One of the first things that I hear in any consulting or speaking session with a new person is “I hate social media”.
And yes social media can be an extremely toxic place. The curated looking everything, the only sharing of the highlights of an otherwise messy life.
I get it.
But I also love it because social media can be anything you want it to be.
You could literally do and post almost anything you wanted to within the terms and conditions of the platform.
And yet instead we all are doing it the same way.
We are all editing videos the same, we’re using the same audios when they are popping off even if the song does not relate to our brands at all. We are taking photos in the same places.
It’s truly become difficult to find anything creative and new- and also to tell who’s who in my scroll.
Which brings me to a week that changed everything.
Late last year I was nominated for a Better Business Bureau Torch award, in recognition of my ethics in running Maven and Muse. The awards luncheon wa a couple weeks ago.
It was an honor to even be nominated and seen for the transparency I’m attempting to bring to my little corner of the internet because it’s not often these days that you hear the word ethics and marketing in the same sentences.
But also the day after the luncheon I spoke to the Women In Business Association at Colorado State- and in the room where women are about to get a degree in social media marketing. (Wild since I feel I’ve only been in this space for a few years.)
And something happened that night in that presentation.
Every time I speak, right before I sneak off to the restroom or somewhere quiet and I send up a prayer to use me and speak whatever needs to be said to the room.
There's been some real hummdingers that has come out of this mouth.
But that night I told a room full of 20 year old women about my social media induced mental breakdown of 2018 when I almost threw Maven & Muse away.
I didn't mean to.
It wasn't in the script.
I had an entire deck of inspiring memes to get through!
But I got asked how I do it mentally- how do I deal when my content fails?
I've barely ever talked about it, especially to a group of strangers.
It was so weird.
But I told them.
And since we’re in mental health awareness month I’ll share it now on here.
I told them how I compared myself and lack of babies to everyones babies. How I compared my career+part time barista job to those making 10k a day and that I was failing. How I compared my failed dating life with those getting married and all their happy relationship stories.
Then the followup question quietly and bravely when I acknowledged her she asked "how did you move on from it?"
And I told them all of them, therapy, a now annual digital detox and my inner circle.
But I also said this, we are each on own journey, and that no opportunity or nothing meant for you is ever going to miss you.
Social media can absolutely be the worst- but you are stronger and braver than social media- even on the days you don't feel like you are.
You are a human walking earth- social media is a made up place that is plugged into a wall that we put so much pressure on ourselves to perform and be creative on.
Everything you experience is because of how you perceive it. Meaning if you HATE social then the things you hate about social are going to keep presenting themselves to you. If you flip the script and start doing social your way instead of how everyone else is- I wonder if your mindset towards it will shift to.
Stay in your lane.
The best is yet to come.