The Introverted Influencer

Ignore the Numbers

May 27, 2022 Erica Van Slyke Season 1 Episode 17
The Introverted Influencer
Ignore the Numbers
Show Notes Transcript

Feel like banging your head against a wall every time you go to check your follower count or website metrics?

In this episode, I am sharing why and when it is ok to ignore the damn numbers. 

**All my fellow mamas out there: I am a potty-mouth,  so you may want to listen with headphones on!**

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the introverted influencer podcast. I'm your host, Erica. Vanke my soul's mission on this planet is to help fellow introverts grow their online influence and estate, a feminine flow and ease while battling the woes of depression, anxiety, and even mom guilt. I've somehow managed to build a six-figure blog without the use of social media and without sacrificing my mental health, if I can do it, you can too. Hello and welcome back to episode 17 of the introverted influencer podcast. I am so grateful. You were here with me this week. Oh, holy hell. I don't know about you, but with all of the crazy cosmic energy lately with the blood full moon, I believe it was. And the eclipses and not to mention mercury retrograde<laugh> I have just felt so incredibly drained. Like I seriously can't get enough sleep right now. And my brain just kind of feels like mush. So I'm looking forward to this upcoming holiday weekend and I'll probably just give myself the entire week off from content creation next week to just reset and get my mind right again. So if you don't hear from me, just know I am practicing what I preach and allowing myself to rest, replenish and spend some quality time with my family, because that's the whole point of being an entrepreneur and creating your own business in the first place. So today I want to give you some advice that I would consider quite contrary to the masculine analytical hustle culture, which hell I think that's kind of the theme with this podcast, anyhow, but if you are feeling discouraged with your numbers or metrics right now, whether that be with your follower count or your Pinterest reach, or even just your earnings in general, whatever it is, if it's not feeling good to you right now, and you know, in your heart, you're showing up consistently and you're doing your very best today. I am giving you permission to ignore the numbers. Like seriously, just stop looking at them. They'll still be there. Trust me.<laugh> because here's the thing. Numbers are just numbers. They have no inherent meaning. We simply assign meaning to them. They don't represent your worth, your level of talent or even your earning potential. I have less than 5,000 followers on my Instagram. And finally just reached the 5,000 mark on my email subscriber list. And that still never stopped me from building a six figure blog. And in fact, I have known influencers with an insane following that earn nowhere near what I make. Now, if you're pleased with what you see, when you look at the numbers right now, then by all means milk that feeling, let that encourage you. But if they make you wanna bang your head against the freaking wall or give up<laugh> step away and stop beating a dead horse, most of those numbers metrics are just what you would consider vanity metrics. Anyhow, they don't mean. I know, I sure as hell didn't start a business so that I can look at numbers all day and be frustrated or in that analytical masculine mode, because I'm not an accountant. I don't like numbers. Like why would I do that? And if I would have let the numeric representation of my lack, luster following mean something, I don't know that I would have gotten very far because it would have probably just created this nasty self-fulfilling prophecy. It's kind of like weight loss and stepping on the scale. And hopefully if you've struggled with your weight, you'll get my analogy here. But you know, with the weight loss process, if you know, you're doing all the things like exercising consistently and staying on Alor deficit and you're efforting and trying, but then you step on the scale and you haven't lost any weight. And you may just feel like giving up because like, what's the point. If you're gonna go through all that and you're not gonna see the results on the scale, why would you put yourself through that? And I've actually had to be really mindful of this when I was on my recent 20 pound weight loss journey. And actually, I couldn't tell you the last time I have weighed myself. So my recent weight loss was not my first rodeo because I have struggled with my weight, basically my whole life, like ever since puberty and back in the day, I used to let the scale dictate to me my worth and success. So if I stepped on the scale and didn't like, the number I saw my whole day would be ruined and this many times would just spiral me into just, you know, just self sabotage. Basically I would throw the towel, I'd skip the work out, I'd go and get donuts and a bottle of wine and just say, screw it<laugh> and then I'd have to start all over again. But when I wanted to lose weight more recently, two years ago, it was after the quarantine and the, and the, you know, what crisis? Um, I, I gained some weight and 20 pounds<laugh> and, um, and knowing what I had known with all of my weight struggles in the past, I decided if I was gonna put the effort in this time, I was going to try things a little differently. So I vowed this time around to not look at the scale because I was already self aware enough to know that it wouldn't do me much good. And if anything, it might do massive harm actually. So two years ago, when I started to lose the weight, I only focus on the things I could control, like my workouts, what I put in my mouth, proper rest recovery supplementation, the whole shebang, but that's all I could, all that I vow to focus on. And guess what I have kept the weight off for gosh, a year and a half, almost two years now. So self-awareness, there's a lot to be said for it, but putting that weight loss, tangent aside, you can apply the same concept to your own entrepreneurial journey. And as a blogger, I will tell you that traffic can be very cyclical. And in many ways, you're basically just at the mercy of ever changing algorithms and Google updates that are beyond your control. And certainly, I mean, you can try to hack hack the system, hack the algorithms, but it seems like as soon as you do, or at least for me, this is how it feels for me. As soon as I do another change will inevitably come and then you gotta start all over again. So at the end of the day, all you can worry about is what you can control. Are you consistently getting in front of your audience and sharing what you know, are you diversifying your traffic and your income sources? And that's really all you can do stop stressing over arbitrary digits. That don't mean a thing. If I can succeed in my blog with what little followers I have, there is no freaking reason why you can't either. It basically just boils down to how bad you want it. If you believe you can have it and you refuse to let stupid vanity metrics mean anything about what you can be do, or have I promise you somehow the way will be shown, it will work out somehow, keep the faith, keep taking a line action and stop being dictated by such nonsense. And another thing to point out here, another little reframe, if you are frustrated with your followers, um, you know, not all of us are meant to be Taylor swift, so to speak. Some of us are cooler than that. Like, I don't know my favorite band in the world, the grateful dead<laugh> see the grateful dead just had a cult following, but guess what? The dead got to do things the way they freaking wanted to do it. They never had to water themselves down for record cells or for fickle, teeny bopper fans. They<affirmative>, they basically approached the, the music business, how they wanted to, what worked best for them. They stuck with it. They were true to themselves and they amassed a smaller, but incredibly loyal following and got paid pretty well to do so. Maybe not Taylor Swift's status, but I think they had a healthy life or made a healthy living is what I meant. And at the end of the day, don't we all just wanna get paid to do what we love regardless of the metrics. So I hope my message helped maybe get you in a better, more inspired mood this week. My kids are about to get off the school bus for the last time until August. So I need to wrap it up here. And like I said, I think I'm taking off next week, but we'll commence once my kids go off to summer camp. So thank you so very much for stopping by and spending time with me today. I make no money from this podcast. So the best way to show your support is by leaving this podcast, a five star review, sharing it with a friend or by screenshotting this episode on your phone, uploading it to your Insta story and tagging me in it at designings, sending you my love.