LOST SOUL

The other week, I hit a milestone on X.

My following has grown to 100+.

I'm getting emotional writing this because I never thought I'd even get past the two-digit mark.

Honestly, I was a lost soul when I started there. Everyone seemed to have people cheering them on. They would post stories and their friends would engage.

Meanwhile, I watched from the outside wondering how they were making all of it happen.

The biggest thing that bugged me was my constant exposure to 'wins'. If you're not familiar, it's a type of post people make to celebrate milestones.

There's nothing inherently wrong with it, I've already done it too. But back when I was just starting my journey, these types of posts left me bitter.

I was confused and I didn't really know how to exist there.

I knew I could write and it was extremely frustrating not to be able to showcase that. It wasn’t even anybody’s fault. It was my cluelessness of it all. I was ignorant.

I didn't know how to write tweets, I wasn't comfortable engaging with strangers, and I didn't take the time to interact with their posts.

As I tried to navigate beginner's hell and keep my head above water, the wins kept coming. I kept seeing posts of people reaching milestone after milestone.

That's when the dangers of over-exposure consumed me. They drowned my soul in insecurities. They magnified my weaknesses.

I lost my unique flair in the name of blending in.

I'd write posts with the same structure and style. I'd condense my sentences into bullets. I'd obsess over 'hooks' or the attention-grabbing first line of my tweet.

Sure, it earned the approval of some. But something always felt off. Like I was writing for them and not for myself.

It wasn't lost on me that I had so much to learn about writing for the platform but I realized that didn't mean I had to hold back in making my mark the way that felt right to me.

So I decided to filter the noise.

I curated my feed and went back to consuming content from the ones that inspired me to start writing in the first place. You already know it's T Swizzle and Mark Manson.

They were the first two creators I followed simply because they covered all the inspiration I needed to focus on being a better writer.

And then I shifted the focus back to my soul. My wins, my strengths, my vision, my goals. From then on everything fell into place.

See the hardest part of being on social media with a bigger mission than to gain the world's approval is to make a noise so loud they have no other choice but to stop and listen.

But after getting past the initial ignorance, my posts started doing well. And it finally clicked. My "unfair advantage" is writing with my soul. And (duh) teaching.

I couldn't have just gone straight to that, though. I was a nobody then. I had to test the waters. I had to show them what I could do.

So I honed my storytelling and then I started sharing anecdotes from my past.

Since they breathe genuine emotions, I achieved what I wanted: to make people feel.

And the lightbulb just kept lighting up since then. I've found the thing that inspires me to build and keep building, and it's been burning inside me all along: to teach people how to write (master the art of soulful writing).

And I've never felt more at peace with my brand. Everything about it feels right because it's who I am. It's what I love to do. The vibe is very Jopaz.

My soul is exhausted from having to deal with people coming and going, but it's happy.

Soulfulness should drive people away.

Because if being vulnerable attracts every single soul,

I’m doing it wrong.

Thank you, my OG soulful friends for being here from the very beginning. I still love writing these letters to you.

I'll be back next week,

Jopaz