Bummed That Your Life Isn't Pinterest Perfect or Instagram Ready?
I’ve been spending some time on Pinterest lately because I’ve felt the pull to serve more boutique brands and lifestyle brands which tend to spend a lot of time on Pinterest testing out some new strategies for attracting more bloggers and makers into my orbit because I love them and want to work with more.
THANK YOU UNIVERSE, MORE PLEASE! (That is how you do that right? Life coaches? Help me out!)
Anyways, I went on Pinterest and instantly my heart dropped. The highest trafficked pins looked like they were straight out of the pages of a magazine editorial.
I looked at my brand but admittedly less fancy graphics and let out a big, dramatic sigh.
Then I looked at the SUBJECTS of these pins. All were super resources with apps and information that I didn’t even recognized. I mean, wtf is snip.ly?!? Should I know about it?!
Then I went to some of the owners of these sites, and I found myself face-to-face with a series of perfect looking women who looked like exes of Bradley Cooper, perfectly styled. Eyebrows on fleek. Of course.
I doubled down on my dramatic sigh.
WTF IS THIS LIFE.
I stressed pinned naughty foods in my secret food Pinterest board.
Have you felt like this? Like everything you are is not what is needed out in the world? Like everyone else is one thing, you are something else altogether and HOW CAN THAT WORK? This is made even worst with social media and the fact that apps like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest are all about making us all feel like we are not good enough if we don’t look a specific way or talk a certain way or know the right people.
Wait, should my picture look like that? HOLD UP! I gotta figure out how to get my hair that way! Who is that? They look important? Should I know her? Oh, I should get that lipstick. Dang look at #datass. I don’t know if I can go on my date tonight cause he doesn’t look like this guy.
It is designed to make us want what we don’t have and if you don’t have the tools to snap yourself out of it, be prepared to stay in “stuck” mode for a long time. Cause HOW can we deal with all of our mortalness?
So anyways, after a few more deep, dramatic sighs and a few brownie cheesecake recipes later, I was able to pull myself out of my funk by asking myself a few questions.
Do I want to collect blogging resources for people? Is that even my brand chemistry?
DO I WANT TO BE PINTEREST PERFECT?
Do I want my pins to look like those pins?
Nope, nope, nope, nope.
Let’s break this down:
I am a thoughtleader which means we are terrible curators! This is the lifestyle brand and boutique brand gift. Most thoughtleaders are not super app or resource savvy because they just don’t care that much and are more into the mental bits.
I like to go in. That is just how I roll. When I sit down to write my posts, my goal is to get inside your head and give you the permission to do what you already know is in your gut stuff to do. I am not really into giving you the resources cause hellllo they are everywhere!
I mean Bradley Cooper is OK but here is one thing I’ve noticed about those girls: they alllll look the same. I am good with my unique brand of Shenee-ness.
I worked my ass off to create a really great site that is hella hard to copy. Why would I go back and copy these other pins if that is my goal?!?
And with that, I took a deep less dramatic breath, pinned some photos of Charlie Hunman and all was good.
Please remember (and this is what I tell myself) is that everyone is putting their best-styled foot forward and a lot of times, in an effort to be Pinterest or website perfect, it comes off as being all the same. If you see one photo of a cup of coffee, you see them all.
The key is to make these decisions based off of who YOU ARE and what you are about. It is not being about being perfect; it is about being yourself because let’s be honest: that is the only sustainable way.
Ever tried to walk around being someone you are not? I have! Every time I pretend to wear a pair of uncomfortable shoes or wear a dress that forces me to wear the extra tight spanx. It doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t fit. And nobody can keep that up for a whole night. Eventually, the spanx are coming off, along with the shoes.
Remember this: Before you perv on someone else doing their thing, make sure it is even something you want to do or like to do. Your brand chemistry helps with this a lot. Different types are skilled at different types of sharing.
Plus, perfect is boringgggg. Duh!
What do you think? Ever feel the call to Pinterest perfection? What is your favorite brownie recipe? And if you dig this, please share!
The multi-passionate entrepreneur sale is happening this week! Michelle is great and this sale is for a really great cause. Some of the proceeds will be for her Avon Walk which has the awesome goal of curing cancer because cancer sucks. Check it out! I have a product there. You can sign up here!