Whatever it is you’re doing, I love it.
I used to have an irrational fear of losing my content in the cloud. To be fair, my first MacBook Pro overheated before I could back it up. Although most of my content was on Google Drive, it made me aware that I could somehow lose all my work one day.
Now, when I say there wasn’t much on it, that’s kind of a lie.
I had decades worth of fiction writing stored on that laptop. Stories I’d been writing since I was a teenager. Stories that were in my head whether or not they were on my hard drive. They probably read like a teenager wrote them. I’m sure the writing was bad, but knowing I had spent hours writing it and now it was gone was frustrating.
On one hand, if you don’t know what’s actually on there, was it even that important? On the other hand, what if it was my best writing to date? Now gone forever.
So I nervously added my documents to the cloud. This made me extremely anxious. I couldn’t stomach the thought of backing up my most important documents in one place. So I did what anyone with ADHD would do: I backed them up everywhere.
This led to some unfavorable consequences. As someone with ADHD, who let fear get the best of them, I backed up my work in places where I’d now struggle to find the passwords.
Evernote, that platform Dropbox created, my notes app, Notion, and of course Google Drive.
I came across a comment on social media where someone admitted they wanted to become a content creator but had no idea what to create content about. I immediately thought, same here. I think we all struggle with the beginning. As if it’s really a beginning. Your journey started years ago, but your new adventure in storytelling awaits.
So how do you begin to tell your story? Well, I’ll tell you how I’m starting.
Who do I want to be a best friend to?
Out of everyone in your audience, there is someone who imagines you as their best friend. They’ll treat your advice as if it’s specifically made for them. They’ll believe it’s a private chat between the two of you every time they read your work. When you start creating content, keep a clear picture of your internet bestie in mind.
And this isn’t a play on the regurgitated trope, ‘Who are you trying to help?’ This person doesn’t necessarily need your help. They might not even take your advice, but they are listening to you. They are watching you. They are rooting for you. They can’t wait to see what you do next.
When I write, I partly think of myself. I was a self-help junkie, devouring Abraham Hicks, Gabby Bernstein, Jim Rohn, and Earl Nightingale thinking, ‘Why are they all white?’ And of the few who weren’t white, I couldn’t help but think, ‘Why are none of them hot?’ And of the gurus, leaders, and experts who weren’t white and were marginally hot, I wondered, ‘Why are none of them women?’
So for me, I am that delusional bestie who has studied the practice long enough and can finally say, this work is for anyone who ever felt unsupported. For anyone who ever felt like they didn’t know how or where to start.
One day I woke up and thought, I don’t care about the rules and I don’t want to listen to anyone who follows them.
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