Harsh? Maybe. Look, I'm no social media expert by no means. In fact, this may come off more as a "what annoys me" blog than informative helpful information. But, if I can knock some sense into at least one of you, well then, awesome. I use social media for personal use, business use as well as motivational use. My take on how social media can mess up your personal relationships? Insecurities. Jealousy. Many, many years ago, we didn't have to deal with "who is friends with who" "who follows who" and "who liked what". As an adult, it seems silly to even think I should even care about that now. That's why I don't. I'd be lying if I said I never played Sherlock Holmes and snooped around. If its on social media and not private, it's fair game to anyone. But where did that get me? It just allowed my insecurities flare up. An additional tip to that, leave the past in the past. Don't bring up someone's old shit or your own for that matter. Going backwards never benefits anyone. Move forward and build on what you have. Us, females are funny creations. Constantly comparing ourselves to others and picking ourselves apart and just being downright brutal to ourselves.
I almost didn't post this picture the other day. I actually planned to delete is. Although my upper body is looking stronger, clearly, I have a gut. That is not a six pack protruding through my tank!! To my horror, Scott posted that pic later that day....clearly proud me. I saved that picture and knew I wanted to incorporate it into a blog about image. Originally I looked at that picture in disgust. I thought of all the hot fitness chicks Scott sees on Instagram daily and thought to myself "Ew, I'm such an old fatty. I bet my ass he wishes he was with some young hottie! Or he will someday!" I continued to beat myself up, allowing my mind to wander to "what if" bullshit. But then something clicked days later. I realized I was sulking and being moody for the dumbest, most immature reason. I was allowing myself to be influenced by social media. I'm working my ass off in the gym twice a day and not seeing the results I want and in return thinking so negative. Scott will leave me someday. I'll never look like "that" ect ect.... I was comparing myself to girls half my age, that have never had children or maybe only had one...not four! That are hardcore disciplined with their diet and deserve the bodies and success they have. At that point I realized, I'm no scrub! Scott loves me, every ounce of muscle and chub....my messed up hair of numerous colors, my not so perfect teeth and my ability to piss him off with my stubbornness. He loves me and I should never doubt that for one second. Confidence is sexy. Love yourself. Be comfortable in your own skin and rock the shit out of it.
You know you instantly thought of someone when you read that. Fake. Fake. Fake. And I don't do fake. That may be one of my biggest peeves. If I can see right through you, I know there are plenty of others out there that feel the same. This leads me to how social media can not only fuck up your relationships but also your business. Many people dislike the fact that people use social media for business purposes. Honestly, you almost have no choice these days as no one reads the paper or uses yellow pages when all the info they need is being held in the palm of your hand. As an entrepreneur, a huge amount of my tanning clients came from advertising on Facebook. I am proud to say that after almost a year of being in business, my online advertising has been lessened and my client referrals have grown daily. What an awesome feeling. Now, I'm not knocking direct sales. I've done my fair share of it. But I can say, how people are putting themselves out there is getting quite desperate and well, flat out annoying. Being an entrepreneur of my own business is huge because I do not have to "grow a team" in order to make the big $....in direct sales I know you have to. Which is why I know you have to saturate the community with your posts. Honestly. I DO get that. I'm not a business major, in fact my schooling stopped at junior college, earning just enough units to have my own pre-school classroom. Hence why studying for my PT certificate is quite brutal. I'm not a "school" person AT ALL. I HAVE done quite a bit of research in the business industry and social media though. Although I won't deem myself as an "expert" in any subject, I feel pretty knowledgeable and my success shows that I kind of know what I'm doing. So. Where am I going with this? Stop being fake peeps! Just be true to who you are! I watch some of these videos of people promoting themselves and I hear this soft fake tone of a voice come out and I have to click off the video. I can't stand when someone is talking to me like I'm a child or dumb. Or just totally cheesy, you know, like at the end of the video they're going to give you a little nudge on the chin and say "Chin up kid, you got this!" Puke. Have you watched mine and Scott's YouTube videos? They're made to motivate you, but if they don't motivate you, at least you can get a good laugh at my facial expressions and the total nerds Scott and I are. We aren't trying to give any one a fake impression of ourselves. What you see is what you get. And you know what? People DO see that and we are getting stopped daily, messaged daily and emailed daily by friends, family and total strangers telling us, "Keep up what you're doing!" "You fucking inspire me" "Thank you for getting me off my ass today!" 
Stop adding 500+ friends daily. Stop following 200 people daily. It's not going to help you build who you are. It looks desperate. I don't have 1k friends or followers and I don't care. People that are truly interested and inspired by my story, by my life and by my journey will follow if they want to. Will like my public page if they want to and will friend me if they want to. I don't accept just any friend request and I don't follow just anyone. It's not a popularity contest. It's finding people you can relate to and can connect with you. Oh and stop luring people in with some hokey headline that jut leads them to your direct sales product. I'm seeing that so much more now, and I don't see how it works for you? I've had conversation with numerous entrepreneurs and we agree, it's misleading and also a waste of time. Be upfront with what you are offering. 
Yup. No one wants to hear about numbers. Don't tell people that "someday" you will be earning six figures and "someday" you will have earned a FREE BMW! Clearly, you're not about the people, you're about the money, money, money. Just live your life, do your thing. When people see this lavish life you're living, they'll be intrigued and they will inquire. I own a spray tan business. Over the last couple months suddenly I have "competition" but you know what? I'm still doing what I'm doing. Growing my business daily and now fixing bad spray tans from other aspiring entrepreneurs that think you can order a kit and make money. I'm confident in what I do. I may not have the lowest prices but my clients know, I'm all about THEM! I'm not about the money, but about the relationships I'm building and the product I'm putting out there. Will I be rich and famous spray tanning people? You never know... maybe someone famous will hit me up and then from there I'll be spray tanning at the MTV movie awards (yes, that's more my style venue then the Grammys haha) but in the meantime I'm proud of where I'm at and where I'm headed. 
Scott and I have a vision. Everyday we are putting ourselves out there, by being ourselves. We are branding ourselves and building our own empire. I can't stress enough, it's never about money for us. It's about helping and inspiring others. We are reaching out to people, Scott in his own way and me in my own way, but together as a team. I am so proud of where we are headed. After a lot of ranting, what am I getting at? This empire we are building is being built on a foundation of being true to who we are. There is no bullshitting here. No sugar coating. Maybe being too brutally honest at times. Lots of sarcasm and humor and some cussing. But genuine love for what we are doing. If you can't see the passion bleeding from our pores, well than, you must prefer the fake peeps blowing smoke up your ass. I'm just kidding, I support all entrepreneurs, even if I don't agree with their way of running their business. If it works for you, then more power to you! Failure will happen. Scott and I have had hiccups along this road. Legal jargon has been thrown our way and something we had been working hard to build went right out the door over night. But we used it as a learning tool and started over. Coming up with something stronger. Better. Don't be afraid to fail.
Social media can be such a positive tool for your relationships and your business, but it can also be the cause of an epic fail....
On THAT note.....
"Chin up kid! You got this!"
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