We need to be popular

DESTROYING FALSE MODESTY

“I just wanna be popular.”

I blurted it out without even thinking. The group of creatives I was with that morning laughed and even I chuckled a bit, but it was an honest answer.

Popularity is a goal.

Maybe that sounds vain. Maybe I really don’t care how it sounds. The unfiltered truth is that to reach the goals I set for myself as a writer takes a level of popularity. It takes more than my immediate network knowing who I am.

Popularity has this high school, Mean Girls rep to it and hearing someone express their desire to be popular gets the exact same reaction I did. It’s like this absurd, childish fantasy that should never be uttered past the age of 10. Not if you hope to glean any sense of dignity.

But for creatives, this shouldn’t be a bad word. Being popular shouldn’t be something we raise our noses at. It should motivate us. It should be something we strive for and, to be honest, it’s already what we’re striving for. Every time we make our work public, nothing would make us happier than more views, more likes, more comments, more subscribers. Am I right?

Popular is a relative term

I know we immediately go to Hollywood and think of our favourite celebrities and how obscene their lives must be, but that’s just one form of popularity.

Editor in Chief of UPPERCASE Magazine, Janine Vangool, has approximately 10,000 paying subscribers. That may not be Vogue numbers but she’s certainly popular enough to make a living off of her art. Would we laugh at her 10 years ago when she set out to turn her love for design and craft into a career? She’s made it. Now she’s thriving. She’s popular.

She’s also inspiring. We all should be so lucky as to have thousands of people who like our art enough to pay for it. That’s the dream, isn’t it? And if your answer is yes, then why the aversion to popularity?

Sell out syndrome and false modesty

These are the two worst enemies of any artist. The idea that creating pieces that appeal to a mass audience somehow makes you a sellout is just dumb. It’s a mindset that tries to box our potential or dim our light. Don’t self-inflict those kinds of wounds into your thoughts. Push for more people to like your work. Push to become more popular.

And when you’re pushing, be proud of it. As more and more people acknowledge the brilliance of your work, don’t pretend your work isn’t brilliant. Accept the praise. Encourage those people to tell more people. Our ability to survive as artists depend on this.

Is it you or is it your art?

I think this is the point of contention for many artists. Some creators are good at what they do but great at promoting who they are. They understand that art is a packaged deal — art and artist — and whichever one people buy into is fine.

Some artists just aren’t OK with this. They want the art to sell itself and aren’t willing to sell themselves. And if they are willing, often they’re not comfortable. They want their route to popularity to be lead by the merit of their work, not the makeup of their personality.

Unfortunately, that’s not the game. Especially today. Intimacy and exposure are forms of currency. The more you let people in, the more you expose not just about your work, but about yourself, the more popular you’re likely to become.

Social Proof

I just finished watching this lecture by a UK professor on YouTube. Her lecture was about influence and negotiation and one of the six tactics she mentioned was social proof. That’s the idea that people like what other people like. So as you grow and more people start talking about you, more people hear and want to be part of what you’re creating.

Social proof is one of the main drivers of popularity. People do not want to miss out on what everyone else is talking about. They will sign up to your newsletter before even knowing what it’s about if it means they get to be part of the conversation.

That means it’s up to you to create that conversation. Your writing is one conversation starter, but so is your life, so are your experiences, so are your motivations. The more open you’re willing to be when it comes to sharing who you are, what you create, and why you create, the more popular you’ll become.

Community is the key

What helps me get over the mental block of pursuing popularity is telling myself that I’m actually building community. It’s not a lie. Everyone who hits the subscribe button is entering a space that I’ve curated. I’m letting you into my thoughts, presenting you with research, starting conversations that we continue through the comments. And in true community form, we get stronger as we grow.

That latter point is really important. One of the telling characteristics of a strong community is that it improves when it expands. The interactions become more frequent, members become more engaged in conversation, and those conversations become constant. As the one forming this community, I am in service. It’s not about me, it’s about the message and about how we come together to interpret and communicate that message with each other.

Back to reality

This is the reality. You have more platforms than ever to be popular. Use them. You’re a writer. Don’t worry about what people might say about you promoting what you do. The only thing you should worry about is maintaining your integrity. Don’t lose yourself, use yourself.