I have a lot of really competent friends, especially within communication, content creation, and marketing. At the beginning of this process, as I was sharing some of my writing, I got a lot of input, which I really appreciated. So nice of you to take your time. And the intention, with your feedback, was of course to help me grow my audience and spread my content, I thought that was my intention too... I also reached out to some of you asking for your opinion about my content. These 10 pieces of advice were given to me more than once and by various friends and professionals. Thank you so much.
Don’t write in English, you’ll have more followers faster if you write in Swedish. It is easier for people to relate in their mother tongue especially when it comes to emotional, personal content.
Your English is too advanced, people don’t understand what you mean
You should offer a text in Swedish as well. It's more inclusive for the people struggling with English
Your way of writing is too harsh, it is not so friendly sometimes. The ”tone” is a bit aggressive
Your blog posts are way too long, people don’t have the time, nor the focus
You should finish off with an activation, what should the reader do?
You should write about covid. People tend to klick on whats is trendy
It is like your diary, are you sure you want to share that with your professional network
You should create a company page on Linkedin or a Facebook page
The vast majority has a hard time relating to you and what you are doing
I tried to take some of your advice into consideration and every time I tried to be "smart" I lost my inspiration, and my motivation went out the window. It just didn't feel right even though all of the advice above made perfect sense and is probably backed up by data. Without my inspiration, I had nothing. So I had to let go of all this and do it my way. You stopped giving me input, feedback, and likes, and I stopped asking for your opinion.
It was the best thing that could happen. I have already written about ”A good thing about not getting many likes”, you can read that blog post here. But this is my answer to these pieces of advice. The answers, that I was unable to figure out back then, are now super clear to me.
I hope this will inspire someone who is struggling with finding the courage of doing it your way: It is ok TO DO IT YOUR WAY!
I was at the bottom, I had nothing to lose in terms of assignments and clients, which made it easier to follow my heart. The best thing about not having any golden handcuffs is ”not having any golden handcuffs”. It is massive freedom that comes with that. But either way, I encourage you to do it your way more often, even if it does not make any sense. If it is run by true inspiration, and motivation, it will make sense eventually, I promise.
If I would have listened to myself in the first place and done it my way I would not have gotten myself sick. Today I know this for a fact. Now, this is something I will take very seriously going forward, and the first thing I will do (when I start to get bookings again) is to save even more ”Fuck off” money, I am pretty sure I will need it. And I will try to not create golden handcuffs for myself ever.
Enjoy!
1. Don’t write in English, you’ll have more followers faster if you write in Swedish. It is easier for people to relate in their mother tongue especially when it comes to emotional, personal content.
I am writing in English because I want to get better at English. It is actually overriding my desire to have many followers at this point. The best way to get better in English is to write, read and speak in English.
2. Your English is too advanced, people don’t understand what you mean.
For some, yes, and for others, it is not. And the people I listen to these days are all speaking and writing in English at a far more advanced level than me. How am I supposed to keep up with them, which is my overall goal, if I need to be considerate about you? I take self-responsibility and so should you.
3. You should offer a text in Swedish as well. It's more inclusive for the people struggling with English
Tell me, if I offer a translation, how will that make people struggling with English, better in English? I am leaving this socialist bullshit behind. I am getting my needs met, and so should you.
4. Your way of writing is too harsh, it is not so friendly sometimes. The ”tone” is a bit aggressive
The tone perceived is highly influenced by the person reading it. That person often brings his/her own experiences and assumptions about the writer's intention into the interpretation while reading the text. I can’t take responsibility for it. I can only take responsibility for producing a text that resonates with what and how I want to write it in that given moment and make sure that I am proud of it and grateful for it as I press publish.
5. Your blog posts are way too long, people don’t have the time nor the focus
People read articles and blog posts longer than mine every day. Either you are interested and read on intention –you are inspired and motivated to read– or your not. And I totally agree, my blog posts need intention by the reader and a purpose for reading it otherwise you will not stay focused. It is everybody's right not to be inspired by my journey, and it is my right not to focus on these people …
6. You should finish off with an activation, what should the reader do?
If that resonates with me I will, but I will not add that to my writing routine, that just seems less authentic to me. My main mission is not to tell you what to do, it is to show you how I did it and for you to be inspired and come up with a way in which you can do it too. Twhyhat is; Free yourself from limiting believes about yourself and your place in this world. The instructions you need, are for you to find, deep inside of you. That is an inevitable part of this journey should you choose to jump on the train.
7. You should write about covid. People tend to klick on whats is trendy
I will do no such thing unless it calls for me
8. It is like your diary, are you sure you want to share that with your professional network
I am sure that I want to share it but I have no idea about why and only now, over a year into this part of my process, it starts to make sense. I finally start to understand why I should share these personal, authentic, honest blog posts about my depression, and tools and my overall journey and my opinions, etc …
9. You should create a company page on Linkedin instead or a Facebook page
You are probably right but I just don't feel it right now ...
10. The vast majority has a hard time relating to you and what you are doing
I have always felt like an Alien and I have never been relatable. That is the story of my life and I am finally embracing that shit and it feels wonderful. My chi and dharma flow like crazy literally.
There is a starting point for all these pieces of advice and it is the wrongful assumption about my intention which would be to attract a lot of people and convince them or serve them my content as a number one priority. Of cause I want readers and followers but not at the expense of being 100% authentic, open, honest, and transparent. These are my core values that I have discovered during this process of writing. I could not be more grateful.
This part has also been about some kind of ”killing my character” and give myself a re-birth. That's why all of these pieces of friendly advice would have been so bad should I have chosen to follow them. I am so glad I got them though because, in the end, they did serve me massively. I made them very useful because I reflected on why I didn't follow them and raise my self-awareness and it all makes sense now.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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