I’ve been reflecting in recent months on my social media usage. The personal brand building stuff. The point of it all… and where it should go.
I bought a tool to help me audit my past 3 years using X/Twitter… and to facilitate this exercise in self-reflection.
I was never a big social media user until I left my job in early 2021 (at age 33) to build a little business and brand for myself. As they say, I started to “build in public” which was all the rage. It was actually a nudge from one of my best college friends… and then another from a FinTwit account… that got me to join Twitter initially. My simple story then seemed to resonate with people doing/dreaming about similar things… and my account ended up attracting 12,000+ followers.
No doubt, I think X/Twitter is the world’s best networking tool. Yes, I’ve made several friends using it — many of whom have grown close. Yes, I’ve generated revenue from clients I met on Twitter. Yes, I’ve invested in start-ups whose founders I met on Twitter or through a Twitter connection.
I also love writing — I wrote professionally for six years as an equity analyst on Wall Street. Twitter was a quick and easy way to scratch that itch after I made the jump — threads were fun, as were reflections on life and business.
But there have certainly been sacrifices. I tweeted (or replied to tweets) 21,000 times in 3 years. That’s an average 20 tweets per day — not to mention the time spent reading/scrolling. I don’t have anyone managing the account or “ghost writing”… it’s just been my random or off-the-cuff thoughts and commentary. I certainly shared a lot that proved powerful and helpful to people — I’ve fielded countless DMs and I’m happy to have been a resource or inspiration for some. But a lot of those tweets were also bad jokes or quips, engagement bait, or simple “yes” or “agree” replies… I think part of me had always felt some obligation to just “get in a word,” support, or celebrate the SMB/FinTwit community via steady engagement no matter the substance or depth of that engagement. But over time, and more recently, this feeling of obligation has waned. Not that I don’t support it —I do — but I really need to cut down on the screen time.
I’m a father and husband. I need to spend more time in the gym and running. I need to focus more intensely on my business and investing work. I just moved to Europe from the US — there’s an unlimited number of things to do and places to go.
I need to be more present in the moment and also be more focused on my life, family, travel, and business. 20 Tweets can be 20 cold calls/emails or client check-ins. 20 more silly memories or funny faces with the kids. You might cringe, but I’m serious. It’s worth a try.
I’m not going into hiding. I’ll still write and stay engaged, but will do so with more substance and depth… and less frequency. I’m going deeper. I’d like to dedicate more time to long-form writing… both about life/business here with Junteau.. and about the consumer goods space at Goodsletter. That’s why I started these Substacks/newsletters — to focus my writing/energy into more productive means/media. I’d imagine most of my X/Twitter engagement going forward will be plugging/sharing these two newsletters.
Finally, I’ve had an on-and-off love-hate relationship with anonymity — both my own and my account followers. It’s a bit unnatural to regularly interact with faceless and nameless people… I think it’s impacting people in strange ways that we don’t yet understand. Frankly, what I’ve been reading lately about AI ingesting all of our past social media content to “recreate” digital clones of ourselves (I nuked those 20,000+ tweets) + hilarious yet disconcerting videos of people donning VisionPros made me realize just how quickly we seem to be distancing ourselves from real life… and actual connections with actual people in actual places.
Don’t take any of this as sorrow or cynicism. Quite the opposite.
I’ve never been more bullish on real life.
Good luck with this VEO! I'll miss your tweets but I'll keep looking around here for some 👀👀👀