Not All Paths to Success are the Same
It's Important to Breathe and Be True to Your Own Path
This past week has been a whirlwind. The start of most months is often very chaotic for me, this month as been no different.
I’ve gotten consistent with my writing on Medium, I’ve strengthened my processes on Substack, this month is focused on interacting in places so that I’m better known.
Being in a new place and creating new habits means a lot of unknowns. When I’m trying to learn new things it’s very easy for me to take other people’s “wisdom” and apply it to myself. This past week I found myself on LinkedIn more and there you get a specific brand of wisdom… It took me all week to recognize that it’s not MY style.
It’s Important to Read Enough to Learn their Voice
A few weeks ago I saw a new term from a Medium post, “LinkedIn Broetry.” This label refers to the copywritten, 1 sentence at a time, style of so many posts on LinkedIn from the “Top Voices.”
I’m calling their topic “Bro-ductivity” because, beyond the somewhat off-putting style, the content can start to feel a bit repetitive. It also feels like a false wisdom. The copywriting makes me feel emotions, but if I get outside of that bubble, it’s reads like bullshit. It didn’t really stand out to me until I started reading them one after the other.
The issue with this style of post is that it’s creating the illusion of authority, but the authority is less about helping people and more about evoking an emotional response so that you follow them, sign up for their newsletter and buy their product. I get it, I need these things to be a solopreneur too, but their path feels borderline unethical.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a LOT of great advice in their content. Their lead magnets add value and often they don’t ask for anything. It takes some work to separate the wheat from the chaff. It takes some analysis to spot when one of these authorities is actually adding value to the world.
It’s Possible to Find Value in the LinkedIn Broetry
I have some takeaways from this deep dive into their content, recognizing that they do offer some value to me at the current place in my journey.
Hold things at arms length - Don’t invest emotionally in any of these posts, read it like an editor, be critical of the style, tone and intent.
Read things multiple times - Read it for it’s content, look at the style and observe what resonates with your style as well as your mission. Do not engage in the sales pitch.
Compare their content to the things you value - Consider re-writing what they’re saying in your style to see if it would cut the mustard. Would you feel dirty saying this? If so, don’t embrace it.
Trust your gut - I bumped into a situation last week where I realized that my initial gut reaction to someone was “less than enthusiastic”, yet I still signed up to learn from them. Now I’m left in a situation where I have to work twice as hard to turn their ‘wisdom’ into something that still works for me.
Come Away from Lessons with Gratitude
Some of these voices don’t deserve my time and some are an asset that I find immediately valuable. Unfortunately the lessons hidden in some of their content takes some excavation.
I’m grateful to have the presence of mind and ability to learn lessons even from people that repulse me ethically.
I’m even more grateful that the “only” expense I really have to deal with is my time. People hand out perspectives for free, they create some level of wisdom that anyone can access and they tend to make it so simple that the only hard part is getting over the emotions they’re trying to evoke.
Having to recover from their emotional pitches and find my own value in their lessons is a great way to keep my mind sharp. I’m both resentful that people can be manipulative so willingly and grateful when I get to learn from them in a way that forces me to think differently.
What’s Coming Up
This is my first Mindfullish newsletter of the month, and a chance to talk about those chaotic things in my head that I mentioned at the start. I have several things already in motion, several that I need to work on this week, and more perspective to gain for even more updates.
I have 2 newsletters already and I’m creating a 3rd. They have some connection to one another, but putting them all in one would be a mess.
The first newsletter is this one, Mindfullish. - Long Form. The story of my journey as a Solopreneur with ADHD. Publishing Mondays.
The second is called “Channeling Chaos” which is written in the Atomic style of James Clear - 3 insights from me, 3 quotes from others and 3 questions to consider. I’m going to change it this week. - Publishing Tuesdays.
The third will be called Three-ish. I’m actually moving the Channeling Chaos theme to that one so that I can focus on self improvement, productivity and life tips for people struggling with distraction, motivation and procrastination. I’d say it’s for people with ADHD, but it’s more than that. My first post for that theme will be on Thursday.
I’m creating a community called Channeling Chaos. I’m going to be creating it in several ‘social platforms’ to see where it sticks, but long term will be on a site such as Circle. I’ll be sure to share links in the future.
I’ll be creating more Notion content. I already have a Lite and a Pro version of my Journaling template, I want to update that with some recent changes, then work on some of my writing, productivity and routine building resources.
Thanks for Reading
These run a bit wordy, I hope you made it through the whole thing. I’ll have links in here next week if you want to see the other newsletters!