#BrandingBurnOut

I recently decided to take content creator out of my social media bios and I’ll tell you why - it’s because I’m suffering from #BrandingBurnOut and because in all honesty I felt a huge disconnect when I thought of the words content creator in relation to me.  

In the year of our Lord 2017, everyone and everything is a brand. People won’t do things, or say things, or hang out with certain people because it “doesn’t align with their personal brand”. In all honesty I’ve turned down opportunities that could have been tons of fun because I thought it would “reflect poorly on my personal brand” - whatever that’s supposed to mean in the real world. And if we’re being completely honest, I love posting to Instagram in 3s a la Beyoncé, I love having the ability to show my personality across my pages but I also believe that some things should just be more organic. And I’m not just referring to paid vs unpaid social media posts.  

To both work in and enjoy using social media personally can often be a lot. And lately, I find that when people get to talking about engagement and stats and revamping brands, I don’t feel the excitement that I once did. I don’t get enthused to join the conversation. I don’t feel the need to add what I’ve been able to accomplish. Lately my brain just shuts down. I don’t get excited about cultivating the perfect image, getting x amount of new follows or the fact that people are or aren’t interacting with the pages. I just feel blah.  

I’ve always freely spoken about how I feel like  in a lot of ways I fell into this career path and enjoyed it so I stayed. But when everyone’s daily life turns into a brand, it’s very easy to suffer from burn out. It’s especially easy to suffer from that burn out when you work on “branding” from 9-5 then focus on your personal brand or other brands you want to build pretty much 24/7. 

I love being in the media field - don’t get me wrong. I love putting together things that can be seen as a “mood” (but really a BIG MOOD tbh) or a “look” but when someone literally says to me, let’s work on our brand, I feel like the Evelyn Lozada eye rolling gif. When someone says well aren’t you the content creator I feel like the Homer Simpson gif where he slowly backs into the bush but really I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole.  

This is why I took content creator out of my bios. I don’t identify with it anymore and truthfully while I am a creator, I don’t know if “content creator” was ever ME. When something goes from something I do, to something I am, I become disinterested. And the way branding and content creation is going, it’s no longer something people do, it’s who they are. 

I’m not a content creator. But it is something I’m campable of doing. I’m not a brand, but I do enjoy working on the brands of my personal projects and the brands of others (organically though - don’t be douchey and say let’s work on the brand). I’m not a hashtag but sometimes I create ones that are totally bitchin’.  

What I am is a woman. A black woman. A carefree black girl. A free spirit. A leo - which really means the King/Queen (however I’m feeling that day) of the jungle. I’m a writer. I’m a creative. I’m a bad mama jamma. And if all that could fit in a bio, it would be there plus so much more. Some of it has found a place, but I don’t think content creator or brand will feel comfortable there again. Or even coming out of my mouth to describe myself. The things I am don’t create ad dollars, but they’re felt by everyone that gets a chance to be a part of my life. Content creator just isn’t one of them.