Storyliving

Pursue a bold and fun life. Tell more magnetic stories. Awaken change in the world.

Hey, before we dive into today, did you know I started The Art of Storyliving podcast? If you’d like to listen to a more in depth version of today’s newsletter, check out the podcast by clicking here!​

The algorithm is absolutely cooked.

I have 39,000 followers, and I get less engagement on some of my posts than when I had 3000 followers. I’ve been chatting with a whole bunch of other creators, and they see the same thing. Their engagement is all over the place. Even when you post a reel that is getting early engagement which indicates it will do well over time, it stops getting pushed out and ends up falling flat.

Nobody knows what the hell is going on so that leaves only one thing left to do and it’s best summed up by this quote from Rick Rubin on the School of Greatness podcast.

Lewis Howes asked him, “Do you ever face the inner critic of, ‘what if other people don’t like this?’”

Rick says, “No. I don’t even consider them at all. The audience comes last. I’m not making it for them, I’m making it for me. And it turns out when you make something truly for yourself you’re doing the best thing you possibly can for the audience.”

We have been duped by social media into playing the wrong game.

We try to share what we think our audience likes or worse, what the algorithm wants, so hopefully we get more likes…. When I get more likes, then I’ll have more followers, then I’ll have more clients, and I’ll make all this money. Then what one day I’ll just get to create whatever content I want. That’s when I’ll take bigger risks, say what I really want to say because those are the things that make me feel good.

We play the game of life conditionally. Only if I get it all right, then I can do what I truly want to do. This game makes us feel anxious and contracted.

Here’s the problem. You cannot create life where you will feel good if you’re creating it with anxiety and contraction.

I’m not saying you can’t “succeed” this way. You may make a ton of money playing the game this way. But once you arrive you will have created an ecosystem that runs of anxiety and contraction. You will not magically feel good because of some external result. This will leave you just as unsatisfied as you are today.

The only game worth playing is to put the audience and the algorithm last and get clear on what you actually want and how you want to feel. Then do everything in your power to take the aligned action that will make you feel that way now.

It will be scary and hard and you will mess up. That’s okay.

That’s why that’s the work.

You take action, and then you check in with yourself. Was I diluting myself? Was I acting in fear and scarcity? Was I trying to appease the algorithm?

If the answer is yes, you give yourself a tremendous amount of love for the part of you that desperately needed validation from the world and you recalibrate. Then the next time you go create something you do your best to do that with more love and joy.

Even though we shouldn’t have been creating for the audience, we have been, but there’s good news. The algorithm is cooked. Nobody knows what’s going on. Thank god. So now we are forced to do what we should have always been doing…

Create from your soul.

Create things that you love.

Create things that while you’re creating them, makes you feel so excited, magnetic, and alive.

If you do that, well, then what else do you need to do? Because all we have is the present moment and if you create something, and in the creation of it, you are feeling magnetic, love, alive, then there’s nowhere else to be. You’re doing it. You made it. That’s beautiful. That’s the goal.

Don’t forget to checkout the podcast [click here]!!

I went deeper on this topic on episode 6.

If you want to learn more about how I turn my frustration, anxiety and fear into love, check out episode 5.

until next time ✌️

with love,

Matt