WEEK 03 | Your Why in Social Media, Business + Life

This week has started off much quieter, and to take a proper day off Monday in honor of MLK Day, I took the time to be with family and go to a matinee movie (The Greatest Showman) and just be present and let my mind close all the tabs it wanted to keep open.  Tuesday, started with the same ol' emails but was going to be ending with an exciting dot on my calendar.  I get excited these days, in these quieter months for those dots.  Working alone has its perks but also has its lonely moments.  The dot on the calendar was a meeting at Temecula city hall with fellow creatives brought together by Rising Tide Society and it's calledTuesday Together's.  My main motivation was to connect with other creatives but also to support my friend Rayna who'd be speaking on the topic of social media.  It was such a refreshing, much needed time of gathering with different creatives and collectively saying, "We value community over competition" by just being there.  This was the kick-off meeting for 2018. 

What stood out to me most was defining our "why" or remembering why you even began.  I think so often we can get caught up in followers, gaining traction and increasing and thinking we need to strive or do more if we're not showing up online daily.  While it's an awesome way to connect with clients and put your work out as a portfolio, I think we can easily lose sight of why we even started.  Are we sincerely engaging anymore or are we just lulled into some sort of numb double clicking on every post we see in hopes that others will take a look at us and become an instant follow?  Why do we follow who we follow?  If we long for engagement, how can we be proactive to engage first?  Last night made me realize social media should be solely about quality over quantity. 

You may be reading this and have that all figured out, but if we're really honest with ourselves, we sometimes get this sense of entitlement and feel we're not getting credit where it's due when we're not getting the reaction we expect out of that carefully curated content we keep putting out.  What needs to happen is getting back to a place of authenticity.  And not that buzzword sort of authenticity, but truly being who we are in person on our social media.  I know "my why" for using social media is definitely connection.  I thrive off connection, which was an interesting realization for the introvert in me.   And not the kind of connection by telling me I'm liked or validating me (God had to break me of that long ago) but because it's purely the fun part of Instagram and Facebook for me.  And if we go back to its roots, this is truly why social media even began.  But what this also tells me is I need more of this in real time.  In real life.  Human connection and engagement is where I thrive and what makes me come alive.  Which genuinely helps me remember my why for my business and why I even began. A loose paraphrase of what Rayna shared, "We need to be present online but what about in real time?  We need boots on the ground. Who are you connecting with?  Are these people your people?  Are you willing to invest time into these people offline?" Instead of going with the trends and hash tagging your life away just to show up on feeds, are you even desiring to be a true part of that community?  Find a few good hashtags, follow them and engage in them.   Or better yet create your own!  Be the early adopter, the one who starts something and creates a space for people to join in on the conversation. 

I know last night sparked something in me, a desire to create opportunities for others to come together, to collaborate and to share a common goal and vision. My business as a solopreneur has been a difficult one.  People need people.  I have my people whom I love and invest in on a personal day to day level, but what does that look like for my business?  I am so tired of being a one woman show.  I so desperately desire building a team and having others carry the same vision and go in the same direction as one another.  I value what I have in ministry and with the body of Christ so dearly and have continually thought, how can I apply this to my business?  Where does it begin?  Social media? Perhaps.  I've met some outstandingly wonderful people through that tiny little app.  It truly is a great connector when used the right way. 

All I want to note, is that I feel something bigger on the horizon. I want to leave this blog post as a marker, as a stone of remembrance, and as the offering to the Lord by just showing up and writing and being present in the process, which currently is bringing me to remembering my why.  Ultimately, my why will always be to "Honor God and help people."  All of what I do is under the umbrella of that why.  And as I walk through the Valley of Discipline, Humility and Patient Endurance, I remember the promise He's given, to get me to the High Places, which holds the desires of my heart. And last night, was a small thing but something I want to hold onto and remember what started as a spark that has since turned into a fire.