I'm coming to you all with a slightly different kind of blog post today. I've had a few chats recently with small biz pals and creators about imposter syndrome and how it effects the way we run our businesses, and how we show up online.
Because of the nature of my business, I kind of felt silly talking about imposter syndrome - after all I just sell cute stationery products that other wonderful people have designed. But recently I took the plunge and finally had some products made with my own designs. Now, I wouldn't say that I feel like I have imposter syndrome towards my "art" or designs, it's more towards my business and how I show up on social media. I love nothing more than to hop onto my Instagram story and chat away to you all about whatever pops into my head (even when it isn't stationery related) and it always results in a good old discussion down in my DMs. I love sharing some of my fave finds, like recently how I shared the skincare I'd been trying out from Skin+Me...totally unrelated to stationery, but now we're all on some sort of skincare journey together and I LOVE IT!
So, I decided to put on my big girl pants and reach out to some brands/companies that I love and see if they'd like to work together on some social media content, blogs, giveaways that sort of thing. I reached out to companies that I had a genuine interest in, and ones that I would have loved to work with. Almost all of them read my messages/emails and completely ignored me, or they came back to me and told me that I didn't have enough Instagram followers *eyeroll*
This has happened a few times over the past month and honestly it's knocked me back, and pushed me into a huge pit of imposter syndrome. Who was I to think any brand would want to work with me, a 22 y/o who just runs a little stationery shop on the internet...and that feeling really frickin sucks.
However, over the past couple days I've tried to pull myself out of the pit and take a step back. Over the past 3 years *almost* of running my business, I have had the pleasure of creating such a wonderful online community of stationery lovers just like myself, from across the world. I have supported so many small businesses, something of which I am so incredibly passionate about. Yes it sucks that the big brands and companies that I reached out to, don't appreciate my time or the content that I share online - BUT YOU GUYS DO!
I guess the point I'm trying to make with this blog post is that yes, we all suffer from imposter syndrome from time to time, the feeling that whatever you're doing isn't good enough, or that someone else is doing it better than you. But it's easy for us to forget that we have people surrounding us who are cheering us on from the sidelines, supporting us and watching us grow!
Soz for the big old ramble guys, I just wanted to share my thoughts and feelings on the subject, in the hopes that it might make someone who is reading it, feel that little bit less alone.
Love ya, Jennie <3