Hey y’all
It’s our anniversary! May 24th, 2019 was the first time I published a blog post after ruminating for months on carving out a piece of internet space for this little idea baby of mine. And when I say months, I mean months. Like maybe, 6 months+ of overthinking and talking myself out of taking action. Here’s some of what I’ve learned in the past year.
Expect it to take longer than you think
I don’t know who else was reading all these blog posts on the first page of google’s results thinking it would only take a 2-3months to build a community… I sure was one of them. And chile I played myself. I was overly optimistic about how long it would take me to start monetizing a blog given the time that my schedule allowed. This is a lesson that has shown up in my life several times over. Better late than never. Soon enough...
You don’t have to be perfect to show up
If you are a perfectionist, you’re building your own business and you’re struggling to balance everything… but then you get overwhelmed with everything on your plate to the point of analysis paralysis. Congratulations! You must be my twin. I’m here to tell you that action precedes perfection when it comes to business. Most of this is on-the-job learning. If I had to tell myself anything while starting this blog, I would say just go ahead and put it out there. Worry about making things perfect later. You can always rebrand later.
Make it more convenient to be consistent
Now, this one is the hardest lesson to learn. While taking classes and working full time after graduating, it can be hard to feel like you can balance it all with only 24 hrs. So, I had to find ways to chunk out the time without compromising my self-care routines. This leads me into the next one.
Investing =/= spending
Let me tell you… this is the most pressing excuse I give myself. As an EMT, I make slightly above minimum wage and it can be easy to talk myself out of spending on marketing and advertising that may or may not get me the visibility that I’m looking for. However, eventually, I had to pay for something to make it more convenient to be consistent. If I hadn’t bought an upgrade for Later and Wix apps, I don’t know how I would keep up with my posts during irregular work shifts.
Don’t compare yourself to others
This one sounds kind of ridiculous to admit. BUT. I compared myself to other social media accounts thinking that my timeline to gaining traction should be similar. Completely avoided the other factors of how people built their audiences. Like whether they built on one platform before transferring to another one. Or whether they had a strong idea of their target audience before launching or not. Welcome to my overthinking mind.
If it doesn’t fortify the foundation, leave it
I have the tendency to plan too far ahead and that keeps me from addressing the daily tasks needed to get there sometimes. So the final lesson I’ve learned is to focus on building the systems that will lead to the outcomes I want. Ain’t no skipping this part when you’re treating your hobby or side hustle as a business. Businesses don't build community and brand loyalty by having sporadic operating hours do they? The systems build the habits that build the business.
Let me know what you’re learning while building your business. Tell me your struggles if you have any. Comment below.