From 0 to 1.5M views on my writing...

Intellectual Banter: Episode #13

Welcome to the 7 new members of our tribe who have joined us since Saturday. If you’re new or missed the last edition, catch up here. And thank you for giving me your time, I appreciate it!

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Greetings, my people!

From being completely “blocked” creatively last week, I’ve been buzzing the past 6 days.

Got a lot of writing done - 170 tweets (!), 5 threads and a newsletter since Monday. There seems to be no discernible pattern here. Creativity is so odd. I plan to explore and learn about it further.

While I do that, here’s a short story for you…

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On my mind

October 2021: I closed the doors on a 9 year old investment banking career.

I was gonna do “my own thing”. I’d just had a full blown meltdown (“WTF am I doing with my life!?”), undergone intense therapy and started getting a slight handle on my shit. Then I decided it was time to experiment.

I was 32, only knew “finance stuff” and had zero online-worthy skills. But I had a ton of adrenaline and a bit of uneasiness. And I’d never, ever taken a risk before in my life.

But regret was something I wanted to avoid at all costs.

“I’m gonna figure it out. No more regular employment.”

Experiment number 1: writing online. Platform: Twitter. Let’s go!

I’d been on the platform long enough to know some prolific content creators. So I browsed and picked a few courses to invest in. I studied, did some brainstorming and was off!

This was my first “original” tweet, ever:

Cringe on so many levels, lol (the true test of growth)

Well that sucked. 74 views, 2 likes - the infamous black void of the Internet.

No worries, Aditya (my full name, by the way). We all start somewhere. Just get comfortable posting online first. We’ll get tweets figured out yet. I wanted everything Twitter had to offer: likes, reach, an audience. Then I’d figure out how to leverage it to unlock self-employement.

I was gonna be a writer. I was gonna earn my freedom. I was gonna be consistent and follow through on my promise to myself. For once.

July 2022: I’ve tweeted every single day for over 200 days now.

And my tweets have gathered over 1.5 million cumulative views.

Holy crap!

Honestly, it’s chump change compared to millions of views per month (the real potential of Twitter). But I never imagined this would happen for me anytime soon. Nearly 500k of those views have come in June ‘22 alone. There’s that sweet, sweet compounding for you.

Time to make this the new normal

I was dumb (and stubborn) enough to stick with the process and keep practicing the shit out of writing tweets every single day. At times it was a breeze. Others, impossible.

Now I’ve started getting tweets that look like these:

Much better (gonna be cringe 6 months later)

Well done, m’boy. You seem to be getting the hang of it.

Creating content on Twitter doesn’t feel like impending doom anymore. And the more I create, the more ideas I get. Creativity is like a magic jar which fills up the more I use it.

So it’s graduation time: moving to the next phase of my self-employment journey.

Freelancing.

It’s time to reset the scare-o-meter in my head. Start working for clients, helping them build and grow their online personal brands. Real people, real results (fucking scary).

I’m nearly 34, only know some “Twitter stuff” and have some online-worthy skills. But I have a ton of adrenaline and a bit of uneasiness. And I’ve only ever taken one crazy risk before in my life…

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Something I wrote

Storytelling is a legit superpower.

We’re all storytellers, creating narratives in our heads to interpret “reality”. And project meaning to everything we experience. Especially where none exists.

So being able to craft stories with a specific intent is like having a cheat code.

I’m not good at it (yet). So I’m spending time learning from the best. I compiled it into a quick thread, in what is now my best tweet ever. 61,637 people have read and found it useful - hopefully you do too.

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Un-chuckle worthy quote

"The best arguments in the world won't change a single person's mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story" - Richard Powers

Stories are relatable. They create emotions. Even empathy for the characters.

You see yourself in their shoes. That’s what allows them to bypass the big, guarded walls of your mind.

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Until next week

Are you aware of the stories you’re telling yourself?

Because you are. So am I. All the time. Our minds don’t have a choice. So it may be better to be deliberate with your narratives.

Your writing friend,

Adi

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PS: As always, I’d love to hear from you. I love banter (duh), so ‌hit that reply button, comment on the website or book a call if you want to chat.