Welcome to The Spark Show! In this episode, I’ll be talking about how to deal with negativity online and offline, because we’ve all heard of it, some of us have experienced it, and some of us have learned to overcome it.

I wanted to talk about negativity because it comes in all forms and the first thing I wanted to talk about is the word “influencer.” Unfortunately, sometimes it comes with a negative connotation. But, like everything, there is always good and bad. Not all doctors are good, not all teachers are good. Not all influencers are bad and are all about themselves, taking selfies.

I believe that there are influencers out there who want to make an impact. I only work with students who care about making a difference and creating positive change. Let’s face it - content creation and audience growth is a lot of work, so, if you’re just doing it for free stuff or for fame, you’re probably going to quit soon.

Most of the people you see who are successful at being an influencer or content creator, they’ve been doing it for a very long time, years even decades, because it takes time, commitment and dedication. 

Explaining What Influencer Marketing Is

The thing is, a lot of people don’t understand what influencer marketing is and what influencers do. Some think it’s just a Gen Z or Millennial taking a selfie and being all about themselves telling people to go buy stuff. 

First of all, you have to have an honest conversation with yourself on why you’re doing this. If you’re doing it to help people, then it shouldn’t matter what that one Facebook friend says about it. You need to have a very compelling reason to do this or you will end up quitting.

Now, when it’s your friends or family, it might be a little difficult to deal with. You may have to be more patient and give a real explanation so they can understand what it is you do. You may have to go into the technicalities of social media as an advertising platform and why brands pay influencers. If you go back to episode 26, that might help you explain it or you can send them links to my episodes where I explain this. You can use the TV commercials analogy, most people will understand that. Companies pay for spots on commercials during shows to get in front of the right people. Your channels as an influencer is the show and sponsored content is the commercial. 

The thing is, they might not understand. They might not be as supportive as you want them to be. It’s not their job to support you. Yeah, it would be nice, but we can’t expect full support from people who don’t really understand what we do. That’s why it’s so important to find a community that does understand what you’re doing and will root for you and comment on your posts. That’s why I created The Spark Society, an online membership community where you can find other influencers to connect with and get the support that you need to move forward.

Negativity is Part of this Job Description

If you look at the biggest influencers out there, they all have haters. Nobody has 100% positive comments. There’s always someone who says something about anything. Most of the time, when we create content, we get positive feedback and comments. But then, we get that one or a few who are negative, and then we tend to focus on that and we forget about all the good stuff.

If you want to be a public figure, you want to put yourself out there, you want to reach people, you can’t really choose who you’re reaching all the time. 

So, that’s really how to deal with negativity, you have to choose your focus. You get to choose if you’re going to focus on the 99% of your audience who loves you or the 1% of negative comments. The thing is, most of the time, the negativity is not about you. Usually, it’s a reflection of themselves and not really something you can do anything about.

Most of the negative people would still act that way no matter what you say or do. So, you have to make the choice in every moment on what to focus on: the impact that you want to make in the world or the comments and reactions of people who are never gonna like you, no matter what you do.

The thing is, we can be afraid of the judgment or accept that people are always going to judge us anyway. So, you can either choose to not act and not do anything, play it small and not share your gift with the world, or to conquer your fear and take action so that you can help someone out there that needs your help right now.

Listen to the full episode here: 

Watch the Masterclass

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Listen to Previous Episodes: 

Life Lessons From Influencers

How to Grow Your Audience With Instagram Giveaways

How Much to Charge as an Influencer

Why Every Influencer Needs a Media Kit

How to Write Your Influencer Mission Statement

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