Hi, everyone. I hope you’re well.
Here, the coffee is hot. ☕ The weather, so far today, is not—and that’s exactly the way Team Blue likes it. 🐕🦺💙
I’m here this morning with a gentle reminder for us all.
If you want others to like, comment on, and share your work, you must be willing to do the same for them.
I love what I do. I love promoting authors, businesses, artists, bloggers, and others whose work deserves to be seen. I enjoy watching people succeed.
But I have to admit, it is very disheartening when even some of the people whose work I’m sharing don’t come by to comment, interact with the posts, or share those posts to their own social media.
Sometimes it makes me want to hang up a big CLOSED FOREVER sign and walk away.
And lately, I’ve been thinking seriously about what comes next.
When I go to the Virginia Department of Deafblind Services training center, I’ll be learning and strengthening various skills, including business planning for what I hope to accomplish in my life.
Part of that means taking a good, hard look at Patty’s Worlds.
How much money am I spending?
How much am I earning?
How much time and energy am I investing?
Because although I love this work, the truth is that none of it is free.
My website costs money every month. The podcast requires audio editing, which costs money. I pay an editor who assists with audio and book work. There are other expenses involved in keeping Patty’s Worlds running.
This stuff does not grow on trees. 🌳💰
So yes, it is discouraging when I enter into an agreement with someone and that agreement is not upheld.
For anyone who needs a refresher, here is what Sponsoring Members agree to when they join Patty’s Worlds:
Sadly, at present, only two of my sponsors are consistently doing these things.
But this goes deeper than Patty’s Worlds.
I sometimes receive frustrated notes from Sponsoring Members and others who follow me here and on social media. They tell me their work isn’t making money. Nobody is reading. Nobody is commenting. Nobody is sharing.
And sometimes I find myself shaking my head.
Because if everything you blog about is you, and everything on your social media is you, growth and engagement are going to be very difficult to build.
Community cannot be a one-way street.
I currently have about 2.1K followers on Facebook alone. My blog receives several thousand human visits a week, and heck, even my Instagram has been jumping lately. 😊
That didn’t happen overnight.
I’ve been cultivating a following since 2007.
I started on Facebook with about 20 friends and no followers.
I began blogging in 2015, mostly figuring things out by myself until Claire Plaisted of Plaisted Publishing took me under her wing. Claire and I eventually had a difference of opinion and went our separate ways, but I have never forgotten what she taught me or how much she helped me.
I followed bloggers such as Sally Cronin and learned from them. When I didn’t understand something or couldn’t access something, Sally answered questions and helped.
Then along came Robbie Cheadle, who is now one of my Sponsoring Members.
And, as I’ve said many times, Casey Mathews is a cornerstone of Patty’s Worlds.
Casey has been with me since somewhere around 2018, and sometimes I truly cannot figure out how I managed all this without him.
These people read my work. They talk with me. They support me. Sometimes an email arrives. Once in a while, someone even chats me up with a Messenger call.
And that kind of connection matters.
Over the years, this community has supported me in ways that go far beyond likes and shares.
When I was sick in 2017, a reader in Canada sent me a care package filled with things I needed because I had landed where I was before I’d even had a chance to shop.
When I needed a new computer, Abbie Johnson Taylor helped organize a fundraiser.
Today, I have an awesome and hardworking Somatic Mindfulness coach who helps keep me upright when the tilt-a-whirl of life starts spinning a little too fast.
Kaila and I have worked out a simple system:
You help me. I’ll help you. We both benefit.
That, my friends, is what support looks like.
If you want good growth and meaningful engagement, you must be willing to show up where the people are.
Read other people’s work. Put your fellow Sponsoring Members into your favorites so you can find their posts. Share their work when you can. Hit the like button. Leave a meaningful comment. Start conversations. Celebrate somebody else’s success.
It doesn’t mean you have to spend every waking hour online.
It means being part of the community you’re asking to support you.
Because if we aren’t willing to support one another, how can we expect everyone else to do it?
So, come on, Patty’s Worlds Sponsoring Members!
Let’s show ’em what we’ve got. 🎉
Let’s read.
Let’s comment.
Let’s share.
Let’s help one another grow.
I’m willing to keep trying for you if you’re willing to keep trying with me.
Because Patty’s Worlds was never supposed to be only about Patty.
It was meant to be about all of us. 💙
Patty L. Fletcher
Author and Content Promoter
About Patty L. Fletcher
Updated November 2024
Patty L. Fletcher is a woman of passion and exploration.
She studies the art of manifestation and is a seeker of knowledge and the wisdom to know what to do with it when it’s learned.
To learn more visit: https://pattysworlds.com/about/
If you have made mistakes, even serious mistakes, you may have a fresh start from any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.
Mary Pickford