Cover Photo by Hush Naidoo on Unsplash
A love letter to anyone I may have inspired without knowing it
Exactly 28 months ago, I published my first “official” article on Medium. It was crap. But that was the point. I set out to improve my written English by writing and publishing one article a day.
Luck would have it, I was a better content creator than I ever thought I could be. And English not being my first language, I used words that anyone could easily understand. That has helped get me unexpected traction.
The journey was rough. I’ve frequently had significant dips (like a 90% drop) in my stats. And not short ones either. Some lasted about eight months, yet somehow I pushed through.
But days like today remind me why I’m doing this. I called one of my readers today who, after reading some of my articles a few months ago, was inspired to take action. For him, that meant writing an article on Medium.
That was two months ago now.
Chance would have it, I stumbled upon his first article and was the first person to clap it up. I didn’t know him then, but I was the one who inspired him to write in the first place, so imagine his surprise when I was the first one to support him.
It took me until today to know about this.
My simple act of supporting his work inspired him to continue writing and to change his life around. Truthfully, it almost made me cry when I heard how such a simple action from me could have such an impact on someone else’s life.
I’m just a regular guy. He and I are no different. Truth is, I was quite inspired by his story and learned as much as he did from our call.
I accidentally built influence.
I never meant for my claps, comments, or even my stories to mean anything to people. But one thing’s for sure, now that I’m where I am, I’ll make sure to keep supporting people who look up to the stuff I share online. You may not realize it, but I truly care about your stories.
If you are a writer, content creator, or influencer who has a voice, do your fans a favor and give them some love. Not just through your written content, but also through supporting their content.
Your actions matter immensely to them. It takes you 30 seconds to clap their article up or leave a nice comment on their stories. Do it, it can literally change their life.
I still remember the first time I got clapped up by Tim Denning or when Arianna Huffington re-shared one of my articles. That sensation of getting noticed by people I admired lifted me up for weeks. And again, it took them no time at all to do it.
Spread the love: give some claps and strike a conversation with your readers.
You can do it!