Good morning,
A friend DMed me a Substack Note by Tom Kuegler. Simple, straightforward, enlightening and helpful, Kuegler writes:
DO NOT write anything to get more:
Views
Subscribers
Followers
Money
You’ll lose before you begin.
Write to seek more:
Understanding
Fulfillment
Happiness
Truth
The audience will find you eventually.
And if they don’t, go leave a bunch of comments until they do.
That’s a MUCH better way to build an audience.
During the pandemic, per the encouragement of my coach Kathryn, I’d spend 10-15 minutes a day on Instagram liking other people’s posts and commenting all in the spirit of making myself more online in order to lead people to my music page. It worked a little bit, but I got burnt out because it felt too forced for me. I gave up after a couple weeks. I like Tom’s advice about writing, but the “leaving a bunch of comments” piece doesn’t sit right with me. I feel unmotivated to follow that idea.
What both Kathryn and Tom have in common is that they’ve each been able to build strong careers and have utilized social media to help. I have not utilized such platforms beyond sharing my writing and music and other works with a small group. I wonder what would happen if I take Tom’s advice and comment on others’ Substacks. At the moment I feel resistant, but perhaps by writing it here, it can enable a slight shift. In the meantime, I will write to seek more understanding, fulfillment, happiness and truth.
What are you resisting that might help you grow? What are you doing to seek more understanding, fulfillment, happiness and truth?
Until next time,
Matt
I agree with what you write and how you feel. This was always a problem for me and I too have a viscerally negative response to it. It felt forced, inauthentic and just not me. I never did go in that direction, but I worry that at least some of this must be done. I'm just not sure . It certainly bothers me that "influencers" seem to carry quite a bit of weight by doing this sort of thing.