The Dreaded Plateau
Plateau is a very loaded statement when it comes to someone like me. For instance, I am a content creator and a business owner, so a plateau means a lot. It means a slowdown in sales and needing to find a way to increase them. It means needing to brainstorm and market new products. It means low social media interactions and needing to find a way to improve them. It means needing to improve content. It means needing so many improvements, and a lot of them will take time, money, and a lot of effort. This is a point where a lot of people give up, and I can see why. The last couple days, I’ve felt very defeated and even depressed. Sure, on the outside, things look great for me. That doesn’t mean things are going well. My mixes are barely selling, my content feels like it’s going nowhere online even though I am pouring so much time, planning, and energy into it. That, plus a lot of people just don’t have extra money and can’t shop right now, which I understand. That factor definitely makes it tough for us small business owners, because without sales, we can’t continue. That’s when I am fortunate to have my social media partnerships to fall back on, but then you see why my low social media interactions make that a problem. If my interactions are low, I don’t get more partnerships, then I’m completely busted.
Last night was rough. I barely slept and felt sad when I went to bed. I feel like I have it so well though, so feeling sad about anything is wrong because there are so many legitimate problems in the world today, and so many people who have it so much worse. It almost makes me want to just erase all of this. The fact of the matter is that I have spent several years of my life trying to make my big dreams and goals happen, and while there have been many successes along the way, things are still just so stagnant and difficult. I’m having a very hard time growing past this point, which is telling me to bring someone else in and help me. I can’t keep doing this by myself, because while I think I have great ideas, that doesn’t mean they’ll work, or that doesn’t mean I know how to execute them as effectively as possible. I think first and foremost, I need a social media partner, someone who is a true expert at navigating and performing well on the apps, so I can finally learn how to grow past this point. After that, it will be someone to help with marketing, so that I can come up with some new, unique products that people actually want, and I’ll have help getting them out there. It may be time to put the dessert mixes to bed and see what else I can come up with.
I have a lot of improvements to make across the board. I need to totally redo my website and get an SEO expert to help it rank on the search engines, I need to improve the quality and appearance of my videos, I need to find a way to help them perform better on social media, and I need to come up with new products that will actually sell. It’s a lot. All of it costs money too. That’s why I don’t get, and that’s what discourages me. I see a lot of baking bloggers whose content pops off so fast on social media and they get crazy interaction and traffic, and I’ve reached out to many to do some research to see what I can do and who I can hire to help, but some of them do it on their own and others have entire teams. I can’t compare myself to anyone else though. I guarantee that every single one of them came across challenges, but what they did is they got help. They weren’t like me, they didn’t try to figure it all out on their own, which in result has made this whole process not only way more difficult but also take way longer. The fact of the matter is that I need help. Lots of it. I can’t do this alone anymore. All it’s doing is draining me of my personality, emotions, and motivation. I’ve become such a serious, irritable person this year because my mind is always preoccupied on how I can improve things, so they finally take off, because from the outside, people are saying that I’ve taken off, but I haven’t. I’m far from it, which also gets me down. It makes me feel fake. I lie to them and say things are going amazingly, and sure, I do have a couple great things going on, but in the grand scheme of things, there are so many things that are just flopping, and that’s starting to take away from the good. This whole year, I’ve dealt with these struggles but said very little about them, because I didn’t want them to get me down and take away from any accomplishments that I made, and I made many this year. I’m partnered with The Fresh Market, which has quickly become my most proud accomplishment. I was on the news. I was in AJC. I made a second cookbook; I say made and not published because I’ve seen the consequences of going with a small publisher. I have to buy my own book. I got 5 free copies. That’s it. Any more copies I want, I have to purchase. It’s only available on their website, nowhere else. Sure, the book is beautiful and I’m proud of it, and I’m grateful to that publisher for giving me the chance to create a book with them, but I still have dreams of someday getting a deal with a major publisher to sell a book everywhere, all the retailers, and so forth.
I set out on this journey almost 7 years ago, and I had a dream. That dream hasn’t gone away. With a new year approaching, it’s time to make some big changes. I’m a little defeated right now, but that’s never stopped me before. What matters more than anything right now is that I’ve made some amazing accomplishments. I have so many golden opportunities, and they will take a lot of work and effort, and help from other people, but I have invested everything in this. This is my career now. I literally have nowhere else to go, so why not give it my all?
