That Sunday night my baby sis ran to me and said she had some BIG NEWS to share👇
From her tone, I could tell this was a little different from any other thing she had shared with me
For quick context, the month before, we started a journey to try and build a graphic design career for her and as a target, we’re gonna try and make her graphic design skills start generating 50,000frs/month in 9 months
So as part of our plan, we decided she was going to get on Facebook, create a brand new page and start to document the journey on what she does every week to improve her graphic design skills
It’s a page basically saying…
“My new friends, I’m a student called Arrey and on this page I’ll be sharing my journey on how I go from a beginner to pro in graphic design in 9 months, and try to make some money from it…”
And that’s exactly what she did!
She created a page called ANB and every week she shared updates on her new designs and asked the few people on her social media to rate/comment on her work
Other times she shares about the creative process of graphic designing, what the process is teaching her and how that’s shaping her interpretation of life
For example, the other day she shared about persistence–how being focused on designing a specific flyer for hours, and finally creating the final design helped shape how she thought about focus and staying persistent on something
How that went?
The good news came on Sunday last week when some journalist who followed her page and loved seeing how she shares the process invited her to share on a radio program
Arrey, being on radio may not sound like such a big deal but I hope you get the more important point
As with the journey I’m gonna have to lock her down on focusing FIRST on the work and results before the exposure, but we’re gonna have to accept this first invite anyway.
Because it is my belief that a lot of times when you start shooting out, there’s the temptation to easily get carried by the little praises that you start to think you have arrived, so you lose focus of the very thing you’re pursuing. Then you become what I call an “Emtilas Local Champion”
Back to my story,
Arrey I’m sharing this because I get hundreds of friends asking me every time what to do/say on social media when they’re starting out with a new brand or business
I’ve said this a thousand times…
The best way is to start by sharing your journey. That way you’re not presenting yourself as the expert–which you’re not but it gives you an extra room
It gives you the allowance to be imperfect
It gives you the time to experiment
Your audience grows with you and they see you progress, they become your biggest clients/customers
It lets you ample time to find what’s working in your industry
And most importantly, it is in sharing that you start to find your voice and build your tribe
I figured out it’s one of my favorite ways of holding myself accountable because I say to myself “Arrey now that you’ve announced to the world that you’re working on THIS, you’ve got to lock in and put in the time to complete it”
My Smart Friend, start to share that journey for people to see (maybe not in every detail, but in the sense of a progression)
Stop thinking about how perfect you want it to be. It’s never going to be perfect
I promise you my friend, the process of sharing will open you up to way bigger revelations about your thing, how to communicate it, how the market resonates with your ideas, plus you will be building a priceless skill around communication
As with my baby sis, we’re still on a journey and just hitting our first month. But I wanted to share this because she’s here reading every line and I thought it’ll be a little motivation for her to put in the work knowing the world is now watching
We might make it.
We might N*T
But on every level, the process is going to teach her (just like it’ll teach you) way more about herself and open her up to bigger opportunities as she chases her goals
So my friend, whatever you do, go figure out how to start sharing that process and make the most of social media
As much as social media makes you feel very important, you won’t retire home with the likes or comments. Your gain is going to be the things you have used social media to improve in your life – Arrey Bate
Arrey Bate
Internet Entrepreneur | Author | Journalist