How I’m heading into 2024 with resolve and an eff you to the formula.
June 15, 2020.
Head full of steam, mind full of ideas, and heart slightly cracked open, Hello Home, Girl was born. In that first blog post, I specifically wrote:
“To clarify, I didn’t see myself as cool enough to be an authoritative stance on the topic.”
HHG, 2020
I guess some things don’t change much.
If you missed it, I last shared how I felt that SEO strategies for increasing your content’s reach Suck[s] Enthusiasm Out of sharing for my content.
I ended that post questioning why I want to share my projects so badly. Why do I spend so much time honing this craft? What makes me worth listening to?
To quote 2020 me,
“Furthermore, I’m aching to see people like myself in the blogsphere.”
HHG, 2020 (again)
Before becoming a “Content Creator,” I was looking for other Black girls who weren’t rich who were figuring out their interior style while creating an aesthetically authentic and practically sound home.
It’s just something about seeing someone who you connect with in some kind of way do something that can be inspirational. And when I say inspirational, I’m not talking about the SEO, social media algorithm kind of inspirational way. I mean, I was looking for people like me showing the journey of making a home. That includes picking cabinet handles or painting a wall. You know, the simple stuff.
As a consumer and creator, I have widened who I look for and with whom I connect beyond my fellow Black girls. I now realize and honor that I connect with creators from many walks of life. You can be from a different part of the world, but if you have similar lighting in your house, then I wanna hear more from you.
In this realization, I do feel a sense of reorienting how I show up online while challenging myself. I realize that many feelings I’ve expressed in the last two posts have been contradictory. I’m still in the throws of figuring this all out.
But there are some changes I’m making moving forward.
In the future, I’ll be saying eff you to the SEO of it all from time to time to just write how I feel. I’m putting the narrative voice back into Hello Home, Girl the blog. That’s how I always envisioned the blog to be. It’s to be a resource – I’ll show you how to do things around your home while also possibly affirming your feelings on the challenges of figuring things out.
There’s no sense in sharing my feelings on spaces designed to feed algorithms that I don’t even own.
So, expect the same optimized how-to posts that are already here on HHG. Those posts will have all the transition words, various links, majority active voice, keyword-rich headings, simplistic vocabulary, and other accouterments that Miss Google says I need to have in order to have a shot at anyone reading.
However, I’ll be writing whatever the hell I wanna write and how I wanna write otherwise. (Fun fact – I speak in a passive voice a ton in my waking life.)
Hello Home, Girl will have a little bit for someone. Not for everyone, but for someone. That means that I must accept feeling like I’m screaming into the abyss, but at least it’ll be on my terms until I don’t want to do it anymore.
Maybe while screaming, someone will find it all helpful.
So, in the end…
Why do I want to share my projects so badly? I want to potentially be a resource for a past version of me that may be a current version of you.
Why do I spend so much time honing this craft? It’s challenging and is selfishly a way that makes me feel like I’m pouring into myself in a way I don’t feel happens in my life otherwise.
What makes me worth listening to? Nothing makes me worth listening to. Proving your worth as a human being with a voice is potentially harmful in demoralizing, in my opinion. SEO may force me to try and prove my worth as a content creator, but ultimately, I’m choosing to hinge the worth of my work on that.
If you as a reader and consumer find something I share helpful for you, I trust that you’ll behave accordingly.
My initial mission statement was to share the story of how I make a home. In turn, I will show you tips on how to make a home.
And that’s exactly what I now intend on doing.
Sincerely,
Felicia.
Share your thoughts in the comments.
Love this, Felicia! I started The Glad Suite with a similar feeling – that I was going to create what I was seeking for myself and couldn’t find. Platforms definitely don’t help with all their emails about growth, not caring what we’re actually growing. My favorite thing about what you share here is how you have this amazing way of taking things that feel intimidating to tackle and making them feel actually doable. Like popcorn ceilings and hanging your own wallpaper. Things those of us on a budget may feel are out of reach but that don’t have to be. That we can make our spaces better, and more importantly make them more US <3
Carly, I so appreciate your constant support and readership. The statement “not caring what we’re actually growing” really resonates with me. Thirty second videos can potentially strip context and motivation from the scope of a project. Thank you for your kind words covering what you like about the content that I produce. I will need those sentiments and continue with that pillar in mind. I truly hope people see my work and know they can do it too if they want or have the means to.