so your post flopped? here's why that's actually not a failure at all...

hiiii friend,

today i want to talk about a feeling that, if you have ever made content of any kind, i know you will relate to. how do i know? because after six years of doing this, i still feel it sometimes.

it's the feeling when you make something, you were sure it should have done well, and then it just... doesn't. and instead of shrugging it off, you take it to heart. you want to blame something. the timing, the algorithm, the fact that instagram clearly has it out for you today.

((( i do this too btw. ‘ugh it's the algorithm.’ bruh. it's not the algorithm )))

but what's underneath that feeling of being upset is actually something you and i don't want to admit. because it's an icky thing called entitlement. this idea that our content ‘should have done well.’ we worked hard on creating it, so we somehow deserve the views. when in reality, just because we spent a lot of time on something, doesn't mean we are entitled to engagement.

i mean, just because a five year old spent hours on a painting, that doesn’t mean it’s going to end up in a museum. maybe that’s not the best example, but my point is that effort does not guarantee quality.

so rather than getting upset and blaming external factors for our content not performing as we hoped, i want to give you a different way of looking at things. a way of learning from failure and using it for good.

ok this is going to sound dumb, but stick with me. i genuinely think there is no such thing as failure. if you remove the thought of failure from your head, every ‘flop’ becomes something you can learn from.

like, if i post something and it performs badly - what am i learning from that? i have one more piece of data to use than if i hadn't posted at all.

the way i look at it, one step forward is better than no steps. i'm doing more than the average person just by putting something out there. if my video gets 200 views, i still have 200 more views than if i never posted it.

i really think this mindset has been one of the biggest reasons for my growth. when things feel hard, like they aren't working, instead of spending my time dwelling on the hurt that it's not going to plan, i'm thinking about how i use this experience to move forward.