Slowly Getting Over The Hurdle...

Every day it feels like we are in a race. A never ending race to a finish line that keeps getting pushed further and further away. Everyone and their grandma is on social media putting on fake personalities in hopes of being the next viral sensation. Now, with the likes of Facebook and TikTok paying users to make reels, social media is becoming the new workforce. 

In theory this is cool. It's innovating. Millions of people are changing their lives for the better financially but at what cost? This rat race of a society that we live in today is detrimental to humanity. We are losing our souls at the expense of money and feeling included. I admit, I am guilty of the trends as well. As a naturally quiet and laid back person, I too find myself trying to step out of my comfort zone in an attempt to hit the social media lottery. On the first day of the year, I had my first semi viral moment and to be honest it felt pretty cool. On New Year's Eve, I was laying in my condo in Orlando reflecting on 2022. I was very appreciative and grateful to be back in Orlando and living alone but I was still a little down. I had a lot of different emotions going on in my head all at once.

While laying down I was thinking about past shortcomings in all aspects of my life. One in particular that was eating at me during the time was my love life. One of my crushes or love interests moved on from my inconsistencies and found someone new. When I saw this on social media I thought to myself, not again. I let another good woman slip away because I wasn't ready for a serious commitment. It was at this moment that I decided to just relax, take deep breaths and go to sleep, knowing that I would be bringing the new year in solo dolo but at the same time still very blessed and full of momentum for a fresh start. 

It was my goal in 2022 to bring in 2023 in Orlando and that was happening. Before I fell asleep I looked at Deion Sander's Instagram account. He was giving a motivational speech to his new team in Colorado. His message resonated with me so much that I decided to screen record it and post it on my TikTok. I didn't think too much of it other than reposting the motivation to my, at the time, small audience on TikTok. I had less than 100 followers and only had one post that received more than 1000 views.

Little did I know, this video would be my first taste of a viral moment. Before I went to sleep, I noticed that the response to this video was different. My phone instantly started buzzing and wouldn't stop. People were liking, sharing, saving and commenting on this video at a rapid pace. It went from hitting 1000 views in less than 10 minutes, to over 5000 the next minute. I thought to myself, oh shit, I finally caught one!

As the minutes passed, the views jumped to 19,000 and kept climbing. My initial sadness about my love interest moving on from me immediately vanished as my followers continued to climb. I went from 60 followers to now over 100 instantly. Before the end of the night my views went up to 25,000. My goal was for this video to possibly hit 100,000 views when I woke up the next day. The video surpassed the 100,000 mark and continued climbing.

All of this was new to me. I've never gone viral in my life. My views on social media and YouTube never matched the true impact in real life. This was different. Not only did it align with my message of positivity and motivation but it reached the masses instantly. This was perfect timing for me because my billboard in Miami was up at the same time with a motivational message "Never Stop Pushing Forward".

I wanted to capitalize off of this much needed momentum so I made sure to keep posting content of me and others that matched this same type of energy. I wanted all the new people that were following me to see all of my work. I thought that if I could use this moment to my advantage then I should be able to make life changing money. Still relatively new to TikTok, I didn't know the details on how to get paid, or when that would happen. I just knew that if I can convert my new followers to supporters then maybe they would buy my books or visit my websites. 

Throughout the month, I continued to use the momentum of this video to grow my audience. I am currently at over 1,100 followers and get more engagement on my posts. The Deion Sanders video is now at over 400,000 views almost 2 months later with over 50,000 likes, 450+ comments, and over 9500 saves. However this still hasn't converted over financially. To be honest I was a little disappointed not seeing the conversions that I wanted to see yet but I am still appreciative of the blessing. My audience is significantly bigger than it was a couple of months ago and my support system is locked into my mission even more. 

I am starting to believe that my next step in this process is to begin going live on TikTok. This is where I will be able to interact with my new audience even more, allowing them to get a taste of who I am as a person and not just a motivational clip on my page. I've been hesitant in going live due to my anxiety as well as not knowing exactly what to say while staring at the phone. I tend to do this a lot, not just with TikTok but in life in general. I overthink things because so much is on the line these days. 

You can say one wrong thing and offend an entire population. You can make one wrong move and BOOM, you're cancelled. Now in my personal real world life, I don't care because what truly matters is my happiness and making sure my mom is good. But as far as social media and the internet, that is a different ball game. When I am my natural self, I don't have a filter. I can be very blunt and cut throat at times and won't flinch to backpedal my words. This could work in my favor or it can backfire, so this is what leads my hesitancy. 

At first I planned on setting up a specific date to go live but like with all things that you plan, life happens and alters those plans. So now I am going to go live the same way that I posted the video that went viral. I will do it the moment I get that gut feeling to hop on. When the energy is there to speak live, I will trust that feeling and finally do what so many have been patiently waiting for me to do... take that leap of faith...

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