Glad to have a conversation with Nerd Nash, on Twitter @nerdatthecooltable, and to relate to one another on some common threads. We are about the same age and started using the internet as social media from the beginning, before such a term was used. We both have this drive to create and organize, but we find ourselves working and hustling from day to day while ideas just stack up in our heads.
Nerd has been highly effective at building an online community. His following is nearly 50K, more than most successful artists, without having really done any particular thing to become famous.
He runs a Twitter community called Gem Factory that has a knack for putting a range of underrepresented profiles into one place, but he’s also tied to the Hotep scene, which is becoming mainstream.
My following has never grown massively, and until recently, it only reflected the broader community of friends directly tied to my real offline network. Even now, as I am growing outside of this range, it stunts and reverses sometimes.
I just don’t have the craving to be internet famous. It would be nice if The Not-a-Podcast Show could amass more followers, making it easier to earn some value for value contributions. The more reach that my guests have, the more likely that my reach will grow.
The issue of imposter syndrome is analyzed in this conversation. We both suffer from that. Do I so-called deserve to have an interview show? Am I qualified? Am I posing? The rational, self-correcting approach to building a project slides quickly into self-doubt and self-abuse.
If I blame for example shadow banning on my lack of follower growth without examining the quality of my content, my strategies toward engagement, and so on, then I’m just not discovering how to get better at my work.
Many push that issue deep down by projecting themselves iconically, so I think ego fills that vacuum. For some, faking it until they make it works out. I don’t feel that Nerd or myself can do it that way.
Self-critique is a huge part of this blog. I’m laying myself out there in hopes that it relates and that personal insight becomes universal.
For this interview, I was a little bit tired. I usually begin fading around 8pm on weeknights. We went live at 8:30. Also, hadn’t done a show recently, so my intro/out was rusty. I think I spoke a little too much, but it was a good conversation. We learn a lot about Nerd, and I’m glad we did it.
The holidays are passing, so I’m looking forward to booking a handful of interviews in a row for January, to catch up on the quota.