightly. Time and time again I see dozens of businesses that took the cheap option. The cheap option is not a bad thing. Because if there is something you want done but cannot afford it at the moment take the best option.

Another thing is that if you cannot afford it is to save money so you can afford it. This is a simple solution to many things in the design industry and many others. But with all that said make sure you are not cutting corners just to skimp and save money on important things. You would want someone who knows what they are doing to do the best job possible.

 

Being afraid of your work not being good enough

Well recently  I was graciously bestowed with the opportunity to join dribbble. As we all may or may not know that Dribbble is a pretty big deal. The reason is because of the work on there how its so good and whatever else you want to say about it. I had thought to myself I don’t know if I am able to hang with those people in regards to designing.

But I said to myself you know what you are able to hang with them. Because of the amount of work that I have been putting in and also perfecting my craft of graphic design and calligraphy. A good example is the people you hang around you end up becoming like. So if you are forcing yourself to jump into the scene of amazing design work you will Do your best to match that quality that is set.

This is not something that only applies to graphic design. You can experience the same thing in any field. Because the level of quality and standard that is set. Always you have to keep the thought of that everything I do will reflect me as a person. Just think for a second how you would look at a landscaper who does a half ass job. You would more or less think they and anyone else who works with them is a poor worker as well.

So do your best to avoid falling into the trap of not thinking you are good enough. Because the only way for you to become better is to hang around people who are better than you. Spending time with those who are better than you may be scary at first. But you want to take the time to learn how they are and do as they do.

In regards to dribbble I am going to start posting work there soon. I will have to learn more about it first before I move forward with using it on a more consistent basis.