Choose your hard
A reflective essay on the hardship to achieve success on Substack and elsewhere
This morning
posted a piece titled “How to succeed on Substack”, which if you haven’t followed the story is a response to the increasing worries around this platform.The fear that
might become the same as any of the other mainstream social media platforms takes over the joy of publishing.Am I dependent on an algorithm to reach success?
As someone who’ve run an online art business for 7 years, including the achievement of significant audiences (think several hundreds of thousands across Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube), I’m compelled to add my 2 cents to the story while it’s still hot.
First I’d like to highlight my appreciation for Summer’s emphasis on effort.
As an observer it’s easy to think that large influencers were lucky. That they had it easier than most or that they don’t face the same challenges as you. This comes from a place of resentment of your own “inadequacy” or feeling of not being or doing enough.
As an insider, I know from first hand that both sides of the coin are just as hard.
The newcomer sweats about reaching more people. The veteran sweats about staying in the game and not loosing too many.
The more you have the more you have to lose.
With the digital age there is no one time fixes all. You can be all over the place one day, and the other you are forgotten. The main difference being that the higher you are in the public space, the harder you fall.
In the category of artists on social media, there are other aspects to consider as well. Brooke Cormier, a fabulous Canadian painter with 200k+ on Instagram, expressed in a recent YouTube video how much she invested in growing her Instagram.
She thought to herself: “If I just reach 200 000 I’ll be successful.”
But when she reached it, her life didn’t change. If anything, she felt more resentful because she had spent less time creating art and more time obsessing over metrics and how to create the most viral post. And to her great dismay the best posts all involved her pretty face… Was her audience interested in her art at all?
Her income reports told her no.
So what does it matter to have a big audience if it’s not the right one? Isn’t the purpose of an audience to be able to make a difference in your life?
Oh, and let’s not forget: An artist that spends years of hard effort to create pieces of art do NOT want to be complemented on their looks when they stand next to their art piece. LOOK AT THE F*ING ART.
Where Substack stands out in relation to all other platforms
A key point that has not been mentioned yet is: Ownership of your audience.
What do I mean by that?
Substack is based on newsletters. That means, you can contact your subscribers at any time WITHOUT the involvement of algorithms.
Thanks to people saying “Yes, I’d like to hear from you”, you have direct access to their personal space. You can reach out to them as easy as messaging a friend.
This is where the “complainers” miss out and frankly don’t give enough credit to
. The only time the algorithms play a role is on the platform itself. But those who already chose to join your list: they’re yours.From my experience:
The biggest mistake that most artists and writers do, and which I think is a main reason for why most can’t sustain themselves on their craft is to not collect email addresses.
Maybe it’s the fact that it’s a hidden asset that makes it less cool? (Except for on Substack where you can see it along with a potential badge if you’re popular).
Your email list is your greatest asset in your creative business. I can say without a blink that if we hadn’t had an email list when we got our first child, we’d be out of business a long time ago.
As mentioned above (
talks about it too), your audience will come and go in relation to how much you’re able to invest at various periods of time.With children you naturally have only a fraction of the time to create compared to what you used to. The irony is that you never realize how much time you had before kids until the kids are already here.
Thanks to email you can continue to stay in touch with your closest supporters even in periods of less social activity.
Choose your hard
writes: “So often in writing, people want advice on how to succeed, but they don’t like it when that advice includes a lot of time or a lot of work. You can’t expect to get the results of a person who works very hard at something without also working very hard at it yourself.”
Truth is hard.
It’s hard to live an unfulfilled life. But it’s also hard to make a change and to keep it up.
It’s hard to make your first $ online. But it gets harder when you need to make it month by month.
It’s hard to have a job you don’t like. But it’s also hard to live without a steady pay-check.
You have to choose your hard. There is no way out of it. Life is designed to be hard for us to recognise what we have and to be grateful for it.
Designed by your brain
8 years ago I was at a conference in rural South Africa while working for an NGO. Jana Söderberg, the speaker, said something that I’ve always kept with me:
Our brains are designed to solve problems. So, if you don’t have enough real problems your mind will make up new ones out of nothing.
Perhaps this is where the reference to “first world problems” come from? Where there are less problems of food and shelter, there will be more made-up problems to replace them...
“First world” vs. “Third world” are terminologies that I’m not a big fan of by the way. I find it inadequate for proper understanding of reality.
What is considered a first world versus a third world is based on level of industrialisation and economic prosperity. Whereas other metrics such as level of spiritual maturity, culture and natural health (which one can argue are all of equal if not even more value for a good life) are not considered at all. I’ll have to dive deeper into this in another article.
Finally…
The question becomes: How much of the “hard” that you are experiencing, is actually designed by your brain?
And ones you have identified your self-made problems, how much do you let them dictate your hard reality as opposed to actively choosing your hard?
Thank you for reading!
Elin x
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! And if you found this article interesting, please give it a like ❤️ and/or share so that it can be read by more people.
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You articulated well. I like the fact that you raised and expounded on the distinctiveness of Substack. I love the fact that I communicate with my readers, relate with them without hate, share our lowest and best moments...I mean it is a community that I can grow with together. There is no other place like this in the internet, a corner where I can be appreciated. I think this decentralized direct approach was what Substack was founded on and it is still the best. I own the space and roam in it. The only problem for writers is to import negativity from others and destroy their own space with it. The world will never cease to have people with extreme ideas. But it is our duty to adopt positive approach and repel any extremism in your space. Thank you
Love this quote "Our brains are designed to solve problems. So, if you don’t have enough real problems your mind will make up new ones out of nothing."
I completely agree. I think as humans generally we seek ease and complete pleasure and this is something that society both consciously and unconsciously sells everyone as what "the perfect life will look like", particularly as consumers of social media. For example, typically the behind the scenes and the hard work that goes into showing up is not shown, certain industries such as coaching pitch the "quick fix" and the "all you have to do" etc.
The fact of the matter is there is no such thing as perfect. Life is perfectly imperfect and requires effort and hard work in order to grow, learn and evolve. And, problems present us with this opportunity. In today's world (only speaking for my own experience), in countries that are less challenged by the need to fulfil basic survival needs on the day to day we are more mind orientated and less embodied which has led to an explosion of challenges and illnesses that have their roots in the unfocussed and unchallenged mind that is not grounded in the present. We also lack gratitude in acknowledging that we are not challenged and need to think about how we will meet our basic needs every day.
Love the concept of "choose your hard" as it addresses the elephant in the room and pulls us back down into the reality of life on Earth. Perhaps we should look at these new challenges from the perspective of having more gratitude for them rather than be pained by this construct of the mind.
Lua, xx